Car seats where to start!

[Xyzzzzz]

32 weeks pregnant and went to go look at car seats. Even more confused and not sure where to start. Any recommendations or advice?

Bump?

You need to decide if you want one as part of a travel system that will clip into your peak or not first really. If so, you need to get ones that are compatible. I assume the main brands of baby car seat are relatively equal in terms of safety. Then decide if you want an isofix base for the car...

*pram... not peak!!

Check out the Car Seat advice uk page on Facebook. Loads of great information there.

We went for keyfit ones, found them on Facebook

Great thanks just so overwhelmed with all the options. Thinking might just get a separate one for the car and leave it as a part of the travel system.

I used to read which? reports for car seats as they crash test rate them. I then used to go with the safest seats I could afford.

Ignore reviews written by parents on the retailers website. A few back kiddicare had car seats which buyers had rated 5 stars as their "ickle princess was delighted with the sparkly pink colour". However, which? had rated the same seat as downright dangerous in a crash.

Car seat advice U.K. on Facebook is the best place for advice and checking what fits in your car. However, with an infant carrier there isn't that much between them so you should be ok with most, especially the bigger brands (Maxi Cosi, joie, Britax, be safe, etc)

If your car has particularly sloped seats, belt fitting the seat rather than isofix can get a much better fit so don't fixated on isofix.

Which don't crash test seats. They use the ADAC official crash tests and then review them for ease of fit, material, colour etc. They're not a good source of car seat reviews. Parent website reviews are also rubbish.

The In Car Safety centre, an independent car seat specialist or looking online following advice from the Facebook group are the best places to look.

Get a maxi cosi group 0 one as it also fits most travel systems, then at 15 months + move to a Britax 2 way elite! Sorted.

Great thanks I’ll check out the Facebook page

I second which? Reviews. The most recent ones I bought were the second most highly rated, but a third of the price of the first. I found out that some I had bought were a 'don't buy' as they didn't meet their safety standards so I didn't end up keeping them. It's definitely worth checking out as you can't trust online reviews.

We had the pebble when our DC were babies and that could be clipped on to many travel systems but I never checked them out but we were happy with it.