Help - maxi cosi ratchets newborn baby to standing position?!

[PapaAl]

Hi everyone,

I'm a soon-to-be-first-time-dad trying to figure out our new car seat. We bought the Maxi Cosi Pebble and I've been able to follow the instructions to fit it into the back seat, rear-facing with the seat belt through the 3 blue marker points. All fine and dandy... except I seem to have discovered a massively dangerous flaw!

Every time the car seat rocks back, the seat belt tightens and ratchets up the seat to a higher angle, again and again until the poor baby would virtually be upright. I'm guessing this would happen a little every time I accelerate. Surely it shouldn't be like this?

What am I doing wrong?

Also without one of those fancy isofix bases, it's also not clear the angle the car seat should be resting on the back seat... the Pebble is curved at the bottom so it just slips around.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks

Have you watched a youtube instructional video? I found that the most helpful thing after discovering we'd been doing it wrong for several weeks

Hmm. It shouldn't move at all so you have done something wrong. Although have you tried actually driving around with it in? I can't see how it moves so much it would actually be upright.

Try watching this vid to give you more of an idea

Buy a fancy isofix base. Honestly, they're worth their weight in gold. Certain to have the car seat fitted correctly every time as the green lights will tell you it's ok. None if this faffing.

Thanks for the vid - I think I've followed it to a t. Notice at 2:57 he pushes down to test it but not up? After I install the seat, I give it a rattle (so it bumps up and down) and it ends up like the second pic.

I just did a test drive and it didn't seem to have done it noticeably, so I will ensure my boy racer days end with the start of my fatherhood ;)

On the isofix topic - roughly how much does it cost to retro fit? I have a 15 year old pre-isofix car that has got a few years of life left, didn't particularly want to waste much money adding isofix to old car.

The Pebble fits on the Maxi Cosi EasyBase 2 which is a seatbelted only base. It will not fit on the Easyfix base.

Not sure what's going wrong. It certainly shouldn't end up at that angle. I haven't had the pebble only the cabriofix and that didn't move much at all when secured with the seatbelt.

A base is very useful as it doesn't need refitting every time you go out.

Did you pull the seat up yourself? I've never noticed a seat move upwards like that just during normal driving.

We used the easybase which is not isofix and the carseat has always been absolutely rock solid within it. Well worth the money.

Get a non Isofix base - they're worth it, honestly.

It doesn't look right but I can't put my finger on why.
Have you checked the Maxi Cosi website to see if it's compatible with your car? Or can you get the shop you bought it from to do you a demo?

I don't think the seat would move up with the weight kf a baby I it but it looks on your photos as though your rear car seats tip back quite a lot. I had an old focus with ds1 and had this problem - I had a base which put the seat Iin a bettrt position but on the odd occasion I put him in without a base I just made sure to push the back of the maxi cosi down to make his position as flat as possible.

I think you just need to start off with the seat in a flatter position. So that the end of the base underneath the baby's feet is up off the seat of your car.

I never used a base with my Britax Baby safe infant carrier, and I'm pretty sure that's what I did with it.

The higher up the backrest of your car's seat the Pebble is touching, the better. This is what will stop it rebounding in a crash.

Have you pulled the seatbelt as tight as it will go. I'm sure that when you are driving the seat is not going to bounce around and work itself upright.

I also think that your seatbelt (at the lower anchorage point) is coming out of the seat in a bad position. Obviously you can't change this, but mine come from much lower down, out of the 'sitting' flat section of seat not the 'backrest' section. I don't think this is helping with your install either.

Maybe a base is the way forward. A seatbelted one is just as safe as ISOFIX.

Did you check the car seat is suitable for your car? I had one of these and it was rock solid, no movement at all.

Where did you get it from? Take it back and ask then to show you how to fix it properly. Most stores will do this happily.

I agree that you might need to tip it up a bit so the seat it not exactly flat on the car seat. Your car seats do look slightly bucket like.

If you go to halfords or mothercare or the like they will help fit it for you.

We had two car seats - one for each car with one being isofix and one seatbelt and once you get the hang of it the seatbelt fit is perfectly safe.

We have just bought the Pebble and have a base but were practising using it with a seatbelt too in case we take the baby in someone else's car and noticed exactly the same issue.

Hi everything

Thanks so much for all the replies. DD was born last week (yay! ) and we have been in hibernation since.

I have now used the car seat in real life 2 or 3 times and not had this issue with the seat moving by itself. You just need to be careful not to knock it back with your hand while you're fitting it. @eurochick I think it should be safe, for me it was a case of getting a bit over-protective of my unborn child!

I found that adding the buggy adaptor helps to stabilise it... a bit like giving it extra skis in either side. Stops the car seat from rocking around so much. (Though I did notice a mother using the car seat as a rocker on the floor... innovative use...)

No way I am going to add isofix, I need it as another excuse to the wife to buy a new motor

Cheerio

I'd invest in a family fix base that beeps also you can sell the base on after or buy one 2nd but you cant sell/buy 2nd hand car seats. i find bases so much safer i wouldn't risk a child's life by just strapping the seat up like that it doesn't look safe also you can buy the maxicosi pearl to go on the base after baby has grown out of the pebble so its a good investment