Why don't car seat come with regulation's

[SeaNanners]

Hi all been wondering since LO was born, why don't car seats come with some sort of back support or a physicians approval ? in all the years baby car seat's have been around it doesn't seem as if they have improved or advanced at all well apart from in price that is, people always say never leave babies in car seat's for more than 2 hour's etc but it's impossible if your on a long journey down the motorway to see relatives even with breaks my friends have told me there LO's back seem sore and stiff and no amount of rubbing help them its really sad that manufacturer's deem this acceptable car seats should be made laying down or with memory foam or something
i own a Jane Matrix that converts from flat and sits up it cost £260 which is ridiculous for a bit or plastic in my opinion
manufacturers really need to stop taking parents for a ride with the prices they charge for things we cant do without and have no choice to buy :( rant over

[BertieBotts]

This is an old thread but the seat has not changed (in 7 years!) It has the full text of the Which? report on it.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/pregnancy/292985-anyone-seen-the-which-car-seat-report/AllOnOnePage

[mummytime]

"Do you even have a child ?"

OP Did you mean to be so rude?

You will discover that however thoroughly you have researched, however you think you are the first person to have a baby, and however much people pre-baby seemed to think you were wonderful - that people will disagree with you.

Just because people disagree with you doesn't mean you are right and they are idiots.

If the Car seat you love is a "Don't buy" from Which, I wouldn't buy it.
My DC spent a lot of time in car seats, they got no more uncomfortable than anyone would having sat in one position for a long time. 2 hour brief breaks are prefectly do-able. They are advisable for the driver anyway.
On a recent trip to Yorkshire from London we stopped at about that for loo breaks and to swap drivers (and my kids are mainly teenager).
My kids didn't spend all day in their car seats as small children, nut did find them very comfortable as judged by how quickly they went to sleep in them.

[Permanentlyexhausted]

There are two different AIBUs in your post.

Firstly, should car seats be more comfortable? Well, as plenty of other posters have said, they aren't designed with comfort foremost. They are designed for safety. I suspect, going by my 'mother's instinct', that when my children were whingy during or after long journeys, they were in fact bored and fed up of not being able to move much. That is not the same as being stiff and sore.

Secondly, car seats cost a lot of money for a bit of plastic. Again YABU. You aren't paying simply for the materials, or even the materials and labour. You are paying for the research, development, and testing as well. The work that goes into making sure that your car seat will protect your baby should you be unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident. That is a constant process. New things are discovered and new improvements made. As a previous poster said, you probably spend more on things that are really just luxury items which don't protect your baby in any sense.

[Armadale]

OP trust me, you really, really need to read the Which guide. You can join for £1 for the first month and then cancel to read it.

I am thinking about which to buy at the moment and this scared the daylights out of me.

Manufacturers are only required to test front and back crash impact for baby seats, not side impact, as cars are never hit from the side, are they?

The which tests also look at side impact, and some of the most expensive and exclusive car seats offered basically no protection at all in the event of a side impact, and in some of the videos you can actually see the test dummy babies heads being thrown forward and to the side clear of the seat protection so that they hit the hard metal side of the car's interior.

The car seat that you think makes babies looks comfier is not one you'd contemplate for a second if you read that report. I'd get shut of it today, if I were you.

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

Which reports have had a strong influence over the car seats that we have chosen for our ds's.

Safety rating first, then check car compatibility and finally a bonus if the first stage ones were compatible with a travel system that would also fit in the car.

Things have changes a fair bit since our ds's wer born, so always check for the most up to date reviews.

YABU OP.

[littleredsquirrel]

OP has disappeared.