Be Excellent To Each Other

As our little monster keeps growing, we need to upgrade his car seat.

For you mums and dads out there, what car seat do you get for your offspring?

The free one off my brother in law.

It's a Britax one.

There are hundreds of different ones... very conffusing..

Get one off freecycle. People are always getting rid of them as their little monsters outgrow them.

I believe that's against the law, and anyway it's fucking stupid.

Our baby seat came with the pushchair (sorry, "infant travel solution"), but we've got him a Maxicosi one now he's bigger.

Check to see if your car has ISOfix mounts. If it does, be sure to get a seat that can use them, because they're great.

Doe's your car have Isofix points? If so get an Isofix chair (easy to clip in and out).

Yes Grim...

I would not get a second hand car seat, unless I knew where it was from. Little George's life is worth more than saving a few quid.

the wifes car has iso fix, i will have to check mine I don't think it has. Although my next car will have.

looks a like a trip to mother care..

The seats with isofix can be fitted into a car without them, too.
All I can say is that the Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix Infant Carrier with a Maxi-Cosi Easyfix base (which you leave in the car with the Isofix) that we had were brilliant.
They are expensive, however.

We have a £90 quid vouncher, so might take teh sting out of it..

A bit, I guess. They're £115 each.
But we had a pushchair that the seat fitted onto, too, so it was great - press a button on the base, lift babyseat and baby out, plonk him on pushchair, go shopping.
Come back to the car, push the button on the pushchair, lift babyseat out, plonk him in the car. You can easily do it with one hand, and it has a little red 'flag' (for want of a better word) that turns green once the seat is clipped in properly.

Illegal?

Seriously WTF.

I can clearly remember being carried in various cars as a young child with no seatbelt fitted, never mind all-in-one plastic cocoon which is only compatible with the latest chelsea tractor and must be landfilled every 12 months by law. And costs more than that old car did.

Snort.

Ouch... I suppose they will last a few years though..

ZOMFG!!!

No, only for the first year. Then they go up to the next size, which means a new base too

Tell me about it. Who names these things?

Not quite, you can re-use them if you own them...
I think it is the way you can't garenettee that it has not been used in an accident. Similar in the fact you would not buy a 2nd hand crash helmet.

Yeah, I know. Me too, and it <silly voice>never did me no 'arm</silly voice>.
And now you're being a dick.

I think you can get ones that go up to the age of 4?

Maybe. Not the ones I just talked about, though.

Also you have to have booster seats until the child is practically a teenager, it seems.

Yes all the rules changes a few years ago... In a good way I think..

Granted. Seriously though, babies appear to be a very strong motivation for buying new cars, possibly the primary one.

Sure - part of the reason we chose a Mondeo is because it has a child-seat safety rating of five billion stars, or something.
Granted, a Micra probably has five billion and one, but hey, the wife doesn't know that.

Damn you, edit boy!

We got a Brittax one for ours, lasts til the little darlings were 4. Cost £120 or similar, which isn't bad considering you could use it from birth. Considering the forces involved in even the smallest shunt, you can't take a chance with child safety imo, best not to buy some cheapo no name thing from Argos I reckon.

Those iso fix things look handy, but then, the weight of the car seat means that for all the conveinence of being able to get it in and out easily, you can't be arsed and just leave it where it is!

hence the wife has a new car now

More or less of a motivation than Volvo XC90s?

Bollocks you do. My 8 year old is tall enough not to need it and has been for over a year.

Malc

Yeah, it's age 12 or 135cm, whichever is sooner.

Has to be taller than 135cm is the law (or 4ft 5)

Malc

There may have been slight exaggeration on my part.
Still, you know, 8.

If it's a short kid, then practically a teenager is perfectly accurate.

I think (although I need to double-check) that the Grimlet can already go in my Tomcat without a booster seat. Aceness.

I think we will go from now till 4 and then get another on un 4 years.

Our current chair supports up to 20lb but he is 16lbs already

Awesome

Given that you're building the tomcat, why wouldn't you fit a booster seat? Note that I do not refer to the type that makes kids a little bit smaller, but the ones with rockets fitted.

Er...um.

You can get ones that are 0-4years or 9m-4y I suspect K will need the former. They go in rear facing up to 9m then you turn them around to front facing.

My advice is get something as padded as you can and that is easy to recline when it's in the forward facing position. I have Chloe's in the middle of the back three seats and can recline her while driving easier than anyone sat next to her can.

I remember when you didn't have to wear seatbelts. And I didn't have a child seat either.

That is all.

Which seems weird, are you suddenly safe at age 12 even if you're 100cm?

Apparently so. Maybe your neck hardens at age 12 to prevent seatbelt-garrotting.

Thanks GJ, I feel a trip to mothercare is on teh cards for tomorrow.

Our current seat holds up to a 20lb baby, George is 16lbs... so a max of 8 weeks

Yeah, I found that they grow out of them lengthwise really. You won't have that problem with a stage one and two seat.

I'd like to see this kind of experiment on Braniac.

*doesn't let you babysit EVER*

We you don't realise how big he is until he is next to another baby.. 6 month old clothes just fit him and he is only 11 weeks. My that has flown..

My daughter is significantly above the 99.5 percentile for her height!

She's going to be over 6ft tall if she keeps it up!

Malc