This week's review :
Discovery Infant Car Seat by Evenflo
By Debbie Vasen
With all the millions of baby products one needs to purchase, the car seat is the most essential. One the riskiest ventures existing are driving in a car, thus keeping your baby safe is top priority. That said, how does a parent decide on the best car seat option? The answer is research… research… research.
The Discovery Infant car seat by Evenflo is an affordable basic alternative for the youngest of babies. Only designed for rear facing infants up to 20 pounds, it is offered at a reasonable price of $40 to $50. As an infant car seat and carrier, the Discovery offers the added benefit of removing the child from the car inside the seat itself. Most parents quickly learn the advantage of not having to awake a sleeping baby when you arrive at your destination. While this seat is bulky and heavy, especially with baby inside, it does cradle your infant in comfort while you travel. I particularly enjoyed being able to remove the seat and re-snap it into grocery carts, restaurant high chairs and strollers. We also used the seat as a place for our baby to hang out in, providing them an instant upright chair.
In the car itself, this seat takes up a lot of room. Placing it in the middle of the backseat helped with space issues and is recommended as the safest place for a baby to travel. While the separate base stays in the car, the portable seat portion can be used without the base. We kept the base secured in our main vehicle, but whenever we needed to use a different car, it easily strapped in without the base.
The Discovery car seat design includes an easy to carry handle option. While it is better than the competition, it still is heavy to carry, particularly as the baby grows. The fabric cover is machine washable and easy to remove. It is available in darker colors in an assortment of blue and grey patterns. The five-point harness is particularly important for safety, but the chest clip was actually quite flimsy and difficult to use. We chose to replace it with a different snap version we purchased separately. The seat comes with a canopy, but it is of low quality and did a poor job of shielding the sun.
If you desire a car seat that is a good value for the price and offers a carrier opportunity, the Discovery car seat is a reasonable choice.
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