Car seat

Photo Friday: 70's Carseat

Strolee of California Car Seat Instructions

I've been helping my mom clean out her house, and I found this old instruction sheet from the carseat I sat in when I was a child. The seat's goal was more about lifting the child up to see out the window than about safety, though I'm ...

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Best Bet Carseats for Every Age

Graco Snugride Car Seat

Yesterday I posted an exhaustive post about how to choose a booster seat. Admittedly, it's a lot of work to scour all the resources I listed and pick the best carseat for your family. With three kids age 2, 5, and 6, I've bought my fair share of ...

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How to Choose a Booster Seat - Includes Links to Helpful Resources

Three-across setup with all three kids in 5-point harness seats

With more states requiring that kids continue to ride in a booster seat until they're at least 8 years old and 4 feet 9 inches tall, you're more likely to need one either at home or when you travel. Sadly, buying a new booster seat is more tricky ...

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Product Review: Bubblebum Inflatable Booster Car Seat

Bubblebum Inflatable Booster Seat

Sometimes I just get so curious about a travel product that even if I don't strictly "need" it, I have to try it for myself. That's what happened with the BubbleBum, an inflatable booster seat that rolls up and stores in a bag when not in use. I ...

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My Meeting With Ford CEO Alan Mulally and Questions on Child Safety in Cars

Debbie Dubrow and Alan Mulally

During Labor Day weekend I was invited to a local media brunch with Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford Motors as a part of the effort to launch the new Ford Taurus. If you want to see me looking serious and taking notes, click here

I sat alongside journalists who have ...

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Reader Question: Renting a Car Seat

Unsafe Rental Car Seats

This is a reader question from Susan who will be renting a car and wants to know about the safety of renting a car seat. As Susan knows, I've written much about this subject, including two investigations of unsafe car seats at rental car agencies. I've also heard ...

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Welcome CNN.com Readers

CNN.com's story today about Pushy Travel Bloggers Taking on the Travel Industry references my investigation of Advantage Rental Car's Unsafe Car Seats last year. I don't think I've ever been so happy to be called "pushy!"

Back when it was originally published, that article Unsafe ...

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Reader Questions: Choosing Carseats for a US Roadtrip

This is a reader question from Kristen, a mom from Australia who is planning a road trip through the United States.

I am travelling from Australia to the US with 2 small children - was planning on bringing carseats from here as we will be in US for few months, would ...

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Product Review: Sunshine Kids Radian 80 Convertible Carseat

Sunshine Kids Radian 80 Car Seat

This product has been reworked and renamed as the Diono Radian RXT Convertible Car Seat, now available on Amazon.

This is an unpaid review of two Radian 80 Convertable Carseats that I purchased for my personal use. When I review a product or service that was given to me for ...

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Welcome MSNBC.com Readers

Chris Elliott wrote a great article for MSNBC this week called 7 tips for blogging your way to a better trip. The article is about travelers who used their blogs to hold travel companies accountable for poor or unsafe service -- and succeeded in changing corporate policy.

I was flattered that ...

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Reader Question: How do I Get From Barcelona Airport to Downtown Without a Car Seat

View of Barcelona from Montjuic Mountain in Barcelona

Here is a reader question from Tiffany, who asks:

I am traveling alone with my 27 month old from Hawaii to Barcelona in January to meet my husband. I am not planning to bring a carseat, do you know of a car service there for airport transports? After a couple ...

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10 Time Tested Products To Make Your Holiday Travels Easier

My regular readers know that I am a minimalist when it comes to travel gear. I would rather travel light than have all the latest "must haves," and some products work great at one age, but are not helpful at another.

However we do have a few products that have ...

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Danger For Rent: Car Rental Agency Puts Infant at Risk

Safety is important to Barbara, so when she flew to Los Angeles with her 6 month old, she reserved a car at an agency that had made strong promises about their infant car seats. Exhausted after a long flight, she struggled for two hours to find a seat that could ...

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Safety Tips for Renting A Carseat

Never rent a car seat, say carseat experts. But there are times when you cannot bring your own child safety seat. When that happens, you'll want to take special care to make sure your seat is as safe as possible. I've searched the web, talked with car seat ...

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Airplanes & Car Seats Part IV: Travel Car Seats

This is the fourth, and final article in our series on air travel with a car seat. In the third article in this series, we reviewed different ways to carry your own car seat through the airport. If you prefer to leave your own car seat safely installed in your ...

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Airplanes & Car Seats Part III: Car Seat Carriers

Once you have committed to carrying your car seat through the airport, there are several different ways to do it. This article provides a roundup of the different options, each with it's plusses and minuses.

Our next post in this series will discuss travel car seats, and over the ...

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Airplanes & Car Seats Part II: General Tips

Know What You Need
In general, make sure you know the car seat laws at your destination. Car seat laws vary by state in the US. For example, a child who can ride in a booster seat in California may need a seat with a five point harness in Washington ...

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Airplanes & Car Seats Part I: Car Seat Requirements

This week, I'll be publishing a series of articles about Flying with Car Seats. This article, which covers the requirements and guidelines related to flying safely with a baby, toddler or child, is the first installment!

Who Needs A Carseat On An Airplane Flight
Neither infants nor children are ...

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Why go to the News? Why Not a Letter of Complaint?

Several people have asked me why I chose to work with local news instead of choosing another, less public route, to resolve our concerns over Advantage Rent-A-Car's child safety seats. My reasons are as much personal as pragmatic. While I'm not particularly thrilled with the idea of airing ...

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Welcome Consumerist Readers!

We got a great write up today on Consumerist. Consumerist is a popular blog focused on helping consumers share complaints (and good experiences) that would normally be silenced or shared among just a few close friends. I've been a reader for a long time, so it felt great to ...

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Watching Myself on the News

Last night I had the unusual experience of watching myself on the evening news. It was fun to see myself and the kids on TV, and it was also very emotional.

First of all I feel incredibly proud. Because of the article I wrote and my work with 10News in ...

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DeliciousBaby in the News!

Back in December, I blogged about the disgusting and unsafe child seats at Advantage rent-a-car. The local San Diego and Seattle ABC affiliates picked up the story, did their own "under cover" investigations, and are airing the story this week!

A reporter even came out to the house to interview ...

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Update on Advantage Rental Car's Unsafe Car Seats

I have more information on the Fisher Price car seat shown our article on Advantage Rent-a-Car's Frightening Car Seats.

After receiving reader tip saying that her 15 year old son had used a similar car seat, I did some more research on that model. The Fisher Price 9100 & 9101 ...

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Advantage Rent-A-Car's Unsafe Car Seats

Update 28 July 2008: Despite their promises Advantage Rent A Car continues to rent unsafe car seats please click the link to read what happened to mom Barbara and her 6 month old infant when they visited the Los Angles location

original story follows

You might remember that when we ...

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