Buying a car seat for the first time - help!

[winnie3838]

Hi,

I am about to go in to my third trimester so starting to get organised and currently looking at car seats. We really liked the look of the Joie Baby Spin 360 which is suitable for birth to 4yrs, but we discovered this is a seat which it seems is meant to pretty much stay in your car once it is in there and can't be removed from the base. My family live abroad & we also travel quite a lot (in normal times!) so we do really need a car seat that we can also use in other cars (with just the seatbelt), such as my parents car abroad and in rentals as they seem expensive to hire. Therefore i think we have two options and was looking for any advice that would help us.

Option 1 -
Get the Joie 360 and then a cheaper (but of course safe) baby car seat which can be used with just a seatbelt for us to use when traveling or in family cars and then do the same when baby has outgrown that one.

Option 2 -
Get a baby car seat on a base but one which can also be used with just a seatbelt and then once she has outgrown that one get the next size up. Any car seat recommendations welcome.

Just to mention we aren't fussed on the car seat being able to attach to our pram frame so I don't need to factor in that

Thanks :)

Do whatever you can within budget to keep your child rear facing for as long as possible. It's safer by far. If you're both tall might be worth looking into an axkid minikid which can rear face until 6yrs/25kg.

I personally preferred a typical baby seat that I could take out into peoples homes / restaurants and could clip on a buggy if necessary so I'd start there and then move to the axkid

As a fellow mum with family abroad. I’d get a typical group 0+ car seat that you can use with a base or just use the seatbelt.
2 reasons: they can be used in pretty much any car and it’s nice to be able to take baby out of the car in the car seat and bring them to the car in it.

So option 2.

If you are likely to be going abroad I would check it can also forward face on an aircraft, very useful once they have their own seat

Option 2 sounds like the best plan to me :) The other issue with seats like Joie 360 is that age 4 is based on an average/50th centile child - if your child is bigger than that then the seat may not last them until age 4, which is fine if you're happy to move to a high backed booster seat but annoying if you're not, as it means you end up needing to buy another seat up to 25kg, and you could have just done that straight after the baby seat to start off with.

There are plenty of great infant seats which can be fitted with and without a base. You normally buy the base separately and it's not necessary to have one at all if you don't need or want it. A lot of infant seats are also approved for use on a plane which is incredibly handy although means you need to buy your baby their own seat. I would actually say that the ability to fit onto a buggy is very useful as well for travelling, even if you don't intend to use this feature day to day.

The second stage/toddler seats are such a pain to use while travelling that I would prioritise getting the biggest/longest lasting infant seat you can possibly find, so I'd look at the following models:

Maxi Cosi Cabriofix / Citi
Joie Juva, any version of Joie Gemm
Cybex Aton M or Cloud Z (although these can be heavy seats)
Britax Baby-Safe / Baby-Safe 2 i-size / Baby-Safe i-Sense

The Maxi Cosi seats, Cybex seats, Joie Gemm seats and Baby-Safe i-Sense all go onto the "universal" type or Maxi Cosi type pram adapters. Joie Juva is only compatible with the 2 cheaper Joie strollers (which might be fine for travelling) and the first two Britax infant carriers are only compatible with Britax pram adapters, which exist for some popular buggy models but not as many as the Maxi Cosi type.

You may also want to look at the Doona car seat which is meant to be absolutely brilliant for airport travel as it has built in wheels. Long lasting, so ticks that box. But a heavy seat for everyday use, and expensive particularly compared to some of these options + a set of buggy adapters.

Even if you switch to a toddler seat at home by about 9/12 months, most babies will fit into the above infant seats until they are around 2 years old which is great for travel purposes.

Thanks so much for all this advice! It seems like option 2 is our best bet.
We are thinking of going with the Maxi Cosi Cabriofix but will properly research the other suggestions before purchasing. Thanks again.