19 guides on this site
Marisa Okonkwo
Editor, gear and the arithmetic of a small home
Marisa Okonkwo edits Little Nest and writes the hardware half of it: strollers, car seats, carriers and the furniture around them. She reads the specification sheet, the fit list and the returns policy in full before she reads a single review, because the difference between two apparently identical strollers is almost always a number one of them declines to publish.
Her working rule is that a measurement beats an adjective. A stroller listed as "compact" tells you nothing; a stroller listed at 23.5 inches across the axle tells you whether it clears the 24-inch doorway in a rented flat, and a car seat listed at 17 inches wide tells you whether three of them will sit across a bench that is 52 inches wide. Where a manufacturer will not publish a figure, she says so in the guide rather than filling the gap with a guess. She is not a child passenger safety technician and does not write as one: for the part of a car seat install that depends on your specific vehicle, the guides point at the free NHTSA inspection-station finder, because that is the correct answer and no article is a substitute for it. She accepts no product samples, and no brand sees a guide before it publishes.
Guides here are built from manufacturer specification sheets, the safety standard each product is certified to, the CPSC recall record, published guidance from the AAP and NHTSA, and owner reports at volume. Nothing on this site is medical advice, and no guide replaces a car seat check or a conversation with your pediatrician.
