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Car seat for grandparent

12 replies

Bluebellpainting · 25/07/2020 19:08

Hi. Looking for recommendations for an inexpensive second car seat for my mum to use for when she is doing the nursery pick up and on days she is looking after DS. Will only be used a couple of times a month but swapping ours over into her car isn’t an option as I will be doing drop off in the mornings. It won’t be used for long journeys. DS will be about 14 months when this starts and he is a long baby (on the 91st for length since birth).

OP posts:
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LouiseTrees · 25/07/2020 20:19

Do your nursery have storage space? Ours does and we can leave the car seat there. Then she only needs a base in her car if the seat you have is one that detaches from the base?

OnceUponAPotato · 25/07/2020 20:25

We have a joie 360 as grandparent car seat, works well!

RandomMess · 25/07/2020 20:25

Are they going to leave it set up in the car or keep taking it in and out?

Does their car have isofix?

Bluebellpainting · 25/07/2020 20:43

Thanks everyone. Not sure about storage so will ask if this is an option but I don’t think they do. Car has isofix and she is planning to leave it set up in the car and only take it out on rare occasion she needs the space.

OP posts:
teaandlotusbiscoff · 25/07/2020 22:11

As your DS is on the 91st centile you’d be better off getting a 25kg seat as it’ll last longer and until DC is older (around seven in average children, five ish in taller) Ones to take a look at would be the two way elite or Britax MaxWay as they’re usually around £185 ish at in car safety centre Smile

longtimelurkerfirsttimeposter · 25/07/2020 22:16

Reebaby spin 360 is on offer at precious little one using bounty code, 69.99

BertieBotts · 25/07/2020 23:38

Reebaby are cheap generic Chinese seats and I wouldn't touch them personally. If you need a seat for £70 the Joie Tilt is a much safer bet, although I'd recommend to keep it rear facing.

OP do you want a rear facing seat? (I would strongly recommend this at least for now). Will your mum want this, and to keep him RF long term, or is she likely to want to turn him around? Do you know if she has top tether in her car (this is required for forward facing taller children past about age 3).

Bluebellpainting · 26/07/2020 07:25

@teaandlotusbiscoff thanks will take a look at it.
@BertieBotts- thanks. Yes aiming to keep him rear facing as long as possible. I’m not sure he will get to 4 due to his length but ideally want to keep going as long as we can. My mum was surprised about the rear facing for so long compared to when I was little but is happy to keep rear facing as long as possible. Yes does have car does have top tether.

I know aiming for a longer lasting seat would potentially look like a good option but not a necessity. This is her first grandchild and there are likely to be more (I have 2 younger sisters). She is quite keen to move to high back booster type when age appropriate and then use this seat for any younger grandchildren (I think she is hinting for me to have another) so if he outgrows it at around 3 1/2 or 4 it will probably get used by a sibling or cousin.

OP posts:
BertieBotts · 26/07/2020 08:21

Well, if she is happy to rear face as long as possible Tea's suggestions are good. :) I was only going to say to look at something like BabyAuto Dupla if you think she would want to go forward facing later. But you could look into harness/booster seats which harness up to 25kg later, especially as this seems to be an expanding section of the market at the moment.

Otherwise for up to 18kg you can save money by going for the Joie seatbelt fitted seats - Tilt, Steadi, Stages (would give Every Stage a miss) but the seatbelt does cross the bit where you put the child into the seat, which is a bit annoying.

Spin seats are nice but dependent on the car. Having just recently changed from a tiny car to an SUV, it's made a huge difference - the spin is actually useful now whereas in our old smaller car I was still having to duck in and make sure I didn't bump DS2's head on the ceiling and arguably the spin wasn't that much of an improvement over a purely rear facing seat. It was a bit easier to get the harness tight when he first went in it.

My way of thinking is kind of - rear facing is rear facing. It's incredibly safe regardless of which seat you get, so apart from looking at the rear facing limits and checking it fits your car, it doesn't really matter which seat. Whereas if you're thinking of forward facing at all, that's a much riskier thing to do so you want a seat which you're definitely going to use correctly every time, preferably has as good a safety rating as you can afford, etc.

RandomMess · 26/07/2020 12:06

At the end of the day it's always worth investing in safest car seat.

Even very tall DC tend to fit in rear facing for ages as their length is mostly in their legs and they just sit cross legged.

HoneyWheeler · 26/07/2020 12:10

I always recommend the Facebook group Car seat Advice UK. They have trained moderators and really helped me choose a seat for my son.

Rear facing was important to me and my son is tall and heavy so a rf to 25kg seat was the most economical option in the long run, although they are expensive upfront. I'd also recommend getting one that has been Swedish Plus tested.

We bought the Axkid minikid seat, which was about £350 so definitely not cheap. I bought an extra set of tethers for my PILs car and it literally takes two minutes to swap the seat between cars now that we both have a set of tethers.

If my son hadn't been as heavy I would have gone for a Joie Stages which RFs to 18kg and is very cost effective form memory

OverTheRainbow88 · 26/07/2020 12:47

I would get a spinning one for grandparents, it will save their backs lifting in and out. We have the Joie 360

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