‘The holidays are among my favorite times of year. Family close at hand, good food, snow tires, and…car seats?

Yup. If you’re wondering what to do for your loved ones as we approach the holidays and Christmas gift-giving, my top recommendation would be a good car seat. I know, it sounds strange in a world full of tablets and big screen TVs. However, even though you might not think of car safety as the holidays approach, the truth is that car accidents are the number one killers of children between 1 and 13, and if there’s anything we can do to keep our children safe, as well as the children of our dear friends and extended family members safe, it’s worth doing. To me, that means being open to new car seats when necessary, and it means being aware of the mistakes we make too often with our car seat installations, especially with the miles so many families will put on their vehicles in the next few weeks.

The holidays are a time when we should be joyful and celebrating time with our loved ones. However, there are many families around the country who will sadly lose loved ones, including children, to preventable car accidents. Each year there are more stories, but the one that comes to mind was one from some years ago that took the life of an infant while her family drove home from a Christmas party on Christmas day.  Her father reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and crossed the center line. However, every occupant in both vehicles survived, except for the 13-month old baby.

If there’s anything we can do to reduce the likelihood of our children being injured or worse this Christmas, we should do it, and do it gladly.

These are my favorite car seats currently on the market. I chose them based on how well they fit a range of children, how easy they are to safely and correctly install, and most importantly, how long they allow children to rear-face. Each of these seats will make a great holiday gift that will give the gift of safety whenever children are in cars for the next several years. In order to learn why these kinds of seats are important, be sure to read my guides to extended rear-facing, extended harnessing, and boostering.

Looking for more car seat reviews, recommendations, and tips on best practices? You can read all of my reviews of recommended car seats here. Friends in Canada, your recommended list is here.

The Four Best Convertible Car Seats in 2016 for Rear-Facing (Convertibles that Rear-Face to 50 pounds)

   

The Clek Fllo – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Diono Rainier – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Clek Foonf – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Diono Pacifica – Review Here, Buy Here.

When it comes to car seat safety, the science is clear: the safest position for all children is rear-facing. This goes for adults too, but until we have autonomous cars, rear-facing adult seats aren’t likely to occur. But we know that for children, the longer we can keep them rear-facing, the safer they are when traveling in cars, trucks, SUVs, and minivans, and the less likely they are to suffer serious or fatal injuries should crashes occur.

Unfortunately, many parents forward-face at 1 because that’s when the law allows us to turn our children around in most states (except for California, New Jersey, and Oklahoma), and most parents are forward-facing by 2 in the remaining states. However, rear-facing longer keeps children safer longer, and the aforementioned seats that allow children to remain rear-facing until they weigh 50 pounds are the best on the market.

The Dionos are the best value for the money if you’re looking to maximize the time you spend between buying car seats, as both offer longer forward-facing usable times than the Clek seats, and also include booster modes, even though those modes aren’t going to be useful for some kids. The advantage of the Clek seats is that they’re as narrow as convertible car seats get, which means it’s possible to fit them 3 across in just about any vehicle.

My favorite seat of the four is the Fllo, followed by the Rainier, but you can’t go wrong with any of them. No seats on the market will allow you to rear-face longer than these 4, and since rear-facing is the safest position we can place our children in whenever traveling with them in a vehicle, this is where you want to be if you can afford it in terms of child safety.

Each of these seats will allow you to rear-face the average child through the preschool years and likely into kindergarten, or age 5. They can then be turned forward-facing and used for varying amounts of time in that orientation; you’ll get much more time with the Dionos than with the Cleks, if you’re interested in getting a longer overall seat lifespan per child.

Remember to pick up the infant insert as well if you’re buying one of the Cleks and want to use them from the day you leave the hospital, otherwise you’ll need to wait until your child has head control and can sit up independently. Similarly, if you’re buying one of the Dionos, make sure to pick up an angle adjuster so you’ll have a reasonable amount of room when driving or sitting as a passenger in the front row of your vehicle.

The Four Best Convertible Car Seats on a Smaller Budget ( under $200) in 2016

 

 

The Graco Head Wise 65 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Size4Me 65 – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Contender – Review Here, Buy Here.
The Graco Fit4Me 65 – Review Here, Buy Here.

While there are lots of parents who aren’t aware of the benefits of rear-facing, there are also parents who are, but who simply don’t have the budgets necessary to purchase the high-end rear-facing seats above like the Cleks and Dionos. For these parents, I always recommend the Graco clones, which includes seats like the Head Wise 65, the Size4Me 65, the Contender, and the Fit4Me 65.

These are my favorite convertibles on the market under the $200 price point, and as I wrote in an earlier post, I have had three of these seats installed in family vehicles for a while (the Head Wise, Size4Me, and Contender), and recently ordered and reviewed the fourth (see here). All four seats are quite similar to each other, with a few slight differences.

For example, I find the Head Wise 65 to be the most comfortable of the four seats due to the additional padding it provides; it also has more side impact protection as a result. The Size4Me features a removable head support padding, while that in the Head Wise is fixed. The Contender takes up more room when you use it to rear-face, as I found out in my ultimate rear-facing convertible car seat comparison. The Fit4Me is most like the Head Wise in that it includes a ball lever on the side to indicate the recline angle.  All of the seats are great, but if I had to choose an order or preference, it would be the Head Wise, Fit4Me, Size4Me, and then the Contender. You can’t go wrong with any of them, however.

Concluding thoughts on the holidays – and more traditional gift ideas

This year, loving parents throughout the country will undoubtedly bring lots of flashy gadgets and whiz-bang devices to children all over the United States, including electronic doo-dads like the Kindle Paperwhite or a 6″ Fire HD, card games like Exploding Kittens, or books like Laugh-Out-Loud Jokes for Kids (a great book for elementary-aged kids) or First 100 Words (an excellent book for toddlers).

Are these great gift ideas? Oh yeah! However, none of these gifts will do more for your kids’ development than a car seat that keeps them safe enough to have the rest of these experiences. This holiday season, make a long-lasting investment in your children and the children of your friends and extended family. A good car seat can make all the difference in the world.

Have fun shopping and remember to rear-face until 4 if possible, forward-face until 8 if possible, and booster until your child passes the 5 step test.

If you find the information on car safety, recommended car seats, and car seat reviews on this car seat blog helpful, you can shop through this Amazon link for any purchases, car seat-related or not. Canadians can shop through this link for Canadian purchases.