Top Rated Infant Car Seats

A good infant car seat is a safety necessity, but not all car seats are made equal. The most effective seats come with features that enhance the performance of crash tests. For instance, load legs are shock-absorbing components which are attached to the base or seat and limit the movement of the seat during a collision.

A favorite among CPST instructors is the Chicco KeyFit, which has a weight limit that is high for rear-facing and height limit as well as bubble level indicator and the reclining foot is spring-loaded, which makes it easy to set up.

Graco Mesa Max

The Graco Mesa Max is one of the top infant car seats for convenience of use. It is made of great materials with a simple design and a handy feature to connect the child's harness to the headrest to make it easier to tighten. It also has a huge canopy that makes it easy to keep your baby shaded during travel. It's a bit heavier than the typical stroller, which is an issue if you plan to carry it around, or use it with your award-winning UPPAbaby.

The Mesa Max's impressive crash test results reflect its commitment to top-quality safety. It received a high score in the frontal impact test and a high score in the side impact test, which means that your baby is protected from both sides of an accident.

Another important safety feature is the Graco's anti-rebound panel, which helps reduce rebound forces during a crash and safeguards your child's head. This feature is unique among infant car seats and makes the Mesa Max standout among its competitors.

Graco Mesa Max can easily and securely be mounted in your vehicle with LATCH when used with the base included. The load leg as well as recline angle adjustment and tightness indicator all help ensure a quick, accurate installation. The base weighs 12.6 pounds it is slightly heavier than an average car seat for infants, but not enough to cause an issue.

The UPPAbaby Mesa V2 uses the same fabric with the same dual-knit construction as its predecessor. It is free of chemicals that are fire retardant. It also features an infinitely adjustable headrest and a robust infant car seat newborn insert that helps improve the body's fit and positioning for infants weighing between 4-11 pounds. The fabric is GREENGUARD Gold Certified, which tests for low emissions of chemicals and VOCs.

The UPPAbaby UPPAmax Mesa Maxi may be slightly more expensive than other models, but offers premium features and modern technology for an enjoyable and safe journey. The base is included and comes in a range of fashionable colors. This adds to the value proposition. Its thoughtful design and strong features provide peace of for parents on every journey.

Britax Boulevard ClickTight

The Britax Blvd ClickTight is a great option for parents who are looking for a car seat they can develop with. Its rear-facing capacity is 40 pounds, which is more than most infant car seats on sale car seats. Additionally, it can be used as a forward-facing seat until your child is 65 pounds.

Its main selling point is the ClickTight Installation System, which is the most secure and user-friendly available. It lets you tighten the seat belt by pushing the red release button and pulling on the harness strap and not having to loosen it and then re-thread it. This decreases the risk of incorrectly tightening the belt that is the most common cause of car seat failure.

The EZ-Buckle Pad is a further safety feature that keeps the buckle out the way as you put your child in the car seat. This feature together with beltpath cutouts that are located on the sides of the seat, makes it easy to get your child into and out of the car.

All three ClickTight convertible seat models (Boulevard CT, Marathon CT, Advocate CT) share the identical features. ClickTight Installation System is one of them. Also included are an impact-absorbing frame that has 7 recline positions.

The seat is fairly heavy, but you might want to consider a lighter option if you are planning to make use of it for travel or frequent swaps of cars. The seat is quite large, so it might not fit in smaller cars.

If you're looking for a budget-friendly option with similar quality look into the Graco 4Ever DLX. This seat has lower crash tests scores than the Boulevard but is a great option for your child.

The Graco has also push-on connectors for LATCH, which allows you to easily remove the seat. The Boulevard's LATCH connectors feature an additional release mechanism, which requires you to press a gray button and then pull on the webbing to loosen it. This can be difficult if the webbing is tight. However, this seat does come with a handy storage cubby to store the belt straps when not in use.

Clek Liing

If you're looking for an infant car seat that has all of it -safety, style as well as convenience and luxuryyou'll love the Clek Liing. This rear-facing car seat comes with a great crash test score, a wide range of features and is easy to install in most vehicles.

The Liing is designed to protect newborn darlings with features that meet and surpass both US and Canadian safety standards. It is designed for easy installation and security in any seating position. It also features advanced safety features like an energy-absorbing metal leg as well as a two piece shell lined with EPP for enhanced side impact protection. The base comes with 7 recline positions and an indicator bubble that lets you know whether the seat is just the perfect angle for your child.

The Liing is loved by parents for its modern and sleek design, and its unique safety features, such as rigid lower anchors that are simpler to attach than standard hook-and-loop connectors. The Liing also has a convenient one-handed quick release that makes it simple to remove from the base, or to use with many strollers compatible with it. It's also small enough to fit three-across many vehicles, and it is a good fit in many convertible car seats as a travel boost.

This rotating infant car seat seat is rated 1st for its unique rigid-LATCH installation system. The lower anchors of the Liing snap into the lower seat belt slots of the vehicle, and the top tether strap snaps onto the vehicle headrest. This results in a secure snug, secure fit that reduces the risk that the child will be thrown around in an accident.

The seat is lightweight, with the base weighing 9 pounds and the carrier itself coming in at just 10.5 lbs. Other rear-facing seats are heavier in weight, but if you're planning on taking this car seat and its base around, the slight difference won't be too obvious (especially once you add a baby to the equation! ).

Parents love the Liing's built-in canopy and 100+spf sun-protection with a mesh peekaboo window. Caregivers love the merino cover that keeps baby warm and also appreciate the seat's handle's ability to pivot away from the canopy and make it more comfortable for them to reach for when they need.

Graco Trio Grow SnugLock LX

The Graco Trio Grow SnugLock LX is a 3-in-1 car seat that can be used from rear-facing infant, to forward-facing harness, and then to highback booster. It has the SnugLock system that allows for a simple and smooth installation using either lower anchors or car seat belts. It also offers the option to use the top tether when in booster mode (although we recommend using the lower anchors in all times for greater security).

This seat is ideal for children of all ages. For infants it comes with an infant insert which helps to help support their necks and backs. This insert can be removed once the child is older and the seat can be used as a regular car seat for toddlers. This is the few car seats that allow the top tether to be used in booster mode. We highly recommend it.

Its base is quite compact from front to back, which means it shouldn't have a problem fitting into most vehicles. The headrest needs to be raised to allow for the lower anchor webbing to pass through. Thankfully, there's a handy headrest adjustment knob to easily accomplish this, and you can observe the position of the headrest in the display window.

One of the most unique features about this seat is the SnugLock installation system that's a bar that's in the belt path. This makes installing the car seat with the lower anchors a breeze and almost as easy as using the seat belt of your vehicle.

The manual provides a fantastic illustration on how to route the lower anchor connectors correctly through the belt path, which can initially be confusing. It is important to keep them away from the crotch buckle loop and away from the chest clip to ensure they don't interfere with the buckling system.

The Graco Trio Grow belongs to the Protect Plus Engineered Family, which means that it has been subjected some of the most rigorous testing in the field. This includes tests for side, rear and rollover crashes as well as frontal impacts.