Good second car seat for growing tot
Written: Jul 05 '02 (Updated Mar 07 '05)
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Pros: easy installation; shield holds straps on baby even if baby unclips straps
Cons: not always easy to get baby in; shield cover won't go back on once off
The Bottom Line: safe shield to keep baby in in the event she unbuckles her shoulder straps; EASY installation!!!!!!
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| sshelle's Full Review: Evenflo Titan 5 Comfort Touch |
I bought this as my daughter (14 months) outgrew her Evenflo On My Way Position Right carseat. I knew it would work for her because it can be used rear-facing from 5 pounds to 30 pounds and forward-facing from 20 to 40 pounds, so we could transition to the new seat without worrying, since some second seats start with a 20 pound baby, yet you outgrow the first ones at 20 pounds, so when do you switch?
I did some research about the straps, since as they get older, babies sometimes undo their straps in a moving car and get out of their carseat, which is most unsafe! I read a lot of comments from other moms and decided to get a car seat with a shield, because even if the baby undoes the shoulder strap buckle, there is no way she can reach past the shield to undo the main buckle, so she can't get out of the seat at all. Peace of mind on that issue.
This seat is a pleasant color and the fabric is a velvety soft comfortable fabric. The shoulder straps can come through one of four possible entries, so as your baby grows you can thread the harness straps through a higher entry. This is easy to do. Just loosen the straps, slide them off of a u-shaped metal piece, unthread, rethread, and put the strap back onto the u-shaped piece and tighten the straps. This is a lot easier to do with the seat out, but it's a piece of cake.
The major pro about this is it's easy installation. The seatbelt threads between the seat cover and the plastic skeleton, out the slit on the other side, and down to the car's seatbelt buckle. The easiest way to tighten it is to sit on the carseat yourself and pull the shoulder part of the car's seatbelt, as if you were tightening it on your lap. It stays tight! And since installation is so easy, it's easy to switch cars--we're currently visiting my dad, and I switched the seat to his car in about 5 minutes, including the time it took me to take it out of our car.
To make sure the seat leans back enough to be comfortable for the baby, there is a plastic flipper on the bottom of the carseat that flips forward for rear-facing, and backwards for forward-facing. I figured that when I got the second car seat I would have to take it to a car seat installation clinic and have them face if forwards, even though my daughter was only 11 pounds. Well, it's so easy to install that they installed it backwards, which made me feel better, and we only switched it forward-facing just now (14 months) because on a 10-hour trip, our daughter felt better seeing us once in awhile.
Getting into the seat isn't very hard. You put baby in the seat, pull the two shoulder straps (attached to the shield) down over her head (a close fit since you want it snug when in place), clip the bottom buckle in and then strap the shoulder straps together. Another frustration: finding the bottom buckle slot. The shield is so close to the seat's bottom, that it obscures your view of the buckle slot, and aiming it isn't that easy because it buckles forward of where you expect it to be! To get baby out, you push a red button in front of the carseat, well out of baby's reach but easily within yours, unbuckle the shoulder straps, lift the shield (again, a close fit over baby's face/head) and take out the child.
The shield is covered with fabric, which is nice, but when I took it off and tried to put it on again, the snaps wouldn't hold very well, and it came off. I have tried numerous times to get the shield cover back on, but to no avail. So if you get this car seat, hope the shield cover never gets dirty!!! The plastic shield without the cover isn't great to look at, but it serves its purpose and helps me feel at ease that my daughter won't be escaping during a drive.
I haven't yet washed the car seat cover itself, but it looks easy to take on and off, and the other Evenflo products are easy to clean, so I have no worries. [Update: I've washed the car seat cover many times now and it's easy--it fits in the washing machine and dryer, needs no special care, goes on and off the seat with minimal effort, and is a "no biggie". The only inconvenience is to make sure you won't be needing to drive anywhere while it's in the washer or dryer, for baby's comfort sake; I usually do this at night and it's ready in the morning. You do have to take the seat out to wash the seat cover, as it's the easiest way to "reinstall" it later.]
My baby seems comfortable in her car seat, and likes to bang on the shield, which is fine. It gives her something to entertain herself with and helps her balance a bottle if she leans the bottle on it.
UPDATE: It's just about time to get a new car seat, as my daughter is 46 months old and 37 pounds, just shy of the upper weight limit of this seat. She still fits in just fine, and has no complaints, but it's almost time to move on to the booster seat. I have no complaints about this seat--it's fairly easy to work with. It does get a little tricky as they get taller--you have to get the toddler to duck a little to lower the shield when they get about 3' tall. The biggest pain is just finding the slot to put the bottom buckle into. Some sort of 'guiding' groove would help immensely.
I never could get the shield's cloth cover back on once it came off. In my truck, we left it off. The car seat inspection people said I should put it back on, but it didn't have much padding, and I couldn't get it to stay on. My husband solved the problem by taking screws and screwing the one in his truck back in place, but that would have been a chore to take off and wash. The cover for the shield is only held on by a row of plastic 'butterfly bolts', and once they come out the first time, they are too distorted to hold the cloth in place again. Other than that aesthetic inconvenience though, I felt 100% safe with my daughter in this car seat. She couldn't get herself out of it, and it was very secure in the car. I would recommend it highly.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 60
Age Range of Child: Other
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Epinions.com ID:
sshelle
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Location: Stillwater, OK
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Working on my Piled Higher and Deeper degree. . .
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