Since you were all so helpful with my washer and dryer purchase (I love you guys).... My sister is pregnant and we have started looking for her big items that she will need. We are looking at the new Cosco Eddie Bauer Travel System from Sears. Its so new (they just got it in this week) that it doesn't have any ratings. Does anyone have any suggestions of which ones would be good and which ones to avoid? They have already bought the Cosco Eddie Bauer Playard. Any thoughts and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

By Boxzgrl on Saturday, March 11, 2006 - 08:34 pm:

I don't know about the Cosco brand but i'm still a fan of Graco. Especially the Snugride Infant carrier that you can choose with the travel system. I've seen great safety ratings with it.

Maybe Trina will jump in with any safety ratings for the Cosco.

By Trina~moderator on Saturday, March 11, 2006 - 09:04 pm:

Resident car seat nerd here. I highly recommend the new Graco SafeSeat infant car seat. It's currently the only infant carrier on the market that goes up to 30 lbs. and 36". Another good choice would be the Graco Snugride. The regular Snugride goes up to 20 lbs. and the Snugride 2 goes up to 22 lbs.. Whatever you get, be sure it has a 5 pt. harness and front harness adjuster. Personally, I'm not a big fan of Cosco car seats. They tend to have twisty straps, short harness slots and installation issues.

Travel systems are very nice and convenient but some people claim the stroller is too big and bulky. There are stroller frames available that infant car seats snap into and then a lightweight stroller can be purchased later. That's a personal preference issue.

Car seat recommendations and reviews by CPS Techs:
CarSeatData.org

CarSeatSite.com

Child Passenger Safety and Car Seat Resources

By Reds9298 on Saturday, March 11, 2006 - 11:07 pm:

Not a fan of Cosco either. LOVe Graco, love the Graco travel systems, love the Snugride mentioned before.

By Eve on Sunday, March 12, 2006 - 09:32 am:

Ok, here's a different take. I'm not a fan of the travel systems. We have the Graco Sungride (thanks to Trina) and I bought the snugride carrier stroller. It's fantastic! It's light and easy to open and close. It's perfect. Then, in a month or so, I am going to get a nicer umbrella stroller, since that is what I used a lot more than my travel system when DD was a baby. It was too heavy and too bulky. I had a Combi that I loved and then my $20 umbrella.

I love, love, love mine right now! Here's mine.

By Enchens on Monday, March 13, 2006 - 04:47 pm:

We bought a Cosco travel system and we bought an Eddie Bauer Alpha Omega convertible car seat before we had our first DS. We hate them both. The travel sytem didn't feel safe, the seat would jolt with any bump, it wouldn't ride well after about a month, the car seat portion was only a three point harness, the straps twist no matter what you do, and it wasn't easy to carry it about. The convertible also has straps that twist every time you want to strap your child in, it's very difficult to adjust the straps, the seat didn't hold my son's head well when he fell asleep, and you constantly had to dig around for the click part that the straps clicked into. We've since acquired a Graco stroller and a Britax convertible and are very happy with them. Hope this helps.

By Insaneusmcwife on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 01:05 pm:

Thank you everyone. Again you all are wonerful. We are going to go look at the snug ride. And with your reviews we will be staying clear of the Cosco ones.