One of the questions I get asked the most since Joshua became a toddler is why, when, and which carseat did we upgrade to. To preface, just around the time Joshua was 8 months old I noticed he started to hate the car. He would cry the second we left and wouldn’t stop until he was out. (Yup, including that 7 hour drive to Montreal we did in the middle of the night last fall where I thought my ears would start bleeding). And for a couple months I thought he just hated hated being in a car. I tried toys, music, sitting with him, snacks, and just about everything else, but nothing seemed to help. I was coincidently talking to a mom about this at the park a couple weeks later and she mentioned that her son was the exact same way until they changed to a bigger convertible car seat and how she loved the Clek Foonf they were now using. So out on a limb (but not really cause let’s be honest I had no other option) around the 9 months mark I did the same thing.
I went to the store down the street and started asking a 100 questions about the convertible car seats. I looked at safety, comfort, recline ability, fabric, and also how they fit in our car. It was a pretty easy choice, to be honest, and surprisingly it was the Clek Foonf that the other mom suggested. It was beautiful, didn’t have the extra unnecessary padding that would take up two seats, had won a bunch of awards in both design and safety, and was so high in the car that the passenger seat had so much room in the front + Joshua could easily look outside the wind unobstructed for entertainment. Up until this point, our infant car seat had been so low and wide that nobody could sit in the front passenger seat, and half the middle seat was taken in the back, so having 4 seats again was AMAZING. The crazy part? It actually worked with Joshua. Like night to day, never cried again, loved the car, type of worked. And all it took was a new carseat.
Looking back at this I can’t believe I didn’t realize it sooner. Of course that infant seat that he fit in when he was 6 pounds wouldn’t be comfortable for the tall 25 pound boy he became. How didn’t I think about that? Now, I know this seat will change with him for years to come and have confidence that he’ll love it still. Now he’s rear facing and as soon as I feel he’s old enough, will have the ability for forward facing as well. It has a cup holder for his snack or water, it reclines at different levels and the fabric is perfect for just a one wipe clean up. It has completely changed our life, not to be dramatic 😉 I spent months on end tied to the house because I was afraid to even bring him 10 minutes away knowing he’d cry, and since then we have planned activities everyday. No matte the drive, traffic, weather, I know he’s safe and happy.
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