To be stressed about choosing a car seat?

[ewille]

Argh, DD is 9 months old and is in need of a new car seat. There is too much choice, too many things to take into consideration and I'm getting stressed! Stupid eh.

My DH very helpfully said "whatever you think is right" so I thought I chose one of those Kiddy car seats with the funny tray instead of a harness. I found one for £175 which I thought was a lot to cough up but if it lasted until she is 12 then its not so bad. Then my DH said "what's wrong with a £50 one" and then pointed another article that said they should be rear facing and then realised how much they cost and said "I'm sure a front facing one will be fine." ARGHHHHHHHHH.
AIBU to ask him to either help me choose based on criteria of safety, comfort and cost or just leave it to me and cough up?
AIBU to think that these articles prey on our fear of harm to our children and create paranoia? Would front facing seats really be approved if they were so unsafe? What should I do???? ARGHHHHHHHHH.
AIBU to have a gin and tonic and pick one out of a hat?

can I just ask, while we're on the subject of car seats, what you do with children who are nowhere near the weight limits for the next stage up seats?

My DD is 3 and a half, getting too long for her stage 1 seats - as in we're running out of shoulder adjustment but weighs in at a paltry 12kg?

Most of the next stage car seats appear to start from either 15 or 18kg, neither of which my DD is likely to achieve any time soon.

Any advice would be helpful, if anyone else out there has a child at the extreme end of the weight range!

I'd talk to Cathy and Linda in Essex (link above) and ask their advice :)

My guess would be to consider seats like the Britax 1-2-3 Evolva, but there might still be an issue that below 15kg the child should use a 5-point harness but the shoulder straps won't go high enough to be comfortable. Sorry that's a bit vague - if anything I've had the opposite problem (DD was 9lb 12 at birth and her shoulders wouldn't squeeze into her infant carrier at 7 months...)

You can get seats which cover both weight categories, yes. It would be worth going to a car seat shop to try one out if you can, see how much room for her shoulders. Or most of the group 1 rearfacing seats can go forward facing with a harness for much longer, or you can buy special needs seats which are harnessed to a higher weight limit.

Or, again, something like the Kiddy seats would be good as there are no straps to grow out of. I think the group 1 only one might be uncomfortable if she got too tall though as the side impact bits don't go up that high.

Thanks for the input and apologies for the hijack!

Its just beginning to become an issue with the maxi cosi seat.....literally we are at the highest point so once thats too tight we are going to have to get a new seat.

DD was tiny at birth and at 3 and a half is the weight of an average 2 year old. I forsee trouble with the next stage car seat......

They can't really grow out of the next one, so no worries there :)