Advice - rear facing or forward facing on a budget

[hollie84]

I need advice on car seats as I'm not sure what the best thing to do is.

I currently have a 5 month old who is in a Britax baby seat. However my mum will be looking after him from next month and I think it would be easier to get her a seat to stay in her car.

I have a budget of up to £100 and would like him to stay rear facing til 2 if possible. He is 75th centile for weight though not particularly long I don't think.

Any suggestions?

I should add my mum does already have a Kiddicare own brand forward facing toddler seat, which will rear face up to 9kg I think but doesn't feel that sturdy to me and he is already over 7kg.

I'm not sure how much it is but the Joie stages is an excellent seat and more affordable than the earlier RF seats. IF you are able to stretch the budget, the Britax 2 way elites are £200, but last for ages - they turn in to the booster seat facing forward once you're done with the harness stage.

We have this one. It's rear-facing to 13 kg for £65. www.argos.co.uk/m/static/Product/partNumber/1436769.htm

What about a Britax First Class Plus? They are always on offer somewhere for £100ish. Really good quality, sturdy seats that rf to 13kg.

What sort of age is 13kg? My oldest is average height but skinny and was too tall for the Kiddicare seat way before he got to 13kg I think.

If you dig out your red book just follow his centile line to give you an idea. The First Class has to be turned around at either 13kg or when his head is at the top. Dd2 is 2 on Sunday and still has lots of room above her head but she's only small - 25th centile, still in 12-18 month clothes generally. She still fits in her Britax carrier (just about!).

second the joie stages, they also do the tilt and the steadi however you need to make sure you check on the box that it says suitable to rearface up to 18kg as the older ones are only suitable up to 13 kg.

My 3 year old weighs 14kg and is on 60th percentile weight for age, so at a guess 13kg goes up to average 2.5-3 year old

I checked with joie about the tilt, the 13kg labelled seats are physically identical to the 18kg labelled seats, they were just released before the certification testing was complete. The seat hasn't changed.. Well, I'm taking their word for it that it hasn't. 93cm 13kg dd2 is still rf in hers but I'm not sure how much longer it will last her. I'm currently trying to get definitive information of joie at what point you have to turn it round. Overall I like the seat a lot and the price was excellent. If I wasn't having to fit 3 seats in I would have gone for a larger seat like the stages. The steadi is also good, the rear facing fit is more solid as it has a belt lock off in that mode where the tilt and stages don't.

A second vote for the Tilt here - it's an ace rf seat for under £100 (heard it was £72 in the Kiddicare sale, don't know if it's still available). I also emailed Joie to confirm that it's safe to rf to 18kg (it is). If you have a tall child the Joie Stages (£120 Kiddicare sale) is an even better bet and eventually becomes a hbb.

ihateparties do you mean what height you need to turn it round? Could I be v v cheeky and ask if you would pm me when you get an answer for Joie please? It's a long way off for us (DS is still on the middle shoulder height setting) but would still be interesting...

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll look at the First Class and the Joie seats.

Of course nightfall they've gone very quiet at the moment but I will keep asking until they tell me as I need to know!