Extended rear facing carseats and other carseat questions

[*~*PINKPIXIE*~*]

Thank you both, I'd never heard of a 1-2-3 seat! That sounds like it will be the answer to all my problems!! (well, car seat related ones anyway!)

15kg, really?! Heck, that could be a long time off unless there's a growth spurt around the corner!!!

[Yvette75]

Kiddicare sell a fair few group 1-2-3 carseats:

http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 0001_14568

[sammykins]

well, I have ordered my Britax TWE from the In Car Safety Center today, and it should arrive on Thursday.
I shall install it and take some pics and will post them on here.
Am I sad to be this excited about a car seat?!

[Yvette75]

Samira - not at all sad! Can't wait to see the pics!

[glitterjo]

I thought I'd update after our visit to the In Car Safety Centre.

It was really worth going - if you can get to Milton Keynes (we are about an hour away) it's really worth the trip. The lady who we had the appointment with was so helpful and we feel really happy knowing the seat is fitted properly.

We got the Britax Two Way Elite. We went for this one because we don't have Isofix and although we could have gone for the Multi-Tech we decided not to as the Two Way is a bit more flexible and I think we will have to change cars soon (as ours is a bit of an old banger). She's only just big enough for it now at 9.2kg but she seems to love it - she looks really comfortable in it and instead of wailing for ages after we put her into the car seat, she protests for a moment as you sit her in it and then is perfectly happy. I will try and get a picture of her in it as she really does look very happy in it.

It wasn't cheap compared to a forward facing seat - it was £212 all in with the additional headrest (and that's a lot cheaper than the Isofix models!) but I'm so happy we've gone for this option. And hopefully she will get a lot of use out of it - the lady said that small children can go up to about 6 years old in it, and she is only 25th centile for length so if she stays like that we're laughing! And it can change to a forward facing seat too so when she is 4/5 and runs out of room for her legs we can eventually turn her round.

[shinycat]

Thanks Jo, I am going to try and make an appointment now and get us sorted. Slightly concerned about putting Lorna back to rear facing after she's been front facing the past 2 months, but I think if we get one of those mirrors so she can still see us, we should be OK.

What does everyone do about dirty shoes mucking up your back seats? Or dis this not an issue?

[sammykins]

Shiny, I'm pretty sure I've seen covers for the actual seats of the car, will try and find a link!

[Yvette75]

Shiny,

If his shoes are really muddy then I take them off once i've put him in the seat otherwise I just leave them on and whilst the back of our seat isn't pristine a good clean every so often does fine. You can buy covers for your seat though.

TBH as the ERF seat is much bigger than a baby carrier and she will have a fab view out of the side and back window I bet you Lorna doesn't notice or care which way she is facing.

Yvette

[sammykins]

Here's a couple of pics of my little lady in her TWE, which I fitted this morning (hope the pics work!):





She loves it and so do I!!

xx

[shinycat]

This raises one of our questions actually, about what they do with their legs?! Some of the seats seem to have space for the legs but some of them don't.

We have our appt at MK next Sat so will find out then. A bit annoyed I mentioned to my mum we are getting a new car seat and told her a bit about them and I could just tell she thought we were being stupid. We got our current seat (MaxiCosi Priori) for £20 from my step-sister and she's clearly of a mind that we are stupid to pay £300 for a new seat when we have a perfectly good one for £20. Ever since we got the Priori I have been concerned in my mind that the only reason we got it was because it was a cheap and easy option, and I don't feel that is a good reason for buying something related to safety. Fine if it was a toy or a high chair or something, but not a car seat. Amusingly my mum always tells me how she prides herself on not being opinionated about the way her kids and step-kids bring up their children, but she may not say anything but her face speaks volumes!!

[Sammi]

Aww Sammy she looks lovely! Glad you managed to get your seat sorted.

Can I ask you a quick, completely unrelated question? My French boss has two children, I know they are called Ilan (little boy) and Roman (little girl), I am trying write their wedding invitation and whilst I can spell and put the correct accents on my boss's name and his wife's, I don't know if their children's name have accents on?

Sorry to sound like a completely ignorant English person!

[sammykins]

Hey Sammi,

Not a problem. I don't believe there are accents on those names. They aren't common names and I hadn't heard them before, but I've just checked and there aren't accents on there

Shiny - I believe DD has plenty of leg room there, and I don't think she'll have a growth spurt anytime soon, so she is fine for now. Also, the car seat is at a 40 degree angle as she is less than 13kg. For children who weigh 13kg or more, the seat is more upright, and therefore there will be more legroom.

The staff at the in car safety centre will be able to tell you all about it. Do you know which car seat you'd like to get?

[shinycat]

Thanks Sammy, I hadn't noticed your DD's age actually, so I guess the seat is kind of bigger than it looks! I've no idea which one we want. We're not fussed about isofix particularly so there should be a good range to choose from. The only one we have actually seen in the flesh is the Recaro in John Lewis, but didn't get to try it out on an actual car seat to see how it looks in use. It is good to be able to go to the Safety Centre and talk to people who know their stuff.

[sammykins]

oh yes, this seat has the tallest shell of all the ERF seats apparently and can last up until the child is 125cm tall. Unlike the Group 0 carseats, children can stay in ERF seats until their ears are level with the top of the seat (so their heads can actually be a little higher than the seat shell).
This particular one lasts up until 25kgs in rear-facing, so until about 5 years of age.
With Isofix not being a consideration, you'll have plenty to chose from (unless you have underfloor storage compartments in your car, like we do, in which case, things are a little trickier!).

Good luck on Sat, looking forward to hearing which one you've gone for!

x

[espoir]

Hello car seat experts
K is very tall for his age (10 months going on 12+) and I think we need to start looking for another seat. Am very interested in these ERF seats - just wondering if any of you know if they are suitable for taking on planes? I know some of the forward facing ones are. It was such a squeeze on the plane last time, that I think if we could buy him his own seat and put him in his car seat for safety I would!