Introducing the Grow & Go, Safety 1st’s new 3-in-1 fresh to the market. The Grow & Go can accommodate children rear-facing, forward-facing, and as a booster. We’ve tried it here in all modes and given it our usual thorough treatment!
Safety 1st’s manual, and matching colour coded labeling on the seat, is an excellent first glimpse at what the seat can do. Very clear, very easy to follow along, and a super way to get an overview of the seat and understand how it might work for your family.
Seat Specs:
- Rear facing: 5-40lbs AND between 19-40″ tall AND at least 1″ of head rest above the head
- Forward facing: 22-65lbs AND between 29-49″ AND harness coming from at or above the shoulders AND at least two years old
- Booster: 40-100lbs AND 43-52″ AND at least four years old
- Lowest harness height on infant harness routing (with required body padding): approximately 5.25″
- Lowest harness height on no-rethread harness routing (with optional body padding): approximately 9.5″
- Highest harness height (without optional body padding): approximately 17″
- Maximum seated height while rear-facing: approximately 26″ (chances are the 40″ standing height limit will be reached first however)
- Three crotch buckle positions: approximately 4.75″, 6″, 7.25″
- Highest booster belt guide position: approximately 18.5″
- Ten year expiry period
- Available at Babies R Us for $279.99
Seat features:
- Premium push on UAS connectors
- No-rethread “Quick-Fit” harness (except for when the infant routing is used – babies grow fast, don’t worry!)
- Dual cup holders
- Sleek styling with a grey herringbone fabric
- Lots of leg room rear facing
- Easy to convert between modes of use
- More – see photos below!
Really handy harness holders so you don’t have to dig the buckles out from under your child. Two ways to use them: hook the harness over top (we found this easiest) or pop the buckle tongue into the slot made especially for it.
Colour coded, easy to read labeling on the side of the seat. Blue for rear-facing, red for forward-facing and booster (there is some overlap in instructions with these two modes hence the doubling up of colour). One handed, super-smooth recline adjustment for rear- and forward-facing, and large visible indicator of position.
Easily removable soft goods and seat cover (not an iPod plug-in as I thought when I first glanced at it). The fabric is nice and feels like it would not pill or snag. The padding provides ample body and head support. Most is optional so customize fit to your liking. Harness pads are a new design and are longer on the underside and shorter on the outside. They were easy to position, and removed quickly with velcro.
Rear Facing:
Great news – this seat will fit from birth, and quite easily. The harness tightens fully, the harness is slightly below the doll’s shoulders, and the fit is good. Setting the seat up for newborn use requires re-routing of the harness to both shorten and lower it. Safety 1st has found an ingenious way to make the seat actually fit a newborn through a school-age child. Pay careful attention to the steps in the manual to set the seat up for newborn use (and the reverse when ready to move to the no-rethread “Quick-Fit” harness system). It’s not difficult nor time consuming, but does require manual reading and following the steps as indicated.
Modeling the seat we have a newborn doll, a ten month old, a 25 month old, and just turned 3 year old (the 3 year old in the green sweater is 38″ tall for reference).
Kids liked the dual cup holders, ample leg room, and squishy padding. Parents liked the harness covers, attractive fabric, nicely positioned headwings that provide head support but don’t block the view, and low profile of the seat shell itself that enabled easier loading. One parent noticed that the harness release button is discreetly tucked away to make it just a little bit harder for those Houdini kids to wriggle out.
Forward Facing:
The features that appealed rear-facing also appeal forward! Dual cup holders, easy to adjust no-rethread harness, and squishy comfortable fabric. The crotch buckle pad is optional, as is the body padding and extra head pad. All are easily removable. This seat can not be used forward facing until age two, and should fit most kids in harness mode through at least age five. Shown here is aged 2.5-5, approximately 30lbs through 42lbs, all of whom declared it comfy. Of course all kids come in different sizes and proportions so shorter torsoed kids will fit in harness mode for longer (blond girl in summer attire has always been long in the torso for example).
Booster Mode:
The Grow & Go may be used as a booster once a child reaches the minimums for this mode but we’d recommend you keep kids harnessed as long as they fit, and then ensure they’re mature enough for a booster. If that describes your child, then carry on! Belt fit is quite good on the kids we tried it in but there isn’t much time for booster use (by torso height) beyond when it’s outgrown in harness mode.
At 5.5, 46lbs, and 45″ tall (pink sweater) and 7.75, 55lbs, and 50″ (blue tartan) these two both fit in booster mode. The older child is just squeaking in (her shoulder is grazing the head wing). Lap belt fit on both is excellent. Use of the upper shoulder belt guide is optional if needed to properly position the shoulder belt centered on the shoulder, and on the buckle side both lap and shoulder belt should tuck under the harness storage tab as shown above. The booster weight limit of 100lbs is hugely overstated in our opinion – as you can see height is much more of a limiting factor than weight.
UAS and tether are not to be used while the seat is in booster mode – follow storage instructions, and teach your child to rebuckle the empty booster when it’s not occupied so it doesn’t become a projectile in a crash. It is a very simple process, however, to switch between harness and booster mode. No unthreading of the harness necessary – tuck it behind the red plate as shown in the photo. Then a quick removal of the crotch buckle, tuck the tail of the harness adjuster under the seat pad, and remove all padding and accessories. Our tip: stow it all together in a labeled Ziploc bag so you don’t forget what seat it belongs to.
Fit to Vehicle:
The Grow & Go installed quite nicely in our test vehicles. Two important aspects to note for rear-facing however: the red bracket shown below, and the rear facing level line. Both of these elements are shown in the following installation pictures but they are important enough to highlight here so they aren’t missed later on.
Our representative small sedan is a 2012 Honda Civic. A centre installation allows a decent amount of leg room up front – enough for an average driver – but those requiring the seat all the way back are going to want to use an outboard position (more on that shortly). Installing centre means a seat belt must be used (most vehicles do not allow the use of UAS in the centre, check your vehicle manual to know if yours does).
The single recline line rear-facing means that this is how it will fit for the entire time spent rear facing. Make sure this setup suits your family; there will be ample room in medium-large vehicle interiors. If your vehicle seat is too sloped to achieve the needed recline a small tightly rolled towel or chunk of foam pool noodle cut to length can be placed at the seat bight to further recline the Grow & Go. The base of this seat is nice and slim, and at 9″ wide should fit easily between the plastic hinges present in many vehicle interiors.
Note the proper belt routing here relative to the red brackets. Slide only the lap portion through – it’s easily accessible and the webbing slides freely to tighten, but must be routed through the red guides for proper installation.
For comparison here is an outboard installation with UAS. Driver’s seat is all the way back, with dazzling pink running tights showing off the resulting front passenger room for a leggy 5’8″ person when the seat is properly installed behind it. It is important to note that the UAS strap (when used) also routes through the red guides on both sides.
Forward facing installation is very straightforward – quick and easy whether you are using UAS or seat belt. The adjustable head rest sits slightly forward of the seat shell and will limit interference with forward-leaning head restraints in vehicles. Always check your vehicle owner’s manual for proper tether routing (under, over, or around a vehicle head restraint). The belt path is high enough that installation should be simple in most vehicles.
Overall Impressions:
For families wanting to buy one seat for use from birth through to the high back booster stage this is a very attractive option. Those of you with medium-large vehicle interiors should have no trouble attaining the required recline rear-facing through that use of the seat. High five to Safety 1st for blazing the trail to require a minimum age of two to use the seat forward-facing. This seat should reasonably last for most kids through age 6 if not longer, depending on proportions. If you have one of those immensely long torsoed children — something you won’t obviously know if you are shopping while still pregnant! — you can always cross that bridge when you come to it. At a minimum you will need a backless booster to last your child through age 10-12 when their boostering days are over and they pass the Five Step Test for seat belt fit.
The finishing is nice, the features are easy to use and clearly labeled, and kids and parents alike find it comfortable and user-friendly. It has to be rather difficult to design a seat that truly will fit a newborn AND a 6 year old well – but Safety 1st has done it.
To celebrate this accomplishment our generous friends at Safety 1st are giving away one Grow & Go to you, lucky readers! To enter please use the Rafflecopter widget below. Thank you to Safety 1st for providing the seats used in this review, but all opinions are our own.
Contest now closed, congrats to the lucky winner!