Customer Reviews

Graco Snugride Infant Car Seat, Lively Dots

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

After going to several stores and testing out different car seats. I wasn't happy with the selections. I wanted a smaller seat, those 30/35lb limit ones were just too large for me to carry around (especially once a baby was in it). So I decided to go with this one hoping it was decent. It is perfect. The colors are neutral (we dont know the gender of the baby) and very comfy. I am completely happy with my purchase. And yes you need to adjust straps in the back, but I don't feel that is a big deal at all. This is my 3rd child and our previous Graco did the same thing. I would adjust the straps before I placed them in the seat. You don't need to hang the seat upside down to do tighten it. Glad I took the risk and ordered it without seeing it firsthand. No regrets!

I can not attest for its claims to safety, but I really dislike this car seat for a number of reasons. It seems poorly designed. Compared to other car seats it seems very bare bones. It is however cute and light weight.

My chief complaints are:

- The handle is extremely difficult to move. It is squeeky which wakes a sleeping baby and difficult to adjust.

- The shade is flimsy and does not shade well. Others can adjust and this one stops half way.

- It is not soft. My baby is usually quite uncomfortable. The head rest is quite flimsy, but that was easily alleviated by purchasing a new one.

- Others have pads that you can take out in case of a blow out/spit up incident. This one does not.

- The straps only adjust from the back, which is a pain. A friend of mine has a chico one where they easily adjust from the front.

I would not purchase this again and I would steer others away from it as well.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!UPDATE!!!!!!

When I contacted Graco regarding this product, they wrote back :" This product is not certified for use outside of the U.S. We recommend no longer using it". Then why is Amazon shipping to APOs AND AAFES on base/post is selling it as well????

This has got to be the worst car seat available on the market, yet to my dismay it gets good ratings. Either people do not bother to write reviews or do not bother to look out there for different ones... I purchased it from Amazon because I live overseas and it was not available in stores. Boy, did I make a mistake!

The car seat looks cheap! The plastic is terrible, it's extremely bulky, and the buttons on the side to move the handle SQUEAK! Yes, they SQUEAK and LOCK! So each time my son was asleep, I could not press them to move the handle or he would wake up.On top of it all, it has no padding! How can you have a car seat without padding???? The way it fits in the car while on the base makes my newborn stay all hunched up like he is ready to fall out of it!! Since I live in Europe and everybody uses a Maxi-Cosi or something similar, I am so angry at myself for going with the Graco!

Needless to say, I had to spend more money to buy a decent car seat.

DO NOT BUY IT!

Bought the lively dots carseat for my 2nd child thinking it would be nice to have a newer car seat. This graco seat is so horrible I should have just used my old one bought in 2007. This car seat has hard squeaky handles, hard adjustable straps, hard to level in the car, and too hard for my baby to be comfortable to sleep in. Run away from this car seat! I wish I read the reviews first before buying this. Shame on you Graco for making a horrible product!

When I was first looking for baby items, I didn't know what to look for. I loved the 'lively dots' pattern of this seat (and still do) so I registered for it. All-in-all, it's done it's job well enough. Here's the breakdown...

Loves

* The pattern

* Easily washable

* The bottom of the seat rocks (I'd rock sleeping baby with my feet while eating lunch with a girl friend)

* This chair (and matching stroller) are really lightweight so it makes adjusting to your new life a lil easier

Mehs

* The harness straps don't have a convenient pull system (the next chair I buy definitely will have that)

* The harness straps seemed to loosen randomly and I had to retighten them from the back

* My baby is only 7 months old and already we are close to the weight restriction

So this chair was ok for 7 months but my next chair will definitely have the convenient harness strap pull that's between the baby's legs on other seats. Adjusting the straps from the back is so frustrating and not easy to do when the baby is already in the chair... which is kinda when you need to do it.

However, the lightweight build made my life much easier so it was probably worth it.

Like most parents, I researched and read reviews about many car seats before purchasing one for my precious baby (our first and therefore, I had time to spare!). Though newer infant seats have a much higher weight limit than this one (22lbs), I ultimately decided to go with this one because I knew that since I would be babywearing a lot, using the infant carrier for longer was not an advantage to me and this one was equally safe for smaller infants. Also, as inexperienced as I was with car seats (totally), I didn't know what I wanted beyond safety and cuteness and I didn't understand the difference between this one and it's much, MUCH more expensive competitors. So the first advantage obviously was that this one, unlike newer ones that go up to 35 lbs, was a lot less expensive. It had a lot of other advantages too: easy to install, gender neutral pattern, could put baby in it inside and snap him in easily right as we were leaving/could get him out quickly and un-do straps inside on cold/wet days, and I knew I could use it in restaurant high chair thingies (unlike a convertible seat). That's about where it ends. Despite following all the directions (carefully), I could never get this seat where it really felt tight and secure. The item description mentions a level, which I have seen on many car seats--but not this one. There was a lot of guess and check going on to get that part right. I even added my own rear strap tether that many other car seats have to give it a third point of contact with the car. Like other reviewers have mentioned, the headrest is flimsy, but I easily adjusted that by inserting a Kiddopotamus snuzzler. $12 fix--yay. But the shortcomings continued. Yes, the arm/handle SQUEAKS so loudly, I'm sure the neighbors can hear it. Good thing I didn't plan to carry my sleeping baby around in it because he NEVER slept through that sound. Now that we have transitioned to a bigger car seat (Britax Roundabout 55), I feel like I was a bad parent for leaving my tiny baby in such a flimsy piece! (The Britax feel sturdy, plush, and secure.) The Graco does not allow you to easily adjust the straps for each car ride and I think that probably leaves a lot of parents leaving them looser than they should be because it's way too much of a pain to fiddle with the back of the thing before and after each car trip. Bottom line is that this car seat is acceptable. It's not a death trap or anything, but it feels like the minimum. If you want plush comfort for baby and a more grippy/secure seat, this is not the one for you. I will be giving ours away and will probably buy the Chicco KeyFit for our second child. However, by all accounts it is very safe and it will do the job until baby graduates to a bigger seat, especially if you can't shell out $175-$250 for the fancier models.

I got this carseat because it was light and the color scheme was neutral. I didn't realize some of the negative things about this product until I attempted to use it with my baby.

-There is no adjusting strap in the front to tighten and loosen the straps. It is terribly annoying to adjust the straps in the back everytime.

-The fabric is very rough.

-The handle is extremely squeeky. It woke my daughter up countless times.

-The shade was terrible, I ended up just taking it off because it never seemed to actually block the sun and was just getting in the way.

We are expecting baby 2 and I will absolutely be purchasing a different infant carseat! Graco has good ones that are Snugride carseats, but this is not one of them. I moved my daughter into a convertable carseat at 6 months thanks to this terrible seat and we were both much happier.

Overall a great car seat. The cover washes up well. The base makes it easy. Using the snugrider frame with the car seat is a great plus. Only downside to the car seat is the lower height/weight limits. If you know you are going to have a bigger/taller baby, I would suggest taking a look at the Snugride 32 or 35.

I purchased this carseat and the stroller frame on sale at Target. My husband and I both love its convenience since you can bring the carseat inside the house without waking the baby. My only complaint is the ineffective head support piece. It is very flimsy and I noticed my baby's head was flopping around even though his straps were secure. I eventually removed it and used a Snuzzler instead and since then my baby's head stayed put.

It seems to be so comfortable that my baby prefers this to her cradle bed. And it is very secure and very easy to handle in and out of the car.