Car seat recommendations prioritizing safety

[theokayman1]

Hi, We have a 25 lb average hight 18mo child and need to get him a new carseat becuse we have a 2nd on the way. Safety is our top concern and will continue to rear face him for as long as possible. Knowing that EU regulations and testing are significantly more stringent and we will need to replace his carseat again before it expires what do people recommend, regardless of expense?

For reference we currently use the cybex cloudQ which is an "i-size" seat since we couldn't find any R129 rated seats available in the US.

 

[joshrave43]

@theokayman1 First of all, look at seats with the highest rear-facing limits (both for height and weight) that can be installed in your car. In the US, this means 49” and 50 lbs.

In Europe, we have the Swedish Plus Test, which is much stricter than the general EU regulations. Only rear-facing seats have ever passed it. I’m not familiar with the US market enough to know if any of these seats are available there (I would assume not due to different regulations). However, there are two Nuna seats on the list, so perhaps Nuna Rava (which is available in the US, has high rear-facing limits and is often recommended here)?

 

[theokayman1]

@joshrave43 Thank you I didn't know this. I'll definitely look for those limits in the US car seats. The nuna rava looks nice. I'll see if I can find others with similar or better limits.

 

[joshrave43]

@theokayman1 You won’t find a seat with higher rear-facing limits in the US, unfortunately. Graco Extend2Fit is another model with the same limits, there are a couple more I think.

 

[theokayman1]

@joshrave43 What about the Nuna Exec? Do you all have any experience with that one?