Choosing the right car seat - Advice Pls

run_Forrest_run

Hi Folks,
Our lil one has just past the 6 month mark and we will be looking at getting her a new car seat soon (the carry tot that came with the pram is almost full!).

Can anyone offer some advice on what to look out for and what to expect to pay for a good quality one.

cheers.

RainyDay

Go for something with an Isofix fitting if you car can support this. [Google if you don't know what Isofix means].

MyBaby

My baby was like that too, the car seat that comes with the pram is supposed to do till about 9mths but he grew out of it at like 7mths

We then got the one that does from approx 9mths to 2 years of age. This car seat still has the slight tilt as babies of 9mths can not hold their bodies up fully yet. At the moment we have a new one which does from approx 1 year until 11yrs as it changes as the years go on etc in to booster seat....

The one we had that does for 9mths to 2yrs, we are selling this now. You can see it on adverts here with pictures - http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=893&cat=fav

Selling it for 70 euro but will accept a reasonable offer if your interested, let me know.

loyatemu

babies are supposed to go backwards until they're about 12 months (in other european countries they actually receommend 2 years) so you should go with a seat that can go backwards and then forwards (think they're called group 0/1)

ISOFIX is very good if your car has the anchor points, the seats are very expensive though.

MyBaby

Ye, the seat that comes with the prams are rear facing and on a tilt as to support the child. This seat does until they are approx 9mths old, then you go onto the next one. You can get ones from 9mths til 2yrs old or 9mths until 11yrs old etc.

The one I have for sale is front facing but is on a slight til which you can change as the baby gets old and can support themselves a bit better. I dont think you can get a rear facing one for 9mth olds unless your baby is small enough to fit into their 1st one na d you can stick with that for a couple of mths extra. My baby grew out of his 1st one wen he was about7/8mths old.

MyBaby

Car seat is on its way to the charity shop now.

RainyDay

MyBaby wrote:

Car seat is on its way to the charity shop now.

You'll probably find they won't take it due to possible risks of selling a seat that has been damaged in crash. The National Safety Council's booklet recommends that

The best advice is not to buy or use a second-hand child seat. You cannot be certain of its history. It may have been involved in a crash and the damage may not be visible.

PS Mybaby, any chance you could reduce the size of your signature to meet the Boards.ie policy?

Miss Judy

Hi,

Just thought I would highly recommend the Max-Cosi car seat in Mothercare that I got when dd was 6 months & you can get it in grey & pink for girls...very cute. Not only that but it's a great seat, 100% safe and it's very popular and recommended. I am very happy with it anyway. Another brand that is very good is Brevi, we had one for ds when he was younger and it's brilliant, it's in hubbies car for dd now, maxi cosi one in my car and they are both really good safe seats. I would recommened being 100% confident of fittings and installing it in your car and they should assist you wherever you purchase it. I check the seat daily when putting dd in to make sure it's still in the correct position etc, well I am a bit of a safety freak tbh!!.
Anyway, you cannot go wrong with maxi cosy or brevi!!. Both available in Mothercare and Smyths. I would say Eurobaby has them aswell, great shop & good service.

tred

Miss Judy wrote:

Hi,

Just thought I would highly recommend the Max-Cosi car seat in Mothercare that I got when dd was 6 months & you can get it in grey & pink for girls...very cute. Not only that but it's a great seat, 100% safe and it's very popular and recommended. I am very happy with it anyway. Another brand that is very good is Brevi, we had one for ds when he was younger and it's brilliant, it's in hubbies car for dd now, maxi cosi one in my car and they are both really good safe seats. I would recommened being 100% confident of fittings and installing it in your car and they should assist you wherever you purchase it. I check the seat daily when putting dd in to make sure it's still in the correct position etc, well I am a bit of a safety freak tbh!!.
Anyway, you cannot go wrong with maxi cosy or brevi!!. Both available in Mothercare and Smyths. I would say Eurobaby has them aswell, great shop & good service.

yeah we love the maxi cosi Priory. IT reclines a nice bit as well so they are comfortable! side protection. It did well on some euro ncap test , hence why we bought it.

MyBaby

I know the safetly issues but it was never in an accident/car crash etc. It was only used for about2/3 mths as we got a newer one.

Any how, charity shop took it off us. Some one who cant afford alot, will be happy of getting one for cheap.

run_Forrest_run

thanks for that advice..I will have a look at the those so.

dame

For anyone buying carseats for infants, the safest way by far is a rear-facing seat. It's so much safer that in Sweden they keep their kids rear-facing until they are four years old! It's not a mile-stone to be passed (my kid is big enough for a forward-facing seat now). You should keep a baby in a rear-facing seat as long as possible. Check the weight of the child before you decide to get rid of it and get a new one. If the child is less than the recommended weight then the seat is fine for another while. Of course the child looks bigger than when you first got it, there would be something wrong if they didn't.

If your car is a fairly recent model it should have Isofix attachments. If the car has these then use them and get an Isofix carseat. It is the safest way to anchor the seat to the car.

Get a carseat with a five-point safety harness. This distributes the load over a greater area and thus reduces it.

Other things to consider are reducing the number of loose items in the car. In the event of a crash, a flying object could do serious damage to the occupants, especially a delicate infant.

embee

My daughter will be a year old in just under two weeks, but she is still in a rear-facing car seat and will be until she grows out of it. The Group 0 car seat (ie from birth) that we got for her was a Maxi Cosi Cabrio, and its been great. Its recommended that you try to keep your child rear-facing for as long as possible. The staff in Mothercare advised me that, with a rear-facing seat, your child can stay in it as long as their head isn't coming up over the top of the back of the seat, IYKWIM. My daughter has about 3 inches to spare until her head reaches the top of the Group 0 seat. It doesn't matter if their legs aren't straight out - they are still perfectly safe with their legs curled up a wee bit. We will be moving onto the Maxi Cosi Tobi next - has great reviews all round and has won awards in consumer magazines for safest car seat in its group. She won't be going into that until she is too big for the Cabrio though.

Kashkai

I'd agree with Embee. If your child will still fit into the rock a tot car seat, then there is no need to rush out and spend a couple of hundred euro on a larger seat.

We have twins and so everything is doubly expensive for us but I would never put money above my kid's safety. However, after visiting several dedicated baby seat shops (Tony Keelys, Eurobaby etc) when our kids were 9 months, they all said that the newborn seats are perfectly safe until the baby's head reaches the top of the seat. This was advice from people who were in the market to sell car seats!!. So wait until your child really needs the larger seat as they will probably be better off in the smaller seat where they will have a snugger fit and won't be thrown around as much in a crash (God forbid)