Would you spend only £24.99 on a car seat?

[Sahkoora]

With DS1 and 2, I got Britax First Class car seats from birth, but have always really fancied one of those dinky seats you can lift out of the car with a handle. It's just that they are a LOT of money.

Friends and family who have used them have all ended up putting their babies front facing way before the recommended age because their babies grow out of them and I don't want to spend £100 on something that will last only a few months.

I have seen one on Amazon (by Delta) that costs £24.99! Would I be mad to buy this for my newborn? They must have the same safety tests?

I feel like I could justify buying two car seats in this case! And keep DC3 rear facing for the proper amount of time. And omg ... The luxury if removing a sleeping baby from a car without waking them!

[ilovepowerhoop]

no, sounds too cheap to me.

[5madthings]

Can you search it and see how it has done in safety tests, ie see if which have tested it?

[elQuintoConyo]

Why not, if it has all of it's safety certificates?

But if you are going to be constantly wary of it, then perhaps not.

[TheScience]

No, I probably wouldn't - a booster seat maybe, but not an infant seat.

However, those infant seats do last until 13kg, so your baby is unlikely to outgrow it until 12-15 months at least. DS1 was a 25th centile baby and was in his until 18 months.

Do you have a pram that the infant seat can clip on to? I have a Britax Baby Safe seat - it scores highly on the Which reviews and is £80 on Kiddicare at the moment. The bonus for me is that it clips onto my Oyster pram frame.

[Wishfulmakeupping]

No

[Sahkoora]

Unfortunately both of my DSes were big babies so I think DC3 is unlikely to be different. My sister's DS had outgrown his by 4 months and she immediately put him front facing, backed up by my mum who recalled that we were all loose in carrycots on the back seat!

That's a good idea about looking up safety tests. They don't have any reviews on Amazon yet, (only one moaning they got sent the seat in the wrong colour!) but they may do them elsewhere.

Thanks.

[Vickiyumyum]

Google the make and model of the car seat it should bring up reviews. As long as it's passed all the safety tests which it would have needed to to legally be on sale. I had a britax for the ds's and a maxi cosi for the dd's.

[UriGeller]

You can squash a baby into an infant seat til they're so big their head comes up above the seat back.

My dd is biiig and 13 months old and we have to strip her to tshirt and leggings to get her into the seat but she'll be in it for a couple months more i reckon.

The infant carriers are much safer than the bigger forward facing seats, especially if the baby is wobbling about inside it.

[Tomkat79]

Just had a look at the one you mean on Amazon...looks perfectly fine to me. Although it hasn't got any reviews yet, it's big brother has and seems to be good.
You're always gonna pay for for big branded goods,.,look at the variations in swings and bouncers and prams. Would you put your baby in a £50 travel system or would it have to be over £200 to feel safe?
We'll be using a maxi cosi because it's nice and light. Started off last time with a m&p one that was huge! Would you consider buying 2nd hand?

[TheScience]

I can't believe any 4 month old would genuinely outgrow an infant seat tbh - they'd have to either weigh more than 13kg (average weight of a 28 month old) or be so tall their head came over the top. The height of the Britax infant seat from the seat to top is 54cm (so the length of the child's back/head). A 91st centile 6 month old is only 70cm long in total.

[shalalalalalalala]

I know that a lot of my friends hadn't realised that the head rest comes off the car seat, thus giving a good 5 inches or so extra room. The headrest is just for newborns, which fits with the growing out of it by 4 months old.

I had a big baby (98th percentile for height when born, decreasing to 50th from about 9 months on) and he only went into his second car seat when he was 13 months. We had a Maxi-Cosi (the one that can go onto a pram), but no-one in my NCT group needed to buy a second seat until they were all over 1yo.

[shalalalalalalala]

To answer the actual question (sorry!): no, I wouldn't spend only £24.99 on a car seat unless I was completely convinced it was as safe, and had gone through all the same rigourous checks, as a more expensive one. If something happened, even if a different seat would have been unlikely to make a difference, I'd never forgive myself.

[TheScience]

A cheap seat will have met all the basic legal requirements, but there is a big difference in safety standards between the basic seats and the better ones. They won't have gone through the same rigorous checks at all.

[crazykat]

I don't think I'd risk it as I'd constantly be worrying about it being safe.


Do you have any close friends or family with one that you could borrow or buy off them? I wouldn't normally buy a car seat second hand but if its someone I knew I could trust I would.

[5madthings]

I agree a four month old won't have outgrown an infant seat.

My babies were all big, ds4 was 10lb 13oz at birth and went straight into 3-6mth clothes, he was still in the infant seat till 12mths.

[greentshirt]

As thescience is saying, not all car seats are created equal, which surprised me in terms of safety specs.

[5madthings]

When I had ds3 motherboard sold a first stage cataract for £45? It was actually made by maxi cosi and exactly the same as the more expensive maxi cost but it had a different seat fabric.

Do they still do that one?

[aufaniae]

Honestly? No I wouldn't trust a car seat that cheap, unless it had amazing safety reviews.

[5madthings]

Exaclty aufanie the cheaper one we got fro ds3 from mothercare had an excellwnt which review and was rated a best buy.

[cathpip]

We have a britax first class system that stays in the car but with dc3 due in a couple of weeks I also needed a seat that I could carry for school run etc. I bought one for £25 from babies r us, the idea is that it will live in the boot, dc3 will use the britax and I will transfer baby to the carry seat when at the school or swimming (were I cannot use the buggy and sling is too hot)I also cannot justify spending £££s on a seat for a few months, but then I will also not use this £25 seat for car use....

[neversleepagain]

We bought our twins infant car seats that were marked down from 60 to 30 (Mothercare own). They were fine and did the job, however, we have Maxi Cosi's in the next seat and they are much nicer than the cheaper ones.

[TheresLotsOfFarmyardAnimals]

We used the mothercare 30 (half price from 60) one as we didn't use the car much and it was as safe - we weren't using it enough to get the maxi-cosi to clip into the pram to use as a travel system.

If I have another I'd want to travel system one to clip in to the pram if I'm just nipping to the shops for half an hour. Avoid waking the sleeping baby.

[RaRa1988]

Probably would, yes - if the reviews and safety ratings were good. Personally, I didn't want one that only did up to a year/18 months though; we've got a combination one that will do up to about 4 years as that was better value for money overall.

[Waggamamma]

No I wouldn't. I go for the safest I can afford. Also sacrificing other things for this potentially life saving piece of kit.

[RaRa1988]

Safety doesn't necessary increase with price....