One of the major steps in preparing for fatherhood is selecting a car seat for your baby. With so many to choose from, how do you know which carseat is appropriate? In this episode of The Lab, Daddy Clay and Daddy Brad clear up any confusion you may have and educate you on which infant car seat you need during the various stages of child development. Using baby seats from Chicco, Britax, and Graco, they demonstrate when your child will transition from rear-facing or convertible car seats to forward facing carseats and eventually booster seats. DadLabs ep. 422.

DADDY BRAD: Today’s episode goes out to those Due Dads, those expecting and first time fathers.

DADDY CLAY: We’ve had a lot of these guys on DadLabs.com asking about what car seat to choose, so we thought we would do a little car seat 411.

DADDY CLAY: You know Brad today’s episode has me thinking about the Sphinx’s riddle to Oedipus. What walks on four feet in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?

DADDY BRAD: That’s tough. Man.

DADDY CLAY: Right. And like that, car seats change according to age and size.

DADDY BRAD: Can you say Oedipus on the internet?

DADDY CLAY: Welcome to DadLabs.

DADDY BRAD: This is a classic, rear facing infant seat. This model is from Chicco. The rear facing baby seat is usually good from birth up to over age one, this particular seat is rated for up to 30 pounds. These are two-piece units with a base that goes into car and then what we called the baby bucket. With this setup, you just pop the baby carrier out, if the baby is sleeping, take it into a restaurant, some will transition to a stroller. You can go house, car, stroller without waking the baby. Hopefully.

DADDY CLAY: So this is what is called a convertible seat. Convertible because it can be a rear facing infant seat and convert to a forward facing toddler seat. With this particular unit from Britax, rear facing, from newborn all the way to 33 pounds. Then it swings around to front facing and is good until the kiddo is 65 lbs or 49”. So if this one seat works from the time the kid is born until she’s 4 feet tall, why would you get the infant seat. This style doesn’t have a detachable baby bucket. This thing gets in there solid.

Now, one thing with both the rear facing infant or convertible - I think there is a temptation, to get the baby turned around as soon as possible – the earliest is 1 year AND 20 lbs. You want to see the little guy. But resist that. Keeping the baby rear facing to the max your seat is rated is the safest.

And there are gizmos to help you see the baby, but none of them are approved by the seat makers, so we can’t get behind them either.

DADDY BRAD: When the kid outgrows the forward facing car seat, then he graduates to a booster. The booster raises the child up, so that the cars seatbelts will fit them properly. This Nautilus unit from Graco, actually converts from being a forward facing child seat with a five-point harness, then it becomes a full back booster.

DADDY CLAY: Finally, when the child is about 4’9”, between 8 and 12, they can sit in the back seat without any help.

The AAP says they shouldn’t ride shotgun until age 13, some parents think the kids think that kids shouldn’t sit in the front sea until they drive. Good luck with that.

DADDY BRAD: All 50 states have laws regarding child safety seats, but these should be seen as bare minimums. You can do better.

DADDY CLAY: To review:

DADDY BRAD: Rear facing infant seat of convertible from birth until the maximum allowed weight on you seat -- you have to wait at least until the baby is one and twenty pounds.

DADDY CLAY: Then things turn around with a convertible or toddler forward facing seat. There they stay until they outgrow the limits of the seat. On this Britax Boulevard -- that’s four feet or 65 lbs. Age six to eight.

DADDY BRAD: Then they graduate to the booster that uses the seatbelts -- good up to 4’9”, then they’re good with just the belts in the back seat.

DADDY BRAD: That’s all for us this week, in the Lab.