We bought a Consumer Reports subscription specifically to get access to the car seat test results & rankings for our tiny NICU grad infant. No huge questions, just appreciation for everything you and your team(s) do there. In your time testing & reviewing results, what stands out as a massive surprise? More on reddit.com

(CPST) All seats on the market have passed federal crash and safety standards (in their respective jurisdictions). Anything additional to that is 3rd party testing. Consumer Reports (I’m unsure about BGL) can also be misleading. They will give a seat a bad rating if the seat breaks in their testing, however what’s important is not if damage is sustained to the seat in a crash, but whether or not the child is injured. Think of it like a bike helmet after a bike crash. It will likely look completely trashed - but was the head inside it protected? More on reddit.com

Installation and car fit are the most important things when picking a seat. If a seat is being sold in the US, then it's passed safety standards. I'd focus on picking the right seat for you vehicle(s) versus worried about what seat has the most bells and whistles. Car Seats For Littles is a great group. You can find a lot information there. Also you can't go wrong with one of the big brands, like Graco, which we have used for both our kids. More on reddit.com

I'm a Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST) in the United States and can speak on seats here. Unfortunately, there are no standardized safety ratings in the United States. It is up to each manufacturer to meet and test their seats to certain federal guidelines, and the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) enforces them (recalling seats that do not pass the guidelines). So while all seats must meet the same criteria and pass the same tests, we don't know if any seats exceed these marks. What we do know from the NHTSA sled test is that the crash simulated in the test is a pretty traumatic one, so any properly used and installed seat is a safe seat. That said, the NHTSA test does (IMO) need to be updated, and a few years ago Consumer Reports did try to make a more modernized sled test, which did yield some interesting results. I haven't personally used their results to steer me towards buying a particular seat, but if it made you feel more at ease to do so, then the only 3rd party test I have found to seem to have some merit is the Consumer Reports one. When watching sled tests, they can seem jarring and dangerous, even when the seat is used correctly. A trained eye can pinpoint actual concerns, while many sled test YouTube videos seem to create unnecessary concern. We do know from European tests that certain bells and whistles can help distribute crash forces differently (anti-rebound bars, fixed anchor connectors, load legs, etc), which might exceed NHTSA guidelines. European seats are made differently than American ones, so we don't know how much (if at all) those features can help for American consumers, but they can be something to keep in mind when buying. Ultimately the safest seat is one that is properly used, properly installed, and fits safely in your vehicle (not all seats fit in all vehicles!). I definitely recommend meeting with a CPST locally before having a baby to make sure that you understand how to use and install your seat. Over 90% of infants leave the hospital with one or more errors to car seat use, and I'm a huge proponent for drastically changing that statistic! More on reddit.com