Fortunately someone invented Bone Conductive headphones. Everyone recommends getting AfterShokz, but they are $80! My daughter has a small head. AfterShokz does make a mini version, which might fit her, but it’s BlueTooth, and I’d prefer a wire, so I don’t have to charge her headphones.

So I found this pair of Vidonn kid’s headphones on Amazon for $20. Worth a try, right? As it turns out, they still need plugged into an outlet to charge them for some reason, which is kind of obnoxious, that the can’t charge from the device. You don’t have to charge “normal” headphones, do you? I didn’t understand how these things work.

These Vidonn headphones are supper flexible / stretchy, probably so kid’s don’t break them. However, they don’t fit snuggly on her head and they don’t stay on very well. Bone Conduction headphones need to press firmly on the bone in order to conduct sound, so loose-fitting headphones is rather pointless.

I tried putting them over the top of her head. My husband also has conductive hearing loss, and he says these sound better when the ear-piece is on the bone behind his ear (the same place the Baha/Ponto sits), but our daughter seems to prefer trying to put the ear piece in her ear, but kind of in front of her ear.

She ends up using her hands to hold the ear pieces snuggly to her head, to be able to hear well.

I took a sweatband, cut a couple slits in it, put the headphones in the sweatband, and put that on her head. Using the sweatband to hold the headphone snug to her head.

I asked if she can hear well, but she’s lost in her own little world singing, “Let it go! Let it GOOOOO!” So I’ll take that as a “yes”

Overall, I’m not super impressed, but these were $20 (instead of the $80 name-brand ones), so you get what you pay for. I wouldn’t send her to preschool with these headphones and expect her teacher to figure them out. But we only use headphones on the rare occasion that I need her to sit quietly through a meeting or my chiropractor appointment.

As far as sound quality, my preschooler doesn’t have strong opinions about these things, so I asked my husband to try these headphones and tell me what he thought. His response is: “the sound quality is not based on the device itself, as much as on your ability to put it on the correct spot on the head. Once I put it on the bone behind my ears and held it tight to my head, it sounded great.” So these are great… if you can figure out a way to keep them held tight to the head.

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…unless you plan to get one for each child for in both vehicles…

Our carseat saga goes like this:

I started with a Baby Trend infant carseat. The buttons were so frustrating to use. It claimed to fit babies up to 30 inches tall. But Monkey was way too tall for it at only 28 inches. She was only 8 months old, but I ready to be done trying to buckle and unbuckle that carseat anyway, but it did go nicely with our stroller…

I tried a Graco convertible carseat. The padding forced Monkey to tuck her chin into her chest, which looked uncomfortable, not to mention unsafe. It did not fit rear-facing in our Subaru anyway, so I returned it.

I ordered the Chicco Nextfit, even though it’s super expensive. You get what you pay for, and this one is worth every penny! With 9 options of angle adjusters, it fit rear-facing in our car, with Monkey reclined safe and comfortable. Thanks to the quick cinch latch system, I could instal it in the car, by myself in about 5 minutes, and doesn’t budge.

After that, there was no turning back.

When PipSqueak was born, I got a Chicco infant carseat for her. The buttons and buckles were so easy to use. And she fit in it until she reached 30 inches tall, at 16 months old.

My 6ft tall husband did not fit in the car with 2 rear-facing carseats. So when PipSqueak was born, we turned Monkey around forward facing in her Chicco Nextfit. But it is such a big carseat, that her legs stuck straight out in front of her. In order to get her knees to line up with the front edge of her seat, Monkey would slide down in her seat and then complain her back hurt.

Time for a new carseat for Monkey.

A friend asked me to give her child rides to preschool, which made the decision for me. PipSqueak graduated to the massive Chicco Nextfit rear-facing. The only way to fit 3 carseats in my subaru, was to get the Diono carseat. It’s the slimmest carseat on the market. Not to mention super safe with a steel frame. I bought a brand new one for Monkey. I also found an almost-expired Diono for super cheap. It is a great carseat, but it takes about an hour to wrestle it into the car. So buckle it in and leave it there forever.

Recently, my husband bought a truck.

At the same time, Chicco came out with the Myfit carseat. So of course, we bought one! For the truck, Monkey had the Myfit and Pipsqueak was rear-facing in our 2nd Diono, which was reclined way too far.

So I bought an almost expired Britax. Similar to the Chicco Nextfit, except the Britax buttons are harder to use and it doesn’t have the quick cinch latch system, so I’m spending an hour wrestling it into the car. Grrrr!

I was planning on leaving PipSqueak rear-facing forever, because of potential airway issues if her head flops forward when she sleeps. But thanks to the angle adjusters on the Myfit, when Monkey falls asleep, her head does not flop forward. So I think PipSqueak will be just fine in the Myfit.

Since we all prefer Myfit over Diono, I happily gave Target our now-expired Diono in exchange for a 20% off coupon for a new carseat. I also applied for a Target credit card, which gave me an additional $30 off.  So I saved $70 on our new Chicco Myfit carseat.

Life is great. Everyone is happy.

Now Monkey has a Myfit in each vehicle. PipSqueak has rear-facing Nextfit and Britax. And we have a spare Diono. In case I need to give a kid a ride, I can spend an hour wresting that into the car. But it would be so much easier just to move a Myfit from one car to other.

Then Duane’s truck died.

In order for him to fit in the Subaru, I had to move PipSqueak from behind the drivers seat over to the passenger side of the car. Which means her good ear is now facing the window. Lately she stopped wearing her hearing aid in the car, so there is a lot of, “Mama! Mama! MAMA!’ And “What? What? WHAT???” Even if I turn around to look at her, I can’t see her face in her mirror, because she likes to kick it so she can see herself.

One time, I let her sit in Big Sister’s Myfit carseat. Fortunately, it’s super easy to adjust the strap height down to her level. She loved it! And our communication was so much better! Not to mention there’s 2 cup holders, so she has someplace to put her water bottle and her applesauce squeezy, instead of insisting on handing it back to me. Which is what most of the yelling is about anyway. “Here! Take my cup!” Her holding it up over her head, and me trying to reach behind me to find it, when neither of us can see what we are doing. 

I played with every option of which kid sits in which carseat.

Both children express a strong preference for the Myfit. Meaning, they both refuse to sit in any other carseat. PipSqueak has a hard time climbing up and into the large convertible carseats. Monkey complains the shoulder straps are too close together. Fortunately, at the moment, we have 4 carseats, but only 1 car, so I put both of the Myfits in the Subaru. Now PipSqueak officially graduated to forward facing, and both kids are happy in their matching carseats.

But what will I do when we get our truck back? Well, I just sold our spare Diono, and used that money to buy a 3rd Myfit. Thanks to Black Friday sales, I upgraded carseats and made $10 in the process.

I am hoping that in the truck, PipSqueak will stay in the Chicco Nextfit, because it reclines so nicely. Or the Britax, even though it’s a pain to buckle in. Otherwise I will be getting a 4th Chicco Myfit here soon. 

*No one paid me to write this blog.

But if Chicco wants to send me a free Myfit carseat, we would love the MyFit LE Scarlet, because we don’t have that color yet…

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The post Warning! Do Not Buy This Carseat! appeared first on The Baha Mama.