Team Smith Baby Buys: Chicco Keyfit Car Seat and Base

Choosing a car seat was one of the only things that made me genuinely worried. The idea that I could choose a "bad/worse" seat or one that was so complicated that I used it incorrectly was like an ominous bad mommy cloud hanging over me. I relied really heavily on Consumer Reports to learn that the most expensive seat isn't necessarily the safest, plus if you can't use the seat easily then it can't be safe no matter how much you spend. They gave fantastic reviews to the Chicco Keyfit Infant Car Seat, and it was cheaper than a Britax, so I decided to take a look.

After doing my research, we ended up with the Keyfit and I have zero regrets! We've been using it for 10 weeks now, and I'm ready to give a review of our experience. For reference, my exact model is Chicco Keyfit Infant Car Seat and Base with Car Seat, Ombra. We went with the Ombra because I wanted a really simple color. In hindsight the black can get a bit warm, but an infant seat is never really left sitting in the car, so I don't worry about it overheating. You may feel differently if you live in a warm climate or have a Spring baby. For me, I imagined the black with Greek key detail as gender neutral and forgiving of stains!

Main Features: 

- It's really lightweight! When you have a newborn/infant, you tend to take the whole seat out every time you take baby out of the car, which means every pound counts. It's definitely getting heavier now that G-Man is a 12 pounder, but it's still not too bad.

- It has an audible click when it's installed correctly. Yep, for once the sales graphic is legit! It truly just clicks really loudly into the base, which stays in the car permanently.

- Weight/ level monitor: not totally sure about the science here, but there's a green level on the side of the base. There are arrows with a little bubble and you can take a quick look to see that the bubble is between the arrow's safe range in the green goo.

- Tighten/Release Strap is convenient and easy. You get him situated then pull to tighten the straps which brings the chest clip from down low on the belly to the arm pits. On the left, our pumpkin is mostly settled, but you can see the leg straps are loose and the chest clip is way too low. Pressing the yellow button while pulling the grey strap lets you slowly tighten the straps until you get a snug fit like on the right. 

 

-Infant insert is snug and easily removable. To give you a sense for how it looks at that peanut stage, here he is with the infant insert on the left as a little guy. The infant insert is actually 2 parts for body support and head support, and then at 12 lbs you pop the body support out. We still have the head support piece because otherwise his neck would be flopping around. You can tell that he'd be swamped and swimming in the seat without it! And for spit up and diaper blow outs its easy to chuck it out and put it in the wash.

Accompanying Gear:

Extra bases are sold separately. I'm home on maternity leave, so the original base that the seat came with went into my car. For my husband's car we were able to buy the identical base separately (exact model: Chicco KeyFit and KeyFit30 Infant Car Seat Base , Anthracite).

I never knew this, but the seat can be used without the base (thread it through the seatbelt using the manual's directions) if you're traveling or with grandma etc. You don't need to buy like 5 of these guys, but it's totally worth having 2 if the parents are at all sharing pick up duty. When baby goes to daycare, the drop off parent will just bring in the car seat and store it in a designated spot, so that the pick-up parent just grabs baby and seat and snaps it into the base in their car. 

The corresponding caddy stroller (Chicco Keyfit Caddy Stroller Frame) has an insane amount of 5 star reviews, but personally for $100 I didn't feel like it had enough longevity. A lot of people swear by them, but when I'm out shopping I use a baby carrier and when I want a stroller I'm out on the road and want much sturdier wheels. Maybe if you park far from home regularly and want the easy of snapping the car seat directly into something, or have a winter baby and want to mall walk? Otherwise, it's clearly a quality product but I can't speak for it myself.

Instead we got an adapter for our specific stroller (The City Mini) for half the price and I've been really thrilled. The car seat snaps straight into the Chicco compatibility adapter just like with the car seat base so you still get that definitive click. The adapter stays attached to the stroller, then the car seat sits on top of the stroller facing you and keeps baby's weak head and neck safe. I had no idea at first that he couldn't ride in the stroller's main seat for months! With an August baby we would've missed the entire Fall without this thing. Fortunately, the Keyfit 30 is such a popular car seat that it's easy to get an adaptor for most stroller brands, and an adapter is about half the price of getting the stroller caddy. That leaves about $50 for some jumbo diaper boxes ;)

===> Click here to read about a thousand more reviews for the car seat, the extra base, and the caddy stroller, or the City Mini Stroller and the Keyfit/City Mini Adaptor. 

*Note: these are my genuine opinions on products that I really own and love. I do use affiliate links with Amazon and will get a small fee if you decide to buy a product from here. I loved reading reviews during my pregnancy and just hope to trumpet products that are working for us!