Jane Matrix Light, Jane Strata or Britax Babysafe Sleeper?

[Loulabelle27]

Does anyone have any of these car seats and if so how are you finding them? Our third child is due in October and our baby car seat is now 9 years old so I want to get a new one. Very keen on a lie-flat one as my family live 250 miles away and we'll be visiting several times while baby is still very small, and I really believe in the benefits of keeping babies lying down, esp on long journeys (and newborns look so scrunched & uncomfortable in normal seats).

Been on Which site to check reviews and the Britax and the Strata get very good reviews - although I know the Strata doesn't lie completely flat it seems to be adjustable to almost flat (? haven't seen in the flesh yet). The Matrix wasn't reviewed; I know it had some safety issues in older models but I believe the new one has a 5 point harness which is safer and presumably now comparable in safety to the Strata?

If anyone has experience of using any of these or has any safety facts (not just scaremongering ones please! I'm paranoid enough about getting the right one!) I would be really grateful to hear. Thanks :)

Hi, we have the Jane Matrix Light- we got it with the Jane Trider, and found it very useful as you can use it as a carrycot, DD can sleep in it etc, as well as it being a carseat. The lie flat capability is very handy for long journeys in the car, and even when out and about, because you can just clip it into the pram and recline the baby, so DD wasn't all squished up like she would have been in a maxi-cosi on a Quinny for example. It basically saved us having to buy a carrycot, so saved us a couple of hundred pounds. It has a five point harness, I think the safety concerns were with a previous model.

My only bugbear is that it is pretty heavy, which I am feeling now the DD is getting bigger. I believe however that as it's a slightly bigger seat it will last us longer than a comparable infant carseat (not sure of exact weight limit), which again is handy. Since we bought ours at the start of the year they have updated it again, so you can now buy an iso-fix type base for the car to just click it in. Ours has to be belted in, which can be a pain in bad weather. I would buy the seat again, but definitely get the base for the car too for convenience.

Hope that helps!

Jane matrix and baby sleeper take up two seat when in the car, which as this is you third may be a problem for you. If you get the matrix with the base you can put the baby lying flat when you can but you have the option of it only take up one seat if necessary

Thanks for your comments. Taking up 2 seats isn't a problem as we have a 7 seater and our eldest is now tall enough not to need a car seat or booster, plus he's more than happy to sit in the "way back". We used a previous model Matrix back when DS1 was a baby (it came out well in safety tests back then before safety concerns about the single thick strap emerged - just shows you can never do right!!) and I remember it being heavy and also a pain to clip on and off the chassis. But this time I have a Bugaboo Cameleon (bought for DS2) that I plan to use as the pram and plan to use Matrix just as carseat so shouldn't be doing much carrying. I'll look into the Isofix base as well, didn't know there was one for this seat so thanks for that