This is gonna be straightforward and to the point. I've gotten a few messages on Instagram recently asking for advice on car seat installation. Lots of baffled, busy parents really just want the ONE car seat solution. The easiest car seat to install, one that can take them from infanthood up to elementary school and get switched from car-to-car in the interim. So here ya go.
The Easiest Car Seat to Install. Period. This is It.
Our go-to seat for parents looking for THE ONE? It's the 4Ever™ Extend2Fit® Platinum Car Seat from our sponsor Graco. It goes from rear-facing for 4-50 pound babies to forward-facing for 22-65 pound tots and then converts to a highback booster for 40 to 100 pounds or a backless booster for 40-120 pounds. It lasts for an unheard-of TEN YEARS, meaning you can buy this and never worry about your car seat situation again. Did you know that the plastic in most car seats actually expires after five years? Not here, though. With this seat's steel-reinforced frame, you can go from baby to booster without batting an eye.
It attaches in three steps with EZ Tight™ LATCH technology. Press the blue button to release LATCH and attach it to the lower anchors. Press the grey button to retract. Finally, push down on the center of the seat to tighten and listen for a click. BOOM. Done. There's also 4-position leg extension panel that can be used in the rear-facing mode to accommodate your kiddo's growing legs.
For people wondering how on earth a car seat can accommodate such a wide range of sizes and weights, a removable pad goes a long way in lifting up those baby booties. The head section can be lifted up and down with one easy lever, and the straps have a huge range of adjustment without needing to thread and re-thread anything.
So this – the easiest car seat to install – can go from mom's car to dad's to grandma and grandpa's without any stress over mismanaged installation. It can grow from the first moments out of the hospital to the first steps into the kindergarten schoolyard.
It also has all the other fancy bells and whistles that parents might look for, like cupholders, a washable seat cover that comes off without unthreading straps, a harness storage compartment, and an easy-to-read level indicator with a 6-position recline.
I never thought I'd manage to find a seat that could fit everyone from my one-year-old to my 2nd grader, but here it is in all its glory. I really wish I'd bought this thing…gosh…eight years ago.
Is your family in the market for a car seat?