Hi all
Just wanted to post a thread about our very recent experience buying a stage 2 car seat for our 8 month old baby girl. We went along to our local mothercare this week to buy a maxi cosi seat preferably, having researched them to be the safest on the uk market and the very helpful chap at mothercare matched us to the Axissfix. Not cheap at a whopping £350 but as it apparently lasts until she's four years, we thought we'd pay up now and in the knowledge she was safe and comfortable, have a good few years before needing to reinvest. She sat in it, in the shop - all fine. He tried the demo one in the car and checked its suitability with our car - also all fine. It was fitted, we drove home perfectly pleased with the seat and its features (this is the seat that spins around making getting baby in and out really easy, from side on position). I sat in the back with her to check she was OK while my partner drove. As she was awake and - at 8 months can obviously support her own head weight - all seemed fine. Next time we came to travel was yesterday and again for some reason, I decided to sit in the back with her. This time she fell asleep and so being floppy, her head flung forwards with such force into her chest it completely jolted her awake crying. I was so shocked to see it and the frequency at which it happened (a dozen times in 5 mins). Each time I would push her head back and even took her hat off incase extra bulk from clothing was forcing her forward but her head just continually fell onto her chest again to the point that I sat holding her head in my hands and we were forced to turn around and come home. She was completely harnessed in correctly and the seat was on maximum recline which in all honesty with this seat, max recline is about one inch down from totally bolt upright. I felt all around the base to check there were no gaps from where base meets seat - there wasn't. We re-read the manual to see if we were doing something wrong - nope. I rang mothercare who again were really helpful and rightfully so....immediately the man we dealt with said this should no way be happening and is extremely disturbing, not least because our baby is very uncomfortable but her head coming forward onto her chest if left like that for a while could seriously impact her breathing ability. We were totally shocked that a reputable 'safest' expensive seat could jeopardise our baby, without the event of an impact to or from another car. His advice was that we needed to contact maxi cosi who would send out some 'pads' we would need to try and if they failed (& he said he expected they would as he had come across this before with another customer who followed the same procedure and these pads made no difference) then maxi cosi would give mothercare the go ahead to refund and replace our seat. I cannot see how any amount of extra padding will help given that her head is coming forwards, not banging side to side so looks likely that once we've gone down that route we will end up back at mothercare experimenting with alternatives. In the meantime, we dare not use the car! I think this whole thing is pretty outrageous and really just wanted to share the experience and the warning, to please get someone to sit in the back with your baby when you've just bought a new seat. Had it been any other time of year, my partner would have been at work so chances are I would have been driving round alone with her and it could have been weeks or months before we spotted it.
As a first time mum, my experience of car seats so far hasn't been the best - the first seat we had was the silvercross one, to fit with our Pioneer pram...when our daughter was about 8 wks old my mum was sat in the back with her as she was a bit grizzly and said she couldn't believe how much her head banged from side to side, over uneven roads/pot holes etc - I felt terrible that I'd been driving round weeks on end unaware and after that had to wedge her head with rolled up small towels or muslin cloths! She's an average weight and length baby so nothing about her being particularly large or small has played a part. Please be aware that if your baby's head is flopping or falling forward, the seat just isn't suitable despite ticking all other compatibility boxes!!
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Confused about car seat regulations? Find baby car seat advice here.
Car seats
Car Seat Warning! Babies head falling forwards
40 replies
ShelleyJane1981 · 01/01/2016 05:22
OP posts:
Don’t want to miss threads like this?
Weekly
Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!
Log in to update your newsletter preferences.
You've subscribed!
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.