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Comparison of the Orbit infant and toddler car seats

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my Toyota Corolla with a toddler seat on a base in the middle seat, and the infant seat next to it for comparison

 

We recently bought the Orbit toddler car seat for Jack now that he is almost a year old and seemed to want to look outside and be more upright. We used the infant Orbit seat up until now, so I wanted to compare the two seats.

Like I’ve said before, we got the Orbit brand because they are the only brand with NO brominated flame retardants (Britax is working on reducing them which is a good step too). Orbit is also the only Oeko-Tex certified nontoxic car seat.

Thoughts on the infant seat:

  • I liked the cloth-like handle which was more comfortable to carry
  • It seemed pretty heavy
  • In my Toyota Corolla, it took up a lot of room, so I never really pivoted it and removed it because it was wedged in there
  • After about 6 months it got annoying to lift the baby up and over the side into the seat, but that probably also makes it safer
  • It was easy to take off the cloth part and machine wash it

Thoughts on the toddler seat:

  • If you put it on the base, it’s SO easy to install- we had it up and running in 2 minutes
  • The way to adjust the harness length is the same as the infant seat so it’s easy to figure out
  • On the base, it decreases the visibility in my Toyota Corolla by almost 50% vertically in the rear window
  • That also means the baby gets to sit up really high and have a good view out the window
  • It’s HEAVY!
  • it’s a lot easier to put my (now 22 pound) baby in and get him out since you don’t lift him over the side
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view out the rear mirror of my Toyota Corolla with the toddler seat on a base in the middle seat

 

Overall I was really glad that the toddler and infant seats can both fit in my little Corolla, so that if we end up with 2 or 3 kids they could technically all fit. It would be hard with 3 to get the middle kid in their seat I guess, but not as bad if you put the infant seat in the middle and didn’t have to reach over it.

In general, I really like the Orbit seats and it makes me so happy that my baby isn’t breathing toxic fumes in there! He also seems a lot happier now in the toddler seat since he can see more, and sit upright more.