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Car seat advice please
Hi Everyone Happy New Year,
I hope you can help with a little bit of carseat advice please, am posting this in Toddler as well as its for both of my children.
Henry will be 23 weeks on Wednesday, he weighs nearly 22lbs and is very long - he is comfortably in size 6-12 month clothes and has been for a while (Dr projects his adult height to be about 6"3). His carseat (Maxi Cosi cabriofix) is getting very tight and his head is right at the very top of the seat which makes me think he is going to need a new one fairly soon. Neve is 3 (today!) and is 31lbs heavy and 98 inches tall, she is in a Mamas and Papas Pro-tec and it fits fine.
My problem is this - what do I put Henry in? Do I buy Neve a booster seat suitable for age 3.5 up
http://www.mamasandpapas.com/product-cybex-solution-xfix-grenadine/119228000/type-i/
and then give Henry her carseat in hopefully in a month or two? I worry that it doesn't recline enough (the recline on it is not great) so have been looking at this one (my sister has it and the recline is very good)
http://www.maxi-cosi.com/gb-en/carseats/toddler/tobi
If I buy the Tobi I can keep Neve in her current carseat until she is 4 which I am inclined to think is a better idea.
Has anyone had this problem or do you have any of these carseats, or can you just tell me what you would do if you were me - all opinions welcome lol!
xxx
I hope you can help with a little bit of carseat advice please, am posting this in Toddler as well as its for both of my children.
Henry will be 23 weeks on Wednesday, he weighs nearly 22lbs and is very long - he is comfortably in size 6-12 month clothes and has been for a while (Dr projects his adult height to be about 6"3). His carseat (Maxi Cosi cabriofix) is getting very tight and his head is right at the very top of the seat which makes me think he is going to need a new one fairly soon. Neve is 3 (today!) and is 31lbs heavy and 98 inches tall, she is in a Mamas and Papas Pro-tec and it fits fine.
My problem is this - what do I put Henry in? Do I buy Neve a booster seat suitable for age 3.5 up
http://www.mamasandpapas.com/product-cybex-solution-xfix-grenadine/119228000/type-i/
and then give Henry her carseat in hopefully in a month or two? I worry that it doesn't recline enough (the recline on it is not great) so have been looking at this one (my sister has it and the recline is very good)
http://www.maxi-cosi.com/gb-en/carseats/toddler/tobi
If I buy the Tobi I can keep Neve in her current carseat until she is 4 which I am inclined to think is a better idea.
Has anyone had this problem or do you have any of these carseats, or can you just tell me what you would do if you were me - all opinions welcome lol!
xxx
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Replies
if you little girl meets the requirements it might be worth just getting a booster instead of buying another seat, your LO seems to meet the stage 1 requirements but weight and height, we moved our LO before 9 months as he was so tall and not supported by the infant seat
saying that if shes not ready for a booster it might be worth investing in another stage 1, we have the maxi cosi proir xp which reclines, i think its fab x
Neve is fine in her Protec until she's 18kg, shes only about 14 right now so she'll be in it for a while yet. She's too light to go into a HBB, whilst the one you linked says from 15kg, it's better to wait; as with a HBB it's the child's weight that holds the seat in pace in the event of an impact - a child who is 18kg+ is going to be a lot safer in one than one who is 14-15kg.
What I would do is buy a combination Group 0/1 seat like Concord Ultimax, Britax First Class, or Jane Racing. They will suit H now, rearfacing, and you can keep him rearfacing longer, which is infinitely safer. Then you can turn him around and it will last him, FF, until age 3 or 4, at which point he'll be ready to go into a HBB.
Meanwhile, keep N in her 5-point harness group 1 seat that she has, for as long as you can (until she is 18kg or her ears are above the top of the seat). Then buy her a HBB. By the time H is ready for a HBB, he can have the one you've bought N (so get a gender neutral one!) and she will probably be old enough for just a booster cushion to see her until she reaches the legal age or height limit.
Edited to add that we used the Ultimax for DD until she was heavy enough for a HBB, and we use them now for DS and I think it's a brilliant seat. DD now has a Graco LX comfort HBB in each car and again,I'd recommend it as it's a great seat and very comfy for her. She also appreciates the 'snack pots'...
http://www.mothercare.com/Graco-LX-Comfort-Orbit/dp/B003EGIPIG/sr=1-5/qid=1294176439/ref=sr_1_5/277-8155706-7740827?_encoding=UTF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=118864031&mcb=core
Xxxxx
This video demonstrates quite effectively why children should be kept rearfacing as long as possible.
http://www.youtube.com/user/luv2bfishin#p/a/u/0/Q8gU9zzCGA8
Sorry long question and also sorry to hijack your post LottieNH!
xxx
I totally understand it can be confusing because we certainly was but it is better to be safe than sorry. xxx
xxx
MA, if your DD is well below the maximum weight limit for her infant carrier and her head is still below the top, it is safest to keep her in it as long as she continues to fit.
However, regarding isofix vs seatbelt, it's not really that cut and dried. Some experts say that Isofix is actually less safe, as a seatbelt fitting flexes slightly and absorbs some of the shock of the impact. There's absolutely no doubt that a young child who is rearfacing will be at lower risk of injury than a child who is FF. Isofix seats are EASIER to fix than seatbelt, they remove the risk of human error which leads tosome people saying they are safer, but I think it's more complex than that.
My personal view is that if you can keep a child RF to 18 months or so, dependent on their weight for a group 0/1 seat, you're doing a tremendous amount to protect them, and after that if you don't have the funds for a specialist RF seat like the Brio, then a good seat, FF and correctly fitted, will still keep them really safe. The safest seat, at the end of the day, is one which fits perfectly in your car. The best RF seat in the world is useless if it doesn't fit properly- whether it's FF,RF, Isofix or belt fitted. As an aside, I've found Mothercare useless for seat fitting - do you have a decent independent nursery retailer near you?
At the moment, DS1 is in his Maxi Cosi XP and FF at 22 months and Ds2 is in his Mothercare rear facing carry carseat - 0+
DS2, is 17 weeks and I have been looking at a Concord Ultimax, so that I can a)leave it in the car knowing both the seats for the boys are fitted safely and b)not have to worry about when to move him from one carseat to another as it is fine from birth.
I want the boys to be able to interact though, especially as ds2 gets older - and wondered if they'd be able to even see each other like this? xx
i must admit i didnt pay much attention to the whole rf v ff stuff until recently when i started looking at next stage seats.
my dd is only 6.5 months and in a maxi cosi cabriofix (isofix base) and although she can be in it until 29lbs i dont think we'll get until she is a year old before needing the next seat, my plan was to replace it with a maxi cosi priorifix as it gets good reviews and so as isofix is important to me. yes its easier lifting them in and out at the minute and although the next stage seat would be staying in the car thats not why i like the isofix - my personal opinion is that it is safer as there is no human error and its right into the car chasis and also crash test research seems to promote this so i want to stay with an isofix but priorifix only goes ff and seems to be only isofix one so im stuck now.
i dont like the britax seats - we previously had a baby safy plus with isofix and werent impressed with the quality and much prefer maxi cosi so can anyone recommend another brand which does a rf isofix seat? my plan is now to buy one of those and keep dd that way (if i can) until she is 1yr-18months then replace it with the priorifix which seems to get good safety reviews.
sorry for hijacking thread,
Lx
Lauz, I don'tknow of any combination 0/1 seats that are isofix, simply because by their nature they are fitted both ways round. I don't claim to know every car seat on the market though! You can get isofix rearfacing group one seats - suitable from 9 months to 4.5 years - the Recaro Polaric and the Besafe Izi Combi Isofix arethe two I know of.
that prob sounds like a silly plan but to me its what i think would be best for my dd and cost isnt a problem - i would rather buy 2 than move straight to ff at 10/12months or wenever.
Lx