It was a no brainer for us to choose a car seat that did not contain chemical flame retardants. There are surprisingly few options on the market, but considering such options used to be non-existent, I was grateful to have a choice. The best options that I found were: UppaBaby, Nuna, and Clek. There may be more brands now that do, and I have heard that Britax and Maxi-Cosi do.
I also looked into car crash safety studies, given that is an equally important priority. The data changes regularly, and at the time, I incorporated ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into my decision-making. Baby Gear Lab is one informative resource on car seats, though it doesn’t have a focus on which ones have low chemical emissions.
- UPPABaby – We decided on the Mesa infant car seat for our newborn daughter. Note that the options for no flame retardants are with the Henry and Jordan fabrics only, as they are merino wool, so are naturally flame retardant. For the next stage, when your baby is ready to move to the convertible car seat, the Jordan Knox car seat with merino wool is the one to go with, if you’d like to avoid flame retardants.
- Nuna – The Pipa car sear for newborns seems like an equally good option to the Mesa and also uses wool in place of chemical flame retardants. They also use GOTS certified and organic cotton where applicable. They have many products which are Greenguard Gold certified. In retrospect, had I known I would not like the UppaBaby Cruz, I might have preferred to have gone with the Nuna Pipa, because of their focus on minimizing chemical emissions. It also would have fit with the stroller we ended up getting and loving, Bumbleride (see post on strollers). I did end up getting their convertible car seat, Rava, which we love so far.
- Clek – Clek’s flame retardant free car seats come in two merino wool fabric colors called Mammoth and Full Moon/Twilight, which are Oeko-Tex 100 certified and free of PFAs (their other car seats still contain flame retardants). This fabric can be selected for all of their car seat models, whether for infants or their convertible seats.
I understand that Maxi-Cosi and Britax are also taking steps to offer car seats using more natural materials, thought their options may be more limited. Worth keeping an eye on the progress they make.