Consumer Report Mess Up Is Your Gain

In Jaunary of 2007, Consumer Report (CR) withdrawn its recent report on infant infant seats.  The reason? CR claimed that 10 of 12 infant infant seats are not safe, and actually recommended the recall of one particular infant seat.

Now, the CR front-impact crash tests were supposed to be conducted at 35 mph, and side-impact crash tests on the infant infant seats were supposed to be conducted at 38.5 mph.  The NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) disputed those claims, and said that Consumer Report's crash tests were more likely conducted at over 70 mph.

That's huge difference and apparently, CR also felt that this report may contain errors and withdrawn it.

Parents Worried, Manufacturers Baffled

The CR report understandably caused a lot of unease among newborn and infant parents, wondering whether their baby infant seats are now really safe for their precious little ones.  Carseat manufacturers are equally concerned, perplexed and baffled by the reports finding when all the infant seats have passed the federal mandated crash standards.

We can understand the concerns, and are actually glad that CR have taken the proactive action to withdraw the report pending further investigations.

Are Some Brands Better Than Others?

In the report, CR did mention that two of the infant infant seats performed well - the Baby Trend Flex-Loc and the Graco SnugRide with EPS.  This is where a little thinking helps - if these two infant infant seats perform well according to CR under crash tests exceeding 70 mph, can you say they would perform well, or even better, at 35/38.5 mph?  Hmmm... I would.

Which One Would I Buy?

Again, this is not to say that the other infant seats are not well made.  They all should be, as they all went through rigorous testings.  But if I have to buy an infant infant seat tomorrow for my little baby, I can tell you my choices are pretty clear.  Two of them, in fact.  :-)