No doubt you’ve already received lots of unsolicited baby car seat advice from well-intentioned family and friends, but as new parents, your vote is the only one that counts! The more info you have, the easier it will be to decide whether to take your prince or princess home from the hospital in an infant car seat or a rear-facing convertible car seat.

Simply put, a convertible car seat is a multi-tasker that can grow with your child. Designed to accommodate each stage of early childhood development, the best convertible car seats have two different belt routing paths, one for your rear-facing infant, and another forward-facing setting so your curious toddler can be part of the conversation. Maxi-Cosi convertible car seats can be used for newborns, as a toddler car seat, and for older kids up to 120 pounds, who meet the size criteria for a booster seat. Maxi-Cosi’s models are even more flexible and can be your child’s special mode of travel from birth to age 10. Keep in mind, unlike infant car seats, convertible car seats do not disengage from their bases to become carriers.

The safest convertible car seats have special infant inserts to properly support and protect even the tiniest newborn. Maxi-Cosi convertible seat inserts are specifically engineered for your new arrival’s safety and comfort and can be easily removed when the time is right.

An infant car seat will become obsolete once your baby’s size reaches the limits of the seat’s capacity. A convertible seat, on the other hand, can be a one-time purchase that will be a pivotal part of your child’s world until they are big enough for a seat belt—as hard as that is to imagine!