Group 1 Car Seat recommendations

[dhughes123]

Hi all,

This type of question has probably been asked a million times over but here goes;

Can anyone recommend a good group 1 car seat? I'm after one that has a good recline as my baby is a heavy sleeper and tends to snooze in the car.

I've been tempted by the Britax Dualfix and the Cybex Sirona but reviews I've read have stated that both these seats don't recline very well, and that their children's head bobbed forward once they dozed off.

Can any recommend a good seat that will be comfortable for a 10-month-old to sleep in?
It doesn't necessarily need to be an ISOFIX, i'd just like to hear your thoughts!

Thanks,
Dyf.
PS - I'm a dad on Mumsnet, is that even allowed?

How heavy is your baby? If he's 'average' (around the 50th centile on the growth charts) an isofix car seat will be fine because he'll get to 4 years old before he gets too heavy for it. However if he's approaching the 75th centile (or above), or if he's tall too, a seatbelt-fitted seat would be a better choice because most of them go up to 25kgs. It's important to buy a seat that your baby can use until he's at least 4 because that's the minimum age that a child can safely (from a physical point of view) and sensibly use a high backed booster.

There is nothing wrong with the Sirona or Dualfix, it's just that a combination of low isofix points in a car and back seats that slope towards the rear of the car will mean that most of the recline of the child seat is cancelled out. They are also the two of the shortest seats (up the back of the seat) so a tall child might outgrow them before they are 3.

If you were looking at Britax seats the Max Fix II would be a much better isofix choice.

If it was swivel you were after Joie do the 360 Spin.

These two seats go up to 18kgs, some people swear by their swivel seats but unless you have a very bad back I don't think the swivel function is necessary at all. It's so easy to get a child in and out of a rear facing seat because the car door isn't in your way.

Securatot is a good website to look at just to see what range of seats are available generally. My daughter has a Britax Multi Tech II as her main seat (25kgs) and a Joie Stages as a spare. The Stages is an 18kgs harnessed seat, but she can still use it rear facing at 4 1/2 because she only weighs 14kgs. I'd recommend either of those seats, subject to them fitting your car.

I love my besafe izi kid i size seat because of the fab quick 'in use' recline amongst other features. If your baby is due to reach 18kg before age 4 (HBB age ) then they do a belted version called the plus which is up to 25kg.