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DEALS TRACKER: We find the best deals for April 2020 on car seats, strollers & baby gear. Bookmark this deals page and check back frequently for the latest bargains and promo code offers, so you find them here first before they sell out!

We’re the baby gear deal experts, so we know where the best deals are on the stuff consumers actually want to buy. We scour Amazon and other retailers to find the best bargains. We don’t just rely on automated tools and other deals pages, so we find the best deals for you, our valued readers, first. This is the resource other deal pages use to find deals so please feel free to share* our links!

Have you considered an Amazon baby registry? What do you get when you register? A free gift box valued at $35, a 90-day return policy for most items purchased from your registry, group gifting so multiple people can contribute to gifts, and more. Check it out!

What you need to know about Amazon pricing: it’s FICKLE. When a product’s price is reduced we rarely know how long it will remain at that price. Sometimes it’s a few days, sometimes it’s a few hours. The best advice we can offer you is to ACT QUICKLY if you see a great deal on something you really need or just seriously want. Just adding something to your cart does not guarantee you that item at that price – you must complete the checkout process to seal the deal. Most items on our list offer FREE SHIPPING & FREE RETURNS to Prime members but always double-check this before you put the item in your cart and checkout. Not a Prime member*? There’s a 30-day FREE trial. It’s a no-brainer! Try it out and score some great deals. You can always cancel before the 30 days is up if you’re not sold on the many benefits of an Amazon Prime membership.

Coronavirus update: Due to COVID-19, Amazon is shipping only essential items. Essential means feeding items like breast pumps, breast milk bags, and baby monitors. Carseats and strollers may have delayed shipping. If you need a carseat before then, we appreciate your support by using our links in the paragraph directly below.

Looking for more info on a certain carseat or booster? Check out our REVIEWS page. We have in-depth reviews of over 100 carseats and boosters. Prefer to shop at other stores? If you received great advice from us or discovered a good deal here and share it with friends, please mention us and share* our links to Amazon, Albee Baby, Target.com, Walmart.com, Kohl’s, and BuyBuyBaby. Thank you!

This post and others at CarseatBlog contain affiliate links. Please read About CarseatBlog for our affiliate policy and see our Marketing Disclosure.

Select Editors’ Picks:

These carseats are among our Editor’s Picks and are reader favorites, too!

• Chicco Keyfit 30 Infant Seat $199.99
• Chicco NextFit Zip Convertible $249.99
• Graco 4Ever DLX All-in-One $269.99
• Graco Extend2Fit from $137.99
• Britax Marathon ClickTight $279.99
• Graco Nautilus SnugLock LX $199.99
• Nuna Pipa Infant Seat $299.99

Infant (Rear-Facing Only) Car Seat Deals:

☆ Indicates a CarseatBlog Recommended Carseat 

Britax B-Safe 35 in all fashions for $199.99 ☆

Chicco KeyFit 30 in all fashions for $199.99 ☆

Chicco KeyFit 30 Magic (with cold-weather boot) in “Coal” or “Isle” for $179.99 ☆ 14% Off  No Free Returns

Evenflo LiteMax DLX (with Load Leg) in “Mallard” or “Meteorite” for $169.99

Evenflo LiteMax DLX (with Load Leg) in “Meteorite” for $152.49 10% Off 

Graco SnugRide SnugLock 30 in “Balancing Act” or “Tasha” for $127.71 ☆

Graco SnugRide SnugLock 35 DLX in “Binx” for $169.99 ☆

Graco SnugRide SnugLock 35 Platinum XT in “Bryant” for $199.99 ☆ 20% Off

Graco SnugRide SnugLock *Extra Base* for $31.99 

Graco SnugRide SnugLock DLX *Extra Base* for $59.35

UnbuckleMe – Easy Buckle Release Tool for Parents & Grandparents $14.99

Convertible & All-in-One Deals:

Britax One4Life All-in-One Carseat Preview

Britax has expanded its car seat line with the introduction of the One4Life all-in-one car seat. The One4Life will serve kids from 5 to 120 pounds as a true “3-in-1” car seat with rear-facing, forward-facing, and high-back booster modes. Here are the key features based on this prototype from today’s reveal session (all information subject to change before retail production):

• Rear-facing: 5-50 lbs.
• Forward-facing: 22-65 lbs.
• Booster: 40-120 lbs.
• ~19″ measured top seated harness height measurement
• ~21″ for maximum booster shoulder belt guide height
• 7″ bottom harness measurement (without included newborn/preemie insert)
• 19.5″ wide (at cupholders)
• Improved easy-access ClickTight for rear- and forward-facing installation
• Anti-rebound bar for rear-facing that easily removes and converts to a footrest for forward-facing (included with some models, available for others)
• Push-button, multi-position recline
• No-rethread harness
• Steel-reinforced frame
• V-shaped easy-store top tether with tilt-lock release
• Safe Cell Technology integrated into recline system for enhanced safety both forward and rear-facing
• Two removable, dishwasher-safe cupholders
• Tailored covers and performance fabric options
• Integrated harness storage for booster mode
• Secure Guard-ready high-back booster mode

The availability of ClickTight on this seat should allow for very easy, secure rear- and forward-facing installations, as it does for Britax’s existing ClickTight seats. The push-button recline is a welcome feature that should make finding the correct recline angle a breeze.

The 50-lb. rear-facing weight limit and tall shell mean extended rear-facing shouldn’t be an issue. The 19″ top harness measurement will also allow almost all kids to remain harnessed to appropriate booster age.

Britax is still finalizing the One4Life but expects it will be available in the September-October timeframe (estimated) and will retail for around $350-$400. We look forward to bringing you a review as soon as we can, and we’ll update with more information as it becomes available.

Gallery:

Britax One4Life All-in-One Booster Mode

Britax One4Life All-in-One Internal Harness Storage for Booster Mode

Britax One4Life All-in-One Buckle Storage

Britax One4Life All-in-One Internal

Britax One4Life prototype max harness height measurement

Britax One4Life prototype max harness height (~19″)

Britax One4Life All-in-One

Britax One4Life Shell – Clicktight panel

Britax One4Life All-in-One Anti-Rebound Bar

Britax One4Life All-in-One Forward-Facing Footrest

Britax CPS Advocate Sarah Tilton is excited!

Here is our Facebook Live video describing the features here:

Has the time come to reverse our stance on extended rear-facing and turn children forward-facing at age 1 like we used to in the olden days?

The simple answer, for the moment is, no.

UPDATED JULY, 2018

What’s going on?

Dorel Juvenile Group, the parent company of Safety 1^st, Maxi-Cosi, Cosco and other juvenile brands recently issued an updated position statement on their website explaining why they reversed their position on a 2-year age minimum mandate for forward-facing in their convertible carseats. The short story is that they hired a statistician, Jeya Padmanaban, to replicate the original 2007 Henary study upon which all our assumptions of rear-facing (RF) safety statistics in the USA are based. Not only was Padmanaban unable to replicate the results using the same data set as the original authors of the study, her conclusions actually led to opposite findings. She presented her findings to NHTSA and to the journal Injury Prevention. This prompted some of the original authors of the 2007 study to re-examine their analyses. When their attempts to replicate the analysis also fell short, it became apparent that there were real flaws in the study. In August 2017, the journal Injury Prevention issued an “Expression of Concern” regarding the original study. From the statement: “Specifically, they believe that survey weights were improperly handled in the initial analysis, which caused the apparent sample size to be larger than the actual sample size. This resulted in inflated statistical significance.” UPDATE — In February 2018, Injury Prevention published an official retraction of the original study. “Because of serious concerns regarding the magnitude, significance and replicability of the findings reported in this paper, the journal made the decision to retract it.”

What do we know at this point?

The anatomy of the developing pediatric cervical spine predisposes children to injury of the upper cervical spine. In general, the younger the child, the more likely an upper cervical spine injury will occur. The neural arches in the pediatric cervical spine fuse posteriorly by 2–3 years of age. Until that time, the vertebrae are made of cartilage and bone and held in place by ligaments; it’s all very pliable and elastic. Traveling in the rear-facing position is inherently safe and is critical for babies less than 1-year-old. (Please also read Why Rear-Facing Is Better: Your RF Link Guide, an evidence-based justification for rear-facing.)

Even though the statistics from the original 2007 study have been proven to be inaccurate, there is a consensus that rear-facing carseats cradle the head, neck, and spine to protect them in frontal and side-impact crashes. We know it’s safe from basic physics, an understanding of crash dynamics and from results from other countries, notably Sweden.

What’s changed?

Since 2007 when the Henary, Sherwood, Crandall, et. al. study was first published, child passenger safety advocates have been told that rear-facing is 500% (or 5 times) safer than forward-facing for children under age 2. Now we know that statistic isn’t true, at least not based on the data used in this one study which analyzed injuries to fewer than 300 kids between 1988-2003. Having such a small sample size makes drawing broad conclusions very difficult. Large sample sizes generally result in more accurate and reliable conclusions. We have always had our own concerns about the original study and how the “5x safer” figure is presented to parents. Now we know that we were right to be concerned. Unfortunately, we still don’t know exactly how rear-facing compares quantitatively to forward-facing in most situations.

There are other methods, but it can also be difficult to draw broad conclusions from specific case studies or proprietary crash testing done by manufacturers. All of this underscores the need for a more modern crash test sled and better studies on the subject. Modern vehicles simply don’t have a back seat that’s a flat bench seat of a ’70s Chevy Impala with lap-only seat belts and no floor like the standard crash test bench does. Modern vehicles have very different back seat cushions, front seats that crowd the back seat, lap/shoulder seatbelts, and they all have floors too!

What are the risks to a rear-facing child?