Child buckled into a safety seat

Car Seats Buying Guide

Car seats should be at the top of a new parent's to-buy list. You'll need one to take your baby home from the hospital and for every car trip with your child thereafter. Every state requires that kids up to 4 years old ride in a car seat, and most require a booster seat for older children. Make sure your child is buckled up even for short rides.

Features

Some car-seat features provide important safety and convenience benefits. Others are frills. Before you buy, consider the following features.

LATCH connections  | Harnesses  | Harness slots  | Recline adjustment  | Recline level indicators  | Fabric  | Covers, padding and cushions

LATCH connections

Since Sept. 1, 2002, all child car seats with a built-in harness and nearly all passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. have included equipment designed for simpler child seat installation. That system, called LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children), consists of child car-seat connections that attach to anchor points in the vehicle. You can still use the vehicle safety belts to install a LATCH-equipped child car seat in an older car that lacks LATCH anchors. The system isn't perfect. The anchors in many cars are hard to reach. And most vehicles have LATCH anchors only on the outboard positions of the rear seat, rather than in the center, which is the safest. Despite its flaws, LATCH installation eliminates some of the incompatibilities that may exist when you use the vehicle safety belts to install a child seat.

What works: "Hook"-style LATCH connectors. These are often easier to attach than to remove.They require a twist to remove them from the anchors, and the anchors may not be accessible enough to do that easily.

What's better: "Push-on" style LATCH connectors These are easier to use than hook-style LATCH connectors, especially in cars where the LATCH anchors are recessed or otherwise hard to reach. Push-on style connectors are often much easier to detach than the hooks, as well, since they don't require a twist.

 

Harnesses

Most infant, convertible, and toddler seats have a built-in adjustable five-point harness system, with two straps over the shoulders, two for the thighs, and a crotch strap. A five-point harness system is more secure than a three-point system, with two shoulder straps that come together at a buckle in the shell or a crotch strap. The extra straps spread the forces of a crash more evenly across a child's body. The thigh and crotch straps also help prevent 'submarining', or sliding out of the harness in a crash (as is possible with a three-point harness).

What works: Harness slots. These let you adjust the height of the harness by rethreading the harness through different slots in the fabric and seat shell, as needed. Seats with harness slots are a bit more cumbersome to adjust than those that adjust via an external knob or slide. The more slots ther are, the better the seat can accommodate a child's growth, and children of different sizes. Look for the most slots in a seat with a greater range of weight capacity.

What's better: External harness adjustment. This feature allows you to adjust the harness height as needed without having to remove the seat from the car or to remove and rethread the harness straps through slots in the seat's shell. The best versions have a knob or slide that moves the harness up or down more easily, and with continuous, rather than pre-set, positions.

 

Harness slots

They let you adjust the height of the harness. In rear-facing seats, the harness should be at or below the child's shoulders and in forward-facing seats at or above the shoulders. The more slots there are, the better the seat can accommodate a child's growth. Look for the most slots in a seat with a high weight capacity.
 

Recline adjustment

Some convertible seats have as many as five reclining positions. Multiple adjustments can keep smaller children correctly inclined on vehicle seats with different cushion angles, and they can come in handy forward-facing and when your child naps in the car. The seat should be adjusted at the proper anglewhen rear-facing in order to keep your baby's airway clear.

What works: A single "foot." This allows you to recline a rear-facing seat to a single angle and is most often used to change the seat between forward- and rear-facing orientations.

What's better: Multiple recline adjustments. These not only help you to get the correct angle rear-facing, but can be used to make children more comfortable when forward-facing.

 

Recline level indicators

The best versions are easy to read and appear on both sides of the seat (so they're visible when installed on either side fo the car's back seat). They tell you when you have the seat sufficiently reclined when rear-facing (usually between 30 and 45 degrees) to allow an infant's airway to be open and keep a sleeping child's head from falling forward. With any recline indicator it's important that the car be parked on level ground.

What works: A line or other reference on the seat that is positioned parallel (or otherwise level to to the ground) to indicate the correct recline position, an estimation that may not be that precise.

What's better: A ball or bubble-type indicator. This option gives you an easier-to-read indication of when the seat is correctly reclined. The best versions appear on both sides of the seat.

 

Fabric

Today's car seats cater to every possible taste: plain colors, plaids, animal and paw-print motifs, and patriotic red, white, and blue. Babies are messy, so washable fabric is a plus, if not a must. Some upholstery requires hand-washing and line drying. And removing some upholstery requires extensive dismantling of the seat components, so check the instructions before you start taking things apart. Leather may look good, but it can become hot in the sun and cold in winter.
 

Covers, padding and cushions

Add-on seat covers (boots), thicker padding, and adjustable head-support cushions are available for some seats. Add-ons can make the seat more comfortable, especially if they accommodate children over a significant range of ages or sizes. But buy them only if they're made for your specific seat by the same maker and have been tested with the seat in government crash tests.
 
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