Confused on what's best to buy!

[Poppy1989]

Hi ladies,
Wondering if anyone has advice on a car seat.....

Im 25 weeks and worrying that I haven't looked at car seats yet!

Confused to what's the best.... isofix.... 360 turning one?!

Had a quick look online and the maxi cosi pebble does isofix base and seat belt which would be handy! But the reviews on the 360 ones are good!

Any advise would be good thank you x

'Best' would be an infant carrier (the pebble is a good one) and then buy an extended rear facing seat that will last beyond 4 years old (18kg or 25kg weight limit)

The 360 is good but it cannot offer the same recline as an infant carrier because it has to fit a child up to 18kg so some compromises have to be made. The other problem with buying that now is that you might have a child who is above the 50th centile for height or weight and therefore would outgrow the seat before 4. For my DS, that would be at around 2.5! Then you have to buy another seat anyway. It would be better to buy an infant carrier which will last until 13kg (12-18 months) and then once your child is here you can predict their weight and height at 4 and judge whether you need an 18kg or a 25kg seat.

As for a base, it's convenient but not necessary if you have a budget. It's not safer than strapping a seat in with the seatbelt, it's just there's less room for human error with isofix. I always had a base but could easily have survived without it.

So my advice... get an infant carrier for 12-18mo. Maxi cosi is fine or Joie, Be Safe, Britax, etc. Not the cheap brands. Then get a 25kg seat which could keep your child rear facing to about 6 - the Axkid Minikid or Britax Two Way Elite are superb seats.

@teaandbiscuitsforme thank you so much!
That really does help a lot.

We’ve gone for a Joie infant carrier birth to approx 14 months which can be used with our pram and then the second Joie car seat (purchased at the same time due to a good deal) up to approx 4 years.
I choose these as apparently they meet a higher standard of safety (some seats just meet a minimum safety standard, which is fine but I just felt I wanted to go for as best as I could).
Good luck, car seat buying is so confusing.

Yes teaandbiscuits' advice is very good. Look for rear facing as long as possible. Seats up to 25kg that I have seen never have isofix bases but instead have a support pole and anchor to the seat in front either via the base or a top tether. You will save £££ in the long run if you get a 9-25kg rear facing seat. The extra safety test is called the Swedish plus test. It is a voluntary test and is only for rear facing seats.

Do you want something which is portable and practical, will sit on a buggy, can be carried around with sleeping child in etc (very useful) or would you prefer one which can stay in the car, and you don't have to upgrade for longer?

Budget wise you can do either for the same, for little, for more, it's not really an issue these days so it's which setup would be more convenient for you. I agree with teaandbiscuits that the combination of an infant carry type seat and then a well designed ERF seat is the best idea these days for continued safety.

Worth noting that if you decide to have another child the ones which stay in the car from birth tend to go up to about 3-4 years so if you'll have another child within that time span, they'll also need a seat of their own - whereas if you get one of each stage you can pass them down.

The pebble is an excellent seat and compatible with lots of prams so if you're looking at that it's a good choice, very popular. Around that price range, though, I'd also look at:

Britax Baby-Safe plus shr ii
Joie i-gemm
Cybex Aton 5

I would also be wary of the draw of this idea of the shared base which can work for multiple seats. It seems useful when you're looking at baby seats, but most Group 1 seats don't require a base, usually only the ones designed for these systems. The point of them is essentially to trick you, the consumer, into thinking that it's going to be most cost-effective to buy that company's next stage seat. This is not necessarily the case so I would not rely on these promises that the multi-seat base is money saving. That said, there is nothing wrong with a multi-seat base, if it seems like the right one for your infant seat, it's still worth buying, and if the next stage up seat seems like the best choice, nothing wrong with that either! But I would not let this little trick push you into thinking it's the only/best choice.