wayb pico carseat

With a Pico Travel Car Seat from WAYB, you can bring along a car seat rated for kids up to 50 pounds that folds down small enough to fit in any overhead bin, and even under some airplane seats.

One of the things you learn pretty quickly once you have kids is that dealing with car seats is a serious pain in the neck. And in the fingers when you crush them trying to secure a seat into a recessed LATCH anchor. And in the shoulders and lower back when you’re carrying around a 25-pound car seat during travel. And in the wallet, too.

Now frankly, a Pico Travel Car Seat from WAYB doesn’t exactly take it easy on your wallet parts, but all the rest of you will come to love this little car seat. And I mean little in the best possible way. Because while this seat is rated to accommodate kids weighing anywhere from 22 to 50 pounds (and who are between 30 and 45 inches – those metrics allow for most kids between two and seven years old to use this seat, by the way), it weighs just eight pounds and it folds down small enough to fit just about anywhere, from an overhead bin to under a seat to the corner of that cramped hall closet in your apartment. It also fits into a backpack that comes included and that makes it easy to transport this seat when it’s not in use.

When the Pico is in use, you’ll find connecting it to a car via the LATCH system (that’s for Lower Anchor and Tethers for Children, FYI) as easy as you experience with any car seat, and even simpler than with many. It uses a five-point harness to keep your kid secure just like you’d expect from any good car seat. And it has an adjustable head rest that can be raised or lowered to ensure the child’s comfort and safety. Speaking of comfort, the fabric is made from a soft and breathable wool and polyester blend, while there’s enough padding to keep a kid cozy even during a long drive (or flight – this thing is NHSTA and FAA approved).

While the Pico’s full name – which adds “Travel Car Seat” in there – seems to imply you should only use it during travel, that’s hardly the case. In fact, you can use it as an everyday car seat, you’ll just be thrilled to have the compact folding piece of hardware when you do travel. Just like we were when we, in the course of a week or so, popped a Pico into an Uber that took us to the airport in NYC, flew to France, strapped it into the van we’d drive around for the next seven days, flew home, and then popped it into another car for the final ride back to home base. The car seat was perhaps the least stressful part of the entire travel experience, and it didn’t slow me down a bit as I lugged multiple suitcases (and much larger car seat as needed by our then still rear-facing daughter) through JFK and Charles de Gaulle airports.

If you’re looking for a reliable, compact travel car seat you can use from the later toddler years into the grade school years, you’re looking in the right place with this one. And if you choose to eschew the travel of it all and strap the kid into this seat every day, you’re doing it right there, too.