mifold Booster Seat Review: Original vs. Comfort

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by mifold but all thoughts and opinions are my own. I am not a certified car seat expert, pediatrician, or any sort of professional - I'm just a mom, making the best choices I can for my own family and sharing things I love with others! Please do your own research and use your best judgement about the best car seat or booster for your own children :)

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You can usually find an Uber with a single carseat, but for families with more children, sorry, you're out of luck. But... you're not out of luck if you have mifold booster seats!! They're so compact, you can throw a few in your suitcase during a flight, stow some in your backpack while traveling, keep them in your stroller's undercarriage, have your child keep one in their backpack so they're ready to be picked up by your sitter or grandparent after school, and keep a spare in your trunk for when you have carpool duty!

​Watch my video below for a full demo, notes about the differences between their Original and Comfort designs, and some safety notes. Then read on for more details, and enter to WIN one in my $1,000 value jackpot Spring into Summer Giveaway (ending April 7, 2021) at the bottom of this post!! 

10 times smaller than traditional booster seats, mifold is our family's LITTLE secret to traveling with kids, and I'm sure they will also come in handy next year when our kids are back to school and carpooling to activities! Below you can see the original mifold (in yellow) and the new mifold comfort design (in purple). Let me go over a few key features and what sets them apart!

• ORIGINAL: has grippies on the seat, and the shoulder belt path snaps open and shut over the seat belt. Because it folds tighter, it stores a bit more compactly when stacking several of them together.
• COMFORT: newer design with a few upgrades - thicker padding for child i.e. more comfy, but doesn't fold quite as compact. Doesn't have grippies on the seat but has a few on the underneath to help it grip the seat of the car better. Also has a VERY HELPFUL visual guide on the shoulder strap for how to properly install it, which is great if you're not using it often and need a reminder, or if sending it with child to school where someone else may need to install it. The shoulder belt path does not open and shut, you simply slide the belt in there, just like you do with the lap belt guides.
• BOTH: are extremely compact and lightweight, have the same requirements for age (min 4 years old), height (40 - 59") and weight (40 - 100 pounds), and have adjustable width for the lap belt path and height for the should strap path.

Below you can see the visual guide that is on the new mifold comfort seats - this is probably my favorite change to the design!! On the bottom right, you can see the little slides used to adjust the width of the seat - super easy to use before or after the child is sitting on it!

Below you can see our kids in their regular car seats on the left (high back booster for our 8 year old, and our 5 year old twins still in their 5-point harness convertible car seats) compared to sitting 3 across in their mifold boosters on the right. mifold allows you to fit 3 across more easily into more types of vehicles (see safety note below).

SAFETY NOTES: 

​While we love mifold for being so compact, lightweight, portable, and budget-friendly there are a few safety points you need to keep in mind:

• Be sure to check with car manual or directly with manufacturer, as every car has specific guidelines about whether or not you can install 3 car seats in a row, have 3 passengers of any sort in a row, if the middle seat may have issues with being on a hump or being too narrow - this goes for regular car seats, traditional boosters, and mifold. Car Seats for The Littles is a great resource, as well.
• As per mifold's CEO, the lap belt should lay across the upper part of your child's thighs right at or below hip bones. Across the tummy is too high, across mid thigh is too low. The red clip of the shoulder strap should be about 1 inch above your child's shoulder, so the strap hits them between the neck and shoulder.
  
• In any backless booster seat, including mifold, your child must be able to sit still and stay in proper positioning, which is hard for the younger crew especially. If they slouch, wiggle, scoot forward or to the sides, lean, take off the shoulder strap etc, it can become dangerous. As mentioned in the video, my son didn't do well in the mifold when he was younger, but now at 8 he's fine. One of our 5 year old twins didn't do well staying in position so I'm not comfortable with her using the mifold yet, but her sister did great. It's very individual - so make sure your children understand the importance of sitting properly, and then monitor to make sure they stay in position.
• Triple check the installation guides regarding how to install the mifold on flat vs. contoured seats, how wide to adjust the lap belt guides, and exactly where the shoulder belt and lap belt should fall on your child.

If used carefully and properly, mifold can be an amazing option for many families - for travel, carpool, or even regular use. Don't forget, you can enter to win a mifold booster seat in our $1,000 value jackpot giveaway running through April 7, 2021!!
Enter to win here!!