When did YOU transition to a convertible?

carolinakiwi

New member
I’ve done the transition from infant carseat carrier to a convertible before with DS who is now 3 ½. My DD just turned 5 months old this past Sunday. Both of my kids are tall. My daughter was 26.5” at her 4 month checkup, which was exactly a month ago. She is around 95-99% for her height and around 50-60% for weight. We have the KF30 – so if her torso is tall like her mommy, then we only have approximately 3” – 3 ½ “ left of her growth (if that).

My DS used the same KF30 and somehow we kept him in it until 11 months (right around when he hit the 1” below top of shell). However, already, my husband and I think it’s starting to get heavy carrying our DD to the car. At 4 months she was 12lb 13oz……and for reference, at 4 months, my son was 17 pounds (and 27”). I have no idea how we kept him (carrying his weight) in the KF30 until 11 months.

Even though the bubble on the KF30 is level, I’ve noticed when my DD falls asleep, her head falls forward a lot. I try to push it back but it usually falls back down. Would a convertible solve this problem?

I don’t necessarily spend money on a convertible before we HAVE to, but I wonder if she’d be more comfortable in a convertible. I do baby wear some, whenever DD will tolerate it while shopping. But the convenient thing about an infant car seat, that if by chance (which is more rare these days) she’s asleep when we turn the car off while doing errands, we don’t have to wake her up to get the carseat out and just put it in the big part of the cart.

What are your experiences with transitioning to a convertible carseat for those that used an infant carrier first. Did you transition only b/c you hit the height or weight limit of the infant carseat, or did you do it for other reasons (comfort of baby), etc.?

We have a Combi Corroco we could use, otherwise we'll have to buy something. We do have a Britax Boulevard 70 that is my son's in our spare car, that we could try out on my DD if we choose to. My son's primary seat is the Diono RXT that's in our main family vehicle. I'd like to get two Diono's possibly, but they don't RF very well in the vehicles we have, since DH and I are tall and need our seats pushed all the way back. We drive a Toyota Tacoma and a Saturn car.
 
ADS

featherhead

Well-known member
I dislike carrying the infant seat, but living in the Great White North, I find it necessary for infants in winter. I just put my 5 month old into a convertible two weeks ago, and so far it is working well. It's a bit of a juggling act with 4 kids, but not really much harder than with the infant seat.
 

cookie123

New member
You can still use the carrier without taking it out of the car - like a convertible, as long as she still fits in it. Is she using the head pillow? Taking that out might help with the head slump.

I like them in the infant seat until they can sit up well enough for a cart or high chair myself. The last 2 grandkids were in the Key fit until about 9 months. And they do get heavy to carry for sure. But in and out of the house is fine in the winter or to a cart in a store is not bad, especially if you park by the cart corral lol!
 

carolinakiwi

New member
I dislike carrying the infant seat, but living in the Great White North, I find it necessary for infants in winter. I just put my 5 month old into a convertible two weeks ago, and so far it is working well. It's a bit of a juggling act with 4 kids, but not really much harder than with the infant seat.

Neat. What convertible are you using for your 5 month old?
 

carolinakiwi

New member
You can still use the carrier without taking it out of the car - like a convertible, as long as she still fits in it. Is she using the head pillow? Taking that out might help with the head slump.

I like them in the infant seat until they can sit up well enough for a cart or high chair myself. The last 2 grandkids were in the Key fit until about 9 months. And they do get heavy to carry for sure. But in and out of the house is fine in the winter or to a cart in a store is not bad, especially if you park by the cart corral lol!

Very good points. We do like the ease of putting DD in the seat while still in the house, and sometimes she can hang out for a couple minutes without getting fussy while the rest of us get our stuff together to get out the door. It's nice to have her strapped in already before getting in the car.
 

Nedra

Car-Seat.org Ambassador
Very good points. We do like the ease of putting DD in the seat while still in the house, and sometimes she can hang out for a couple minutes without getting fussy while the rest of us get our stuff together to get out the door. It's nice to have her strapped in already before getting in the car.

We are in the process of transitioning my daughter to the convertible right now and this is what we're finding to be the most difficult. We don't have a safe place to put her near the door for when we're putting on our shoes and it's too wet here to go traipsing throughout the house to get her from her crib or playpen once we're actually ready to go. I really miss putting her in the seat and then getting ourselves ready.

And I agree with Cookie123. I would wait until she is old enough to sit up on her own, of possible. Once they can ride in the seat of the shopping cart and sit in a high chair at a restaurant, it's a lot easier to abandon the infant carrier.

Our daughter very rarely stayed asleep after being removed from the car, but it still happened now and then all the way until the end and it was nice when it did.

For us, our daughter was still fitting in her infant seat until she was over a year old. I think she still fits in it now, in fact. She seemed to be outgrowing it but then it was like she slowed down. We started using convertibles with her around her first birthday. She started using a convertible in her grandparents car a couple weeks before her first birthday and then I tried her in her Nextfit about a week and a half ago and we've almost never looked back. I wanted to start the transition before we HAD to, you know? So even though I wanted to wait until she outgrew her infant seat, I was glad we started the transition. A few days after we started using the Nextfit, my husband and I had to both go to the doctor's for strep tests and it was SO nice to be able to put her in her infant seat and have a safe place to contain her during the doctor visit so that she wasn't crawling around and licking the floor of the examination room -- or trying to catapult from our arms during the exam.

If I were in your shoes, I'd wait until your baby can sit up in her own or is about 1.5 inches from the top of the shell (whichever comes first) before making the transition. But I know Keyfits are pretty heavy, so I guess you'd have to weigh that with how much of a pain it is for you to use the infant bucket. I know people say that you can just leave it in the car and not take it out unless you need to...personally I found that to be a huge hassle because I'd have to thread my kid under the handle in order to do that. I don't know -- does the Keyfit require the handle to be up while the car is in motion? I suppose if you could leave it down, that would be nice. On my infant seat the handle had to be up and there wasn't enough room to be moving it back and forth easily, so it stayed up when I left the seat in the car (which was infrequently because it was a huge hassle in comparison to taking the seat in and out).
 

tiggercat

New member
Whenever I felt like it, or my kid outgrew the infant seat. My eldest was in a convertible around 4-5m (his infant seat didn't have a base, so it was actually tons easier in a convertible!). My middle kiddo went into a convertible from birth. My youngest, maybe 10m?
I didn't take the infant seat out of the car on a regular basis, so really it wasn't a big deal. I didn't miss the infant seat for my daughter at all, but I am a baby wearer.
 

Lenae

Active member
My DS was in an infant seat until his shoulders reached the bottom slots of a classic MA, so around 13 months. We stopped carrying him in it around 10 months, when he was just too heavy. I switched my DD much earlier because I had convertibles that fit an infant. My sister was also pregnant and I was giving her my infant seat. I stopped using it altogether well before she was 9 months old.
 

msg221

Well-known member
My godchildren and grandchildren switched when they started looking like they would be more comfy in a convertible. With my goddaughter, who was very petite, she fit in her infant bucket until she was nearly 2 but did switch before that. I know in my car she and her brother were 9 months old when I switched them.
 

featherhead

Well-known member
Neat. What convertible are you using for your 5 month old?

She is in a Peg Perego convertible. So far I really like it for her. My first I switched to a Radian at 7 months. My second went into an Evenflo Triumph Advance at 2 or 3 months. My third also went into an Evenflo Triumph Advance around 5 or 6 months.
 

SynEpona

New member
DS moved to a convertible around 6mth old, when I had to return one of the borrowed infant seats. We put him right into a Radian in my car at that time, it was great, and I wished we'd done it sooner, as we never actually took the infant seat out of the car at our destination(s), we did bring it in the house with us at home, but that was it. He was in a sling or other carrier otherwise when out and about - grocery stores, restaurants, whatever.

DD was in Radians from birth, so we skipped the whole transition.

New babies have infant seats, and since there are 2 of them, and DD doesn't always stay as close as I'd like in driveways and parking lots w/o holding hands, I think the new babies will be in their 'buckets' a lot longer! From house to car at least till a year (when DD will be closer to 4), as long as they haven't outgrown them yet. I'm not sure how often we'll take the seats from car into destination after they are old enough to sit in the stroller seats directly, it will depend on sleep habits and personality, but I imagine we'll take the babies out of the seats around 6mth, more than we'll take the seats out of the car.

We are in the process of transitioning my daughter to the convertible right now and this is what we're finding to be the most difficult. We don't have a safe place to put her near the door for when we're putting on our shoes and it's too wet here to go traipsing throughout the house to get her from her crib or playpen once we're actually ready to go. I really miss putting her in the seat and then getting ourselves ready.
This is the one and only time I actually wished for a bumbo type chair when DS was little! small enough to contain baby at the door while everyone gets ready. I did usually have a stroller near the front door that I could place DD in while getting shoes on to DS or whatever, but we have space in the foyer, and it's where I park the stroller anyway -- we don't have a garage.
 

jacqui276

New member
DS was about 5 1/2 months when we transitioned him to a convertible. He was in a via35 so still had a bit to go before outgrowing it (it goes to 35lbs and 32") but he was already about 25lbs so really heavy to be carrying around in his infant seat and his shoulders were getting a bit squished looking in the bucket seat. I found the transition to a convertible quite easy since I was now just carrying DS around instead of the entire car seat. It just meant that if we went anywhere I would need to put him in his stroller or be stuck carrying him with no where to safely put him down. He loves riding in his stroller and carts though so that wasn't an issue.

DS was born in February was it was great having the infant seat to put him into in the house and cover him in blankets for the walk outside.

DD transitioned at 10 months when she hit 22lbs and outgrew the infant seat she was in.
 

rachelandtyke

Well-known member
DD1 stayed in her infant seat until 13m. She moved into a convertible because we were going on a long car trip and I thought she might be more comfortable in it. She still fit in her infant seat.

DS moved into a convertible at 6m. Just because I wanted to. He still fit in the infant seat and would have for another year.

DD2 is 13+m and still in her infant seat. It stays in the car most of the time, but sometimes she still falls asleep when we are out doing errands, so then it is more convenient to put the infant seat in the caddy and go as she sometimes will still stay asleep. (we have a KF30 for her) The seat never comes into the house any more. I have her convertible already, but I'll probably keep her in the infant seat until she outgrows it.
 

biddyk8

New member
We moved T to her convertible at about 6/7 months. She hated her infant seat and it was coming into winter. We knew she would outgrow the infant seat mid winter, so instead of trying to move and install new seats in -30 temps we moved her in Fall.

It was much easier to not be trying to carry her out in the infant seat as by the time we moved her she had got heavy enough that you needed both hands anyway. So having her on one arm and the other arm to carry stuff again was great. We never really used the infant seat with her stroller anyway so we didn't miss that.
 

Mom2natalie

New member
My daughter was about 7 or 8 months old. She was in a Graco Snugride, which was a great seat. We bought her a Britax Marathon and just never went back to the Snugride again.

(Sad to think about in a way, that Marathon expired last week and I had to throw it away. It was a fantastic seat!)
 

lgenne

New member
DS1: 8 months, maybe? He outgrew the infant seat because he is huge.

DS2: 13 months or so. It was warming up and he was outgrowing it, so we made the switch.
 

SnoGurl

New member
Dni was well over 2 when we transitioned to a convertible full time. In fact, she will be 3 the end of May and would have just recently (Christmas-ish) outgrown her Via35, by height (still 12-15 lbs under the weight limit).

She really liked the Via, and because I never knew who would be picking her up from daycare (my mom, dad, BF, etc), it was just easier to take her there in the Via, and then whoever picked her up used it. That was much easier then having a seat in every car, and as she still hasn't reached the weight limit of the baseless install on that seat, I never have to worry about it.

I did also have a convertible installed in my car most of the time, and if we were just out and about I used that. But I used the infant seat until she was at least two, if not longer.
 

Lemonade

New member
DS was 5m. He hated the infant seat - had a lot of stomach issues so who knows. And only one kid and I went back to work when he was 8m.
DD was around 9m and maxed out by height. I was really sad. Really. She was still napping twice a day and I felt horrible running morning errands because it ruined her nap. (While DS was in morning preschool.) So we got out less. Not good for anyone. In retrospect I should have bought a larger infant seat. But I hadn't gotten DH used to the idea of extra seats yet. I had a SR22 from DS because it was before all the bigger ones came out. My ideal is to use the infant seat until they are down to one nap a day so mom can have freedom and sanity.
 

thekatie

New member
J1 used his seat until he outgrew it by weight (and I honestly have no idea if he was still within the height limit - "what do you mean car seats have height limits?!"). He went into a convertible, forward facing of course. That was about 10 years ago, and my knowledge was woefully lacking.

J2 stayed in his Keyfit in my car until about 11 months and went full time into the Pria then. We kept using the Keyfit in DH's car and any other he would be in until... 15 months maybe? I'm not certain.

I did stop taking the infant seat out of the car around 6-7 months with both boys. I hated lugging it around. But I didn't buy a new seat for J1 until necessary, and it took me a solid 2 months of waffling to settle on one for J2.
 

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