Before you make that cautious, white-knuckled first drive home with your new baby, you need to be armed with the proper equipment.You can use an infant car seat from a child’s birth until they measure around 30 inches or weigh around 30 pounds. The seat is likely to be in the mix until the child is between 9 months and 2 years of age, though this varies by family.All infant seats sold in the US are required to meet the same safety standards. But since there are more than 60 models available to choose from, navigating the purchase can be daunting. We’ve spent the past seven years consulting safety experts, scouring reviews, talking to fellow caregivers, and putting our top contenders to the test in the real world. We’ve settled on four infant car seats that do the best job of providing a safe and comfortable experience for you and your precious cargo. The Graco SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX remains our longtime top pick, the Chicco KeyFit Max ClearTex is our new runner-up, the Uppababy Aria is our upgrade pick, and the Clek Liing is the best for people who want the security of a rigid-LATCH install.An infant car seat is a bucket-like carrier hat secures a baby with a five-point harness. It is designed to face the rear of the car, and the bucket carrier clicks in and out of a base that stays installed in the back seat. (The seats in the photograph above are shown clicked into their bases.) You install the bases using either the vehicle’s seat belt or the LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) system, which lets you attach a pair of metal hooks built into the base to a set of anchors built into the car. You can buy multiple bases, so you can use the same bucket carrier in different cars without having to reinstall anything. You can also install the seat on its own with just a seat belt (no base), if, say, you’re traveling or taking a taxi.