Not adequate as a rear facing child seat, good otherwise
Written: Dec 17 '03 (Updated Sep 02 '04)
Product Rating:
Durability:
Ease of Use:
Pros: Quality, easily adjustable harness height
Cons: Doesn't recline enough
The Bottom Line: Recommended more as a front facing option. Rear facing doesn't recline enough to make it a comfortable choice for a small infant in some automobiles.
chretiensucks's Full Review: Eddie Bauer 3-In-1 Convertible Car Seat
We were perfectly fine with our existing infant carrier/car seat. The large handle allowed us to easily remove our baby with the carrier from the car and into the house, or into our stroller which accommodates infant carriers, without waking him up. One day recently, we received a pamphlet in the mail on car seat safety. This pamphlet successfully plays on the parents’ fears of how unsafe these types of seats are once your baby is a certain size. According to the pamphlet, our baby at 15 pounds was already too big for our infant car seat. Get a full size child seat that can also be rear facing. The pamphlet states that you should not have the child sitting in a front facing seat unless he/she is at least 22 pounds AND 1 year old. The task of lifting the carrier with our boy in it was already starting to strain the backs of both my wife and I but to this day, we miss the convenience of not having to unbuckle him just to move him from car to stroller to home.
After looking at several full size child seats, we decided to go with one without armrests and cup holders. Usually, the armrests look like they’re too far apart to be of any use to a child and the Eddie Bauer seat we ended up with has flexible netting to hold bottles anyways.
Safety, positioning and adjustability
Out of the box, I had to remove several straps – the new universal attachment system for automobiles built after Sept. 2002 with the 6mm steel pins. Only in a front facing position, this system is meant mostly for convenience. Surprisingly, the belt for this was only held in place by one small Philips screw. The other strap I had to remove was a tether strap with a large anchor bolt on the end. Again for front facing position, this strap was for the first phase in the 3 year plan to bring in the universal attachment system and hence is in cars built between 1999 and 2002. 80% of 2000 built American cars must have these anchors in place.
Let me say right away that as a rear facing seat, this really sucks. First of all, the seat doesn’t recline far back enough, so in the rear seat of our car, our baby is almost upright. Our car seat is on a slight decline so with the child seat facing the rear, it tends to tilt towards the back. Even with the child seat reclined all the way back (there are 3 recline positions), he looks very uncomfortable compared to when in the infant carrier. If the seat could recline one or two more notches, it would probably be perfect.
Initially, it’s a little bit of a pain to slide the seat belt through the bottom of the child seat. It’s easier if you remove the bottom fabric but I feel sorry for anyone with large hands trying to do this. With the seat belt clip (which is necessary if your car has shoulder straps, it also requires multiple re-adjustments to get the child-seat to fit in tight enough not to slide around - The follies of leather seating. The rear facing position also leaves almost no space between the front of the child-seat and the back of your car seat to pull the strap for the 5 point harness.
One big advantage is the adjustable height for the harness. Instead of having to rethread the straps to accommodate differing shoulder heights, the back of the seat has a horizontal clamp that allows you to slide the harness up and down in 4 different positions.
The seat also has good lateral support with side padding on both the seat and the back.
Updated September 2nd - Now that our boy is heavy enough and old enough to face forward, I added this update:
As a front facing seat things are much better. Any three point seat-belt passes easily through the back portion of the seat for a fairly tight fit.
As a front facing seat for larger children up to 80 pounds, there are hard plastic guides on both sides of the top of the child seat to hold the shoulder belt in the appropriate height for your child.
Fabrics and materials
Generally the fit and finish and material quality is very good. Plastics are hard and molded with few defects. Variable positioning parts snap into place easily and remain fixed in their positions.
The 5 point harness has well padded shoulder pads over the vertical belts but the belts which go over the legs do not have enough travel so they tend to be tight around the thigh area. The shoulder pads are also removable for easy cleaning which ours regularly needed due to a profuse amount of drooling from a sleeping baby.
There is also removable newborn support pad and headrest.
The fabric beige, brown, and black colors are neutral, tasteful and can be removed for machine washing. All fabric is cushioned enough to provide adequate seat comfort hiding the feel of any hard surfaces.
Conclusion
This is a comprehensive seat which can adjust to your growing child’s needs – theoretically from birth to 80 pounds. But I do think that it is too uncomfortable for an infant under 15 lbs. The fact that it does not recline far enough as a rear facing seat not only creates discomfort for our baby but causes his head to easily droop forward, especially at early ages when neck control is not as strong. Only if the rear seat of your car is perfectly horizontal (which mine isn't) would I recommend this seat as a rear facing option.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
Age Range of Child: 0 to 12 Months
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