Any new parent can agree that out of all the purchases you need to make to welcome a new baby to your home, none are as important as an infant car seat.
Shopping around, many of them look the same or have a lot of the same features, so how do you know which ones will best protect your baby?
Consumer Reports uses state of the art science and testing to rate and recommend the safest seats for any budget.
Jennifer Stockburger, a Consumer Reports expert, explained that the main objective of a car seat is to manage the crash forces with the energy absorption, keeping it away from the child.
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While all child seats sold in the US must meet federal safety requirements, Consumer Reports goes beyond and conducts its own crash tests at a higher speed, and test-sled designed to more closely represent the inside of a car
and a real-world crash.
This includes looking at new designs like seats with “load legs'' - an extra support that extends from a car seat’s base to the floor, and it makes infant seats that much safer.
Aside from safety features, Consumer Reports engineers also evaluate each seat for how easy it is to use and to install.
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Car seats are unique in that there's so much of the consumer's use that actually affects the outcome of how it controls energy and protects a child in a crash.
Always make sure that your child is buckled properly and the seat is properly installed every single time.
To help you make the best and safest choice, check out Consumer Reports free infant car seat finder.
