Extended rear facing carseats and other carseat questions

[Yvette75]

Hope nobody minds me posting some information aobut extended rear facing carseats.

As you will know by law all children under 9 months and 20lb must travel rearfacing in cars. From January 2013 the law will be changing so that all children under 15 months old, irrespective of weight, must travel rearfacing. The reason:

Rearfacing is 5 times safer in a frontal collision.

Some information can be found here:

http://www.rearfacing.co.uk/

Although extended rear facing group 1 and group 2 seats are not widely available in the UK they are becoming more widely available.

The in car safety centre sells a wide selection of these seats which start from under £200 and some of the seats go form 9-25kg (group 1 seats only go to 18kg) so they will last until your child is 5 or 6 years old. There are lots of other retailers too but I have put a link to this one as they probably sell more seats than any of the others and give fantastic advice over the telephone too.
http://www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk/cata ... aecerq4le3


Christopher's rear faces in a Besafe Izi Combi seat and Emily will move into his seat shortly (she is currently still in her Maxi Cosi Cabriofix) and we will be buying him a Britax Two Way Elite.

Rear facing group 1 seats are not like infant carriers, they are spacious just like a forward facing group 1 seat and your LO will have a fantastic view out of the side and back windows (Christopher's loves waving at the bus driver's behind us!). There is plenty of legroom too.

If anybody has any questions about extended rear facing I will try to help.

Yvette

[sammykins]

Thanks Yvette!

We've just bought our first car and are looking for a rear-facing seat for DD. We've looked at http://www.securatot.co.uk/ they are really good for advice too.

I'm hoping to get ours in the next few days, really looking forward to it. Our niece and nephew have been in rear-facing until they were 5, and they loved it (it's also less distraction for the person driving!)

[bronwyn]

Yvette, Super timing on the post!!!!
Oli's just turned 9 months and I was just saying to Dh the other day that we'd need to look about a new seat as Rowan's still in the next seat so we could have ended up with a front facer that wouldn't have suited at all (i know she'll be older than the required age but we haven't ruled out No4) !!! Hadn't heard about the change at all....
Many thanks.
B

[cliveceltic]

Very interesting as my cousin just bought a front and rear facer for their LO who is 4.5 months and over 20lbs already. Means they can keep him in it linger rear ways. Theirs is a brittax one.

When k was a baby we had the primo viaggio infant and she was in it Tim around 15 months as she was so small and I think she was still 19lbs when we bought her new one.

I am expecting number 2 so glad I still have my infant one as it goes up to 24lbs and I can't see next baby being much bigger! Think I will get the fixed base for it though as it was the lugging in and out and strapping in that got us annoyed last time.

[Ruby]

I didn't know the law is changing, this is excellent news!! I'm a firm believer in rear facing - Jakob has the Besafe Izi Kid too and loves it, we have no problems.

[Dottywot]

I hope this will help with advice & guidance that is issued, there is so much conflicting info out there on car seats. I remember when we got a talk from a road safety officer at our antenatal classes (employed by police & fire service) that they do not recommend any rear facing seats! I can't remember the reason now (it was something about not being able to get them out in a hurry!) but they did recommend a maxi cosi and a britax forward facing.

[Yvette75]

Sammykins - securatot are great too! Do you know which seat you will be getting?

Bronwyn - definitely have a look at rear facing seats for Oli. Also alternating rear facing and forward facing seats can sometimes mean that you can get 3 seats across a car when with all front facing seats you wouldn't have been able to.

Cliveceltic - I agree the base for infant carriers does make things easier. That said Emily's infant carrier lives in the car on the base and we just carry her out to it unless she falls asleep in the car in which case we bring her in in the carseat.

Ruby - another Besafe Izi fan

Dottywot - what the road safety officer told you is in my honest opinion absolute rubbish. It is no more difficult to get a child out of an ERF seat than out of a forward facing seat. Rear facing seats are more difficult to fit than forward facing seats but assuming they are fitted correctly they are 5 times safer in a frontal collision.

[Ruby]

This is our beauty: http://www.pushchairsandcarseats.co.uk/ ... -seat.aspx

Dottywotty I can't believe they said that!

I challenged a manager in my local Mothercare store about the lack of RF options and he told me that they don't stock them because there isn't the demand for them. He agreed that RF is safer and told me to buy elsewhere!! Often they don't know how to correctly fit them, but with isofix you can't do it wrong!

I'm really SO glad the law is changing - it should be for all under 4yr olds though...

[sammykins]

Yvette - we're going to look at the Britax Multi Tech as it goes up to 25kgs. We've got a stockist near home so we'll be going there on Saturday to check that it fits our car.

I also complained at Halfords about the lack of RF seats, and they said they would need to train all their staff as the seats are more complicated to install, and also there wasn't enough demand for it!

I agree it should be made compulsory for up to 4 years old, but I'm sure we'll get there gradually. 15 months old, irrespective of weight is already a nice improvement!

[Rach P]

Hmm Yvette, car seats are something else I need to consult with you on when I see you so please remind me as my brain is like mush

[shinycat]

Thank you for posting this, it is very interesting and we are now looking into getting one of these seats. There seems to be quite a wide variation in price, can I ask how you came to your decision on which one to buy? I don't really know how to compare them, other than by how much they cost!

[sammykins]

Hey Shiny,

The ERF car seat you can have will pretty much depend on your car. We've just bought a Ford Focus C-max, and we have storage boxes on the floor. Because most ERF car seats use a support leg, and the support leg cannot rest on the storage box lid, then the choices for us are quite limited.
I've spoken to both Securatot and the IncarSafetyCentre, and I was recommended the Britax 2-way Elite by one of them (as there is no support leg), and was recommended a seat with a support leg by the other place as they are safer (there are a few ERF car seats which work with cars that have storage boxes on the floor). So we need to look into that at the weekend, one place by us has got 3 seats we can check, and I am hoping at least one of them will fit.

The best advice to give when choosing, is to go somewhere and have the car seat fitted in your car, as they need to be properly fitted and you need to make sure that the seat you want is compatible with your car. The place we are going to on Saturday does not sell them online for this reason.

[Yvette75]

Shiny,

As Sammykins said it will vary from car to car. Personally I would try to buy a seat that will see your LO through to 25kg as that will last longest.

You aren't that far from Milton Keynes and I would suggest that you telephone the In Car Safety Centre for advice and go there to try some of them in your car. Not only does the seat have to fit but you need to see how far (if at all) you need to move your passenger seat forward to accomodate it.

We bought the Besafe Seat for Christopher back in 2009 as at the time there were few seats available on the market. The main differences between the ERF seats available now are the size of them and how they are fixed to your car (some are isofix, some are belted, some go rear facing and forward facing, some have foot props, some have tethers.

We will be buying Christopher the Britax Two Way Elite this year and mvoe Emily into his Besafe Izi Combi which is a smaller seat than the Two Way Elite but ironically needs more space!

It can be a bit of a minefield but getting advice from the experts is the best way forwards.

Yvette

[shinycat]

Thanks both, our car does have isofix points and is mentioned on the compatability charts for a few of the seats we looked at so hopefully we'll have some choice. Yvette, I did notice that store is in MK, though it looked to me like a warehouse that only actually sells online. But I will give them a call and ask as I'd be much happier seeing them in person. John Lewis and Kiddicare only stock one model which is a shame.

Thanks for your help!

[Yvette75]

Shiny,

No they fit loads of seats - the In Car Safety Centre. They are fantastic for phone advice too. Definitely worth a visit but ring first as you need an appointment if you are to look at rearfacing seats.

Yvette