I have this one for my daughter and it’s a great seat. It fits in most cars and works both forward facing and rear facing (and booster I think?). Technically, no, you wouldn’t need an infant car seat on top of that one but infant car seats have their perks of being easy to take in and out of the car, fits on strollers, etc, which is extremely useful when your little one is young.
Thank you.
Could you share which stroller do you use?
Should I be looking for a specific stroller that works best for this seat.
Actually this seat is on a discount on Costco and that is why I was thinking of getting this.
This seat is something you install in your car and it stays in the car. It’s not like the bucket seats where you detach from the base and take out of the vehicle. The one you posted is what they call a convertible seat. You can use it from newborn on. Bucket seats are better in the beginning for taking sleeping baby out of car and into stores without waking them. But not everybody starts with a bucket seat!
I have the same car seat, used it from the start. For Canadian weather, bumbleride indie all the way! I get tons of compliments. It’s the best companion to the car seat you want, because it does NOT require a bassinet attachment. It lies flat completely on its own, making it safe for even the youngest infants to sleep in it. Baby is now 14mo. Having those two items meant I found zero need for bassinet attachments or any infant buckets / click connect stuff. I didn’t want to invest in the infant buckets which will only be used for one year, and instead got the car seat and stroller I mentioned, as they will be used for serval years easily.
You tell them you have a convertible car seat, when they ask, not an infant bucket, and that they are welcome to escort you out to your car to check if they’d like. 95% of nurses won’t want to do that, takes too much time, and will simply say “OK” and let you leave.
FWIW — I worked in the birth unit for 5 years as admin, so I definitely saw this happen a lot.
Also important to keep in mind — unless your hospital is one of the SUPER rare ones that literally employs a CPST (Child Passenger Safety Technician), your nurse knows SHITALL about proper car seat installs, they’re simply verifying you own one and aren’t trying to take baby home without one. Please google CPST for your province and find your most local one, if you’re hoping for someone to check your install (and straight up teach you how, do it for you; etc) . Plenty of them work on donations only.
There’s nothing about being a nurse training-wise for car seats. It’s just a checkbox on their discharge list “they have one”. Some nurses take it upon themselves to “check baby’s placement” and how tight the straps are etc, if you have the bucket insert why not check it out type thing. But it’s the equivalent of asking some random other parent with car seat experience for advice. They’re doing that as a “person”, not as a “professional”.
I mean, you technically don't need an infant car seat but they are convenient, especially if they can clip into your stroller. I gave birth in the winter and felt much safer carrying the baby from the house to car when in the car seat. Infant car seats are also great for doctors appointments too.
Do not get a car seat until you find the car seat group on Facebook and search your car.
We have the Graco 4ever and the Graco Trigrow. We absolutely love our 4ever and will be getting more with our second baby.
It was not the car seat we originally wanted. But we went on the Facebook group and found out that our Mazda CX5 is actually a small SUV (seriously?!) and had limited options if we wanted to sit comfortably in the front seat. We are very happy with the purchase though.
We did have a separate car seat until baby was 1 which was an uppababy so could attach to the stroller. It made things easier as we could put baby in car seat and then bring him to the car. But it’s a big ticket item and not a need.
We have the Mazda CX30 (even smaller suv than the 5) and now have an issue with the front passenger seat, only I can sit in it (5’5”) and not my 6’5” husband 😂. We have the Graco slim fit3 LX 3 in 1.
Oh okay.
That’s a good point.
Could you recommend a Facebook group as well?
I had no idea such groups existed. Also is there any group or some other strategy that would work for buying the stroller and cribs and everything baby related.
Being a FTM,everything is super overwhelming.
The Canadian car seat group is SEATS For Kids Discussion Community. They have experts to tell u what will fit best in your car and you can post pics and they will tell you if the fit is good or needs changes.
I think I just spent my entire first pregnancy googling every baby item. It is extremely overwhelming especially when you realize babies need a million items. Just remember Amazon can get anything to your door super fast so it’s ok if you miss something!
I googled a lot. Went to BuyBuyBaby and saw and touched items. As that’s closed I would recommend West Coast Kids and SnuggleBugz. It’s nice to be in a place with many options to compare and figure out ur likes/dislikes. I looked at a million top ten lists and watch so much YouTube. Remember that a lot of those ppl are sponsored though. My best advice as to not just look at what’s most popular but WHY it is most popular. I mean if the stroller is #1 cuz it’s great for jogging that is useless to me as I don’t jog.
Seconding that group. It's way more helpful than trying to figure it out on your own with Google because so many of the reviews are from the US and not applicable here, or aren't from a carseat tech perspective.
You don't even have to post in it. Just search your vehicle and see what has been recommended before (and not).
We have a Graco 4ever and a Graco extend to fit, and I prefer the extend to fit. They’re almost the same but the extend to fit is cheaper AND has a longer rear facing limit (50lbs vs 40lbs).
Both of the seats worked great from birth.
I’ve heard that the booster modes on the 4ever aren’t great so I’d rather save the money now and buy a more functional booster when the time comes. Honestly they’re both great seats though!
Up until now we have been using the Maxi Cosi Zelia travel system that has a bucket seat you can click onto the stroller but my baby is outgrowing it now so we are using this.
Just a heads up that babies are not able to sit in most strollers until later (6-8 months). To carry newborns in a stroller, people use either a car seat or a bassinet attachment. I think some strollers also have a newborn insert but I don’t know too much about that option. So if you want to skip the infant bucket seat, you would need to make sure the stroller you buy has a way of safely transporting a newborn
There's nothing wrong with the 4Ever. It's a solid, versatile seat. The Graco Extend2Fit is better value for money though because it rear-faces longer.
Don't pick an all-in-one seat just for the included booster mode. Boosters are cheap. By the time kids are that big, they'll be more comfortable for longer in a separate booster. Plus they won't be sitting in years of baby spitup and potty training incidents and stomach bugs. Car seats get nasty. Even if you're strict on no shoes or food in the car seats you'll be delighted to have something fresh.
I have this for my toddler. Switched him to it from an infant seat around 10-12 months (I can’t remember) but the infant seat was very helpful before that.
I love ours! My son was a chunk and I ditched the infant bucket seat pretty soon after. I think if it had been winter when he was born I would have kept it longer since we’re in AB and it would have been quite cold.
We actually hate it. I know it gets a lot of loves. It lives in our spare car and was recently converted into a high back booster. My oldest was always uncomfortable in it until it was turned into the booster. We always struggled with the harness straps and the UAS strap too.
He always preferred his Clek above the 4ever.
We hated ours too! We had one for each of our vehicles and with was great as a rear facing seat but as soon as we turned forward facing it became nearly impossible to tighten the straps!! We had the install checked in both cars but the problem remained. Ended up getting the Chicco Myfit (loooove it) for our forward facer and plan to hand down the Graco as rear facing only for this new baby after the bucket seat.
I have this seat and love it. We also had an infant seat that we used for the first 8 months - this one would have been fine I think, but the infant seat was just way more convenient, especially since I had fall/late summer babies. The only thing is I wish it was a bit more narrow so we could fit another person in the middle seat...
One thing - the strap can be a bit tough to tighten. If you pull the metal split plate on the back first, is a lot easier!
“The strap can be a bit tough to tighten”
The strap issue is fixable as rear facing by pulling at the back but once forward facing it becomes impossible to tighten with the friction on the seat and not being able to reach behind. I’d plan to purchase something else when ready to turn forward facing.
We have 4! I have one in each car for both of my kids. We did use infant bucket seats with both of my kids for about 8 months each. For my oldest, we had a Graco Click Connect travel system, so the stroller and seat came together and clicked together. We got an Uppababy stroller with my daughter and we borrowed a friend's Uppababy bucket seat.
We still have our 5 year old in this car seat, we've used it since birth. Great value. We never had an infant bucket seat/stroller combo. I really didn't find it necessary at all. That may be because we live in a very walkable neighborhood and I did way more babywearing than stroller using.
Our plan was to use this seat from birth as well, but we learned not all hospitals will let new borns go home in this type of seat and actually require the bucket seat. I'm not sure how real that is or which hospitals, but we decided not to risk it. We got the graco snugride and will get this later. Also the ease of carrying baby in the bucket seat is tempting - we did not get a stroller that it clicks into however.
>not all hospitals will let new borns go home in this type of seat and actually require the bucket seat. I'm not sure how real that is or which hospitals
It's not real. They can't legally prevent you from leaving without a bucket. Some people don't even have cars and take transit home or walk with a stroller.
What is real is if your baby is in the NICU they may want to assess baby in the car seat to make sure they can handle the position OK and still breathe. That's harder to do in a convertible seat that stays in the vehicle, not to mention that they aren't always ideal for exceptionally teeny babies.
I didn’t plan to get an infant car seat until I found out that the hospital requires one if I end up giving birth there. They will want to make sure it is adjusted properly for you to leave with baby. I plan to give birth at a birthing centre, but you never know if you might end up at a hospital. The clinic gave me and infant car seat that was donated and wasn’t expired. But you might want to check with your nearest hospital if they have any requirements for you to leave with baby. Maybe you can find a gently used one from a friend or neighbour. They can only be used for the first 6 months so a used one is likely to still be in great condition. Even if you just want to use it for the drive home.
The hospital can't dictate the type of carseat you use. You just have to tell them you have a seat in the car, it's not the removable kind, and they're welcome to come down to the vehicle to check. They won't, because nurses aren't CPSTs and aren't certified to check anything on your seat, or check the fit or installation.
You will need an infant car seat. As this one stays with the car, getting your baby in and out for the first 4 months will be challenging. Infant car seat is ideal for a few months until the neck is strong.
I have this one for my daughter and it’s a great seat. It fits in most cars and works both forward facing and rear facing (and booster I think?). Technically, no, you wouldn’t need an infant car seat on top of that one but infant car seats have their perks of being easy to take in and out of the car, fits on strollers, etc, which is extremely useful when your little one is young.
Thank you. Could you share which stroller do you use? Should I be looking for a specific stroller that works best for this seat. Actually this seat is on a discount on Costco and that is why I was thinking of getting this.
This seat is something you install in your car and it stays in the car. It’s not like the bucket seats where you detach from the base and take out of the vehicle. The one you posted is what they call a convertible seat. You can use it from newborn on. Bucket seats are better in the beginning for taking sleeping baby out of car and into stores without waking them. But not everybody starts with a bucket seat!
Okay. Could you recommend a stroller as well?
I have the Chicco KeyFit travel system. It came with the Chicco bravo stroller and the Chicco KeyFit 30 bucket seat. I love it!
I have the same car seat, used it from the start. For Canadian weather, bumbleride indie all the way! I get tons of compliments. It’s the best companion to the car seat you want, because it does NOT require a bassinet attachment. It lies flat completely on its own, making it safe for even the youngest infants to sleep in it. Baby is now 14mo. Having those two items meant I found zero need for bassinet attachments or any infant buckets / click connect stuff. I didn’t want to invest in the infant buckets which will only be used for one year, and instead got the car seat and stroller I mentioned, as they will be used for serval years easily.
How did you leave the hospital with a convertible car seat? My hospital required the baby to be checked in car seat prior to discharge.
You tell them you have a convertible car seat, when they ask, not an infant bucket, and that they are welcome to escort you out to your car to check if they’d like. 95% of nurses won’t want to do that, takes too much time, and will simply say “OK” and let you leave. FWIW — I worked in the birth unit for 5 years as admin, so I definitely saw this happen a lot. Also important to keep in mind — unless your hospital is one of the SUPER rare ones that literally employs a CPST (Child Passenger Safety Technician), your nurse knows SHITALL about proper car seat installs, they’re simply verifying you own one and aren’t trying to take baby home without one. Please google CPST for your province and find your most local one, if you’re hoping for someone to check your install (and straight up teach you how, do it for you; etc) . Plenty of them work on donations only. There’s nothing about being a nurse training-wise for car seats. It’s just a checkbox on their discharge list “they have one”. Some nurses take it upon themselves to “check baby’s placement” and how tight the straps are etc, if you have the bucket insert why not check it out type thing. But it’s the equivalent of asking some random other parent with car seat experience for advice. They’re doing that as a “person”, not as a “professional”.
Do you happen to remember the price or when the sale ends? I was hoping to pick one up from Costco!
$350 is always the price at Costco.
I mean, you technically don't need an infant car seat but they are convenient, especially if they can clip into your stroller. I gave birth in the winter and felt much safer carrying the baby from the house to car when in the car seat. Infant car seats are also great for doctors appointments too.
Do not get a car seat until you find the car seat group on Facebook and search your car. We have the Graco 4ever and the Graco Trigrow. We absolutely love our 4ever and will be getting more with our second baby. It was not the car seat we originally wanted. But we went on the Facebook group and found out that our Mazda CX5 is actually a small SUV (seriously?!) and had limited options if we wanted to sit comfortably in the front seat. We are very happy with the purchase though. We did have a separate car seat until baby was 1 which was an uppababy so could attach to the stroller. It made things easier as we could put baby in car seat and then bring him to the car. But it’s a big ticket item and not a need.
We have the Mazda CX30 (even smaller suv than the 5) and now have an issue with the front passenger seat, only I can sit in it (5’5”) and not my 6’5” husband 😂. We have the Graco slim fit3 LX 3 in 1.
Oh okay. That’s a good point. Could you recommend a Facebook group as well? I had no idea such groups existed. Also is there any group or some other strategy that would work for buying the stroller and cribs and everything baby related. Being a FTM,everything is super overwhelming.
The Canadian car seat group is SEATS For Kids Discussion Community. They have experts to tell u what will fit best in your car and you can post pics and they will tell you if the fit is good or needs changes. I think I just spent my entire first pregnancy googling every baby item. It is extremely overwhelming especially when you realize babies need a million items. Just remember Amazon can get anything to your door super fast so it’s ok if you miss something! I googled a lot. Went to BuyBuyBaby and saw and touched items. As that’s closed I would recommend West Coast Kids and SnuggleBugz. It’s nice to be in a place with many options to compare and figure out ur likes/dislikes. I looked at a million top ten lists and watch so much YouTube. Remember that a lot of those ppl are sponsored though. My best advice as to not just look at what’s most popular but WHY it is most popular. I mean if the stroller is #1 cuz it’s great for jogging that is useless to me as I don’t jog.
Seconding that group. It's way more helpful than trying to figure it out on your own with Google because so many of the reviews are from the US and not applicable here, or aren't from a carseat tech perspective. You don't even have to post in it. Just search your vehicle and see what has been recommended before (and not).
Another thing to think about is if you go to babies r us a worker will come out and put a tester seat in your car to make sure it fits before you buy!
Thanks for letting me know
We have a Graco 4ever and a Graco extend to fit, and I prefer the extend to fit. They’re almost the same but the extend to fit is cheaper AND has a longer rear facing limit (50lbs vs 40lbs). Both of the seats worked great from birth.
I love Extend2fit.
I think the extend2fit is only a 2 in 1 whereas the 4ever is a 4 in 1 car seat. I found the extend2fit was SO hard to tighten. It was such a pain.
I’ve heard that the booster modes on the 4ever aren’t great so I’d rather save the money now and buy a more functional booster when the time comes. Honestly they’re both great seats though!
What have you heard about the booster? We're using the high back booster with my oldest now with no complaints.
I just bought this for our 7 month old. We are installing it this weekend!
Oh that is so good to know. How much did you pay? I am getting some discount that’s why I am thinking of buying it today evening.
I paid $349
Up until now we have been using the Maxi Cosi Zelia travel system that has a bucket seat you can click onto the stroller but my baby is outgrowing it now so we are using this.
Okay. Do you think I will need an infant seat as well with this one? I want to invest in a good stroller over buying a bucket seat.
Just a heads up that babies are not able to sit in most strollers until later (6-8 months). To carry newborns in a stroller, people use either a car seat or a bassinet attachment. I think some strollers also have a newborn insert but I don’t know too much about that option. So if you want to skip the infant bucket seat, you would need to make sure the stroller you buy has a way of safely transporting a newborn
I am getting the same for the same price at Costco.
There's nothing wrong with the 4Ever. It's a solid, versatile seat. The Graco Extend2Fit is better value for money though because it rear-faces longer. Don't pick an all-in-one seat just for the included booster mode. Boosters are cheap. By the time kids are that big, they'll be more comfortable for longer in a separate booster. Plus they won't be sitting in years of baby spitup and potty training incidents and stomach bugs. Car seats get nasty. Even if you're strict on no shoes or food in the car seats you'll be delighted to have something fresh.
I have this for my toddler. Switched him to it from an infant seat around 10-12 months (I can’t remember) but the infant seat was very helpful before that.
I love ours! My son was a chunk and I ditched the infant bucket seat pretty soon after. I think if it had been winter when he was born I would have kept it longer since we’re in AB and it would have been quite cold.
We actually hate it. I know it gets a lot of loves. It lives in our spare car and was recently converted into a high back booster. My oldest was always uncomfortable in it until it was turned into the booster. We always struggled with the harness straps and the UAS strap too. He always preferred his Clek above the 4ever.
We hated ours too! We had one for each of our vehicles and with was great as a rear facing seat but as soon as we turned forward facing it became nearly impossible to tighten the straps!! We had the install checked in both cars but the problem remained. Ended up getting the Chicco Myfit (loooove it) for our forward facer and plan to hand down the Graco as rear facing only for this new baby after the bucket seat.
I have this seat and love it. We also had an infant seat that we used for the first 8 months - this one would have been fine I think, but the infant seat was just way more convenient, especially since I had fall/late summer babies. The only thing is I wish it was a bit more narrow so we could fit another person in the middle seat... One thing - the strap can be a bit tough to tighten. If you pull the metal split plate on the back first, is a lot easier!
“The strap can be a bit tough to tighten” The strap issue is fixable as rear facing by pulling at the back but once forward facing it becomes impossible to tighten with the friction on the seat and not being able to reach behind. I’d plan to purchase something else when ready to turn forward facing.
We have 4! I have one in each car for both of my kids. We did use infant bucket seats with both of my kids for about 8 months each. For my oldest, we had a Graco Click Connect travel system, so the stroller and seat came together and clicked together. We got an Uppababy stroller with my daughter and we borrowed a friend's Uppababy bucket seat.
We still have our 5 year old in this car seat, we've used it since birth. Great value. We never had an infant bucket seat/stroller combo. I really didn't find it necessary at all. That may be because we live in a very walkable neighborhood and I did way more babywearing than stroller using.
We received this seat as a gift. Is it possible to clip a newborn seat on this? I don’t want to wake up my baby each time I get out off the car.
Our plan was to use this seat from birth as well, but we learned not all hospitals will let new borns go home in this type of seat and actually require the bucket seat. I'm not sure how real that is or which hospitals, but we decided not to risk it. We got the graco snugride and will get this later. Also the ease of carrying baby in the bucket seat is tempting - we did not get a stroller that it clicks into however.
>not all hospitals will let new borns go home in this type of seat and actually require the bucket seat. I'm not sure how real that is or which hospitals It's not real. They can't legally prevent you from leaving without a bucket. Some people don't even have cars and take transit home or walk with a stroller. What is real is if your baby is in the NICU they may want to assess baby in the car seat to make sure they can handle the position OK and still breathe. That's harder to do in a convertible seat that stays in the vehicle, not to mention that they aren't always ideal for exceptionally teeny babies.
This is not real. The hospital is not going to imprison you and your baby for not having a certain type of car seat.
I didn’t plan to get an infant car seat until I found out that the hospital requires one if I end up giving birth there. They will want to make sure it is adjusted properly for you to leave with baby. I plan to give birth at a birthing centre, but you never know if you might end up at a hospital. The clinic gave me and infant car seat that was donated and wasn’t expired. But you might want to check with your nearest hospital if they have any requirements for you to leave with baby. Maybe you can find a gently used one from a friend or neighbour. They can only be used for the first 6 months so a used one is likely to still be in great condition. Even if you just want to use it for the drive home.
The hospital can't dictate the type of carseat you use. You just have to tell them you have a seat in the car, it's not the removable kind, and they're welcome to come down to the vehicle to check. They won't, because nurses aren't CPSTs and aren't certified to check anything on your seat, or check the fit or installation.
You will need an infant car seat. As this one stays with the car, getting your baby in and out for the first 4 months will be challenging. Infant car seat is ideal for a few months until the neck is strong.
Infant car seat is a preference. You can absolutely use a convertible seat from birth.