Mumsnet Talk

All help/advice would be greatly appreciated please!

Dd has now grown out of her first stage car seat and I'm looking for one for the next stage for her.

I have tesco vouchers so would ideally like to use the Tesco direct catalogue. Was looking at Nania seats but can see from searches on mumsnet that they are not supposed to be very good. Ditto the fisher price.

Dont' want to spend more than £100 and my priorities are a reclining seat and obviously safety issues such as side impact protection and 5 point harness.

Please could you tell me what you have bought and the cost and whether you are happy with it?

Many thanks

I would suggest something like this we had a britax eclipse for DS and it was fabulous. He outgrew it height wise rather than weight, but the Prince has a taller back. You can check the Britax fit finder to see if it is suitable for your car.

I would recommend looking at rearfacing.co.uk before you buy a forward facer.

I like our britax - think its an SI - we were given it by my SIL after hers grew out of it, and I prefer it to our Priori XP because the recline is nicer and the clasp is a bit easier. We had it rear facing for quite a while, then turned it around.

Thanks everyone - the britax ones you are recommending - how much roughly are they as some of the seats go up to £400 and we just haven't that much to spend!

They are around the £100 mark. I'll agree with onadietcokebreak, RF are better, but some people simply can't afford that much outlay.
The Prince is £95, and i think i paid £130 for the Eclipse.

If I had to recommend a ff seat it would be the recaro young sport or STM starlight (same seat) as I found my DS outgrew his britax and the recaro has better head height and converts to a high backed booster.

I have a recaro young sport for our eldest (he's been in it since he was about 3.5) If you want a long lasting seat, then I would definately recommend this as it has the 5-point harness which you can then remove, however I find the recline is pretty much non existent. Its not really that comfy for a napping child, if thats what you want it for. I think you'll find this is a common theme when you buy a stage 2-3 car seat.

If you get the britax first class SI (do they even make those any more?!) then it will only last until they are around 3.5/18 kg as its stage 2. I'm keeping DS2 in it as long as possible though because of the recline.

oh I apologise, I think I've got the groups wrong. When I said group 2 I actually meant group 1. The which guide says:

Group 1 9-18kg (20-40lb) About 9 months to 4½ years
Group 2 15-25kg (33lb - 3st 13lb) About 3 years to 7 years
Group 3 22-36kg (3st 7lb - 5st 9lb) About 6 years to 12 years

So the Britax SI is group 1, and the recaro young sport is groups 1,2,3 but if you want recline you dont want this yet.