What car seat to move to?!

[LillyMac500]

Good evening, another here baffled by car seats!
We are still using the Maxicosi Cabriofix with my 18 month old. She is still under the weight and height limit, but is fast approaching being too big for it so we really need to get something else.

Can anyone recommend what to move onto next - my preferred wish list is;
*Able to rear face for at least another 6-12 months
*Not need to buy another car seat after this, so up to 12yrs
*High rating in safety aspects
*Either light weight to transfer easy-ish to other cars, or not too expensive so I can buy two.
I’d prefer an easily moveable one, but know that’s probably not likely for this age. Or we’ll probably need to buy a second one that would be used on occasion in either our second car (old banger almost, but still use from time to time) or in a relatives car.
I’m thinking for the second one we’d possibly compromise and just get a forward facing as it’d be occasional use, but that fills me with fear a little!

How does everyone else manage when family take your kids?

Thank you! X

Joie everystage

Some of your criteria are incompatible, mainly the up to 12 years one - you can get decent forward facing harness + booster combos, but they don't rear face. Or you can get rear facing seats that convert to boosters, but they don't have good safety ratings.

Since you can get a decent but basic booster for about £30-40 later on, and standalone high backed boosters are so much more practical (less heavy/bulky) I'd scrap that particular requirement and you'll find it much easier to choose :)

At 18 months forward facing is still quite risky. It would be better to wait until 2 years old, even for an occasional use seat, and better 3 years really for full time.

So you have three size categories you could move into of rear facing seats now.

Rear facing up to 13kg and then forward facing up to 18kg:

These will last an average sized child rear facing until about 2.5 years but can be a good compromise if you're definitely sure you will forward face before the booster stage, as they tend to perform better forward facing than seats which are purely optimised for rear facing. Just avoid the generic ones.

Britax First Class Plus - not too expensive, versatile fit so can be decent for a spare seat.
Maxi Cosi Axissfix - great for a main seat, especially if you get the version with airbags (!) expensive though it is. Recline is not great in rear facing. Spins to the side.
Maxi Cosi Milofix
Maxi Cosi Beryl - unusual in that it can be fitted using seatbelt or isofix and also can harness past 18kg, but the height in it is not great, so you probably won't get all the way to 25kg in it. But it's good if you think your child will hit 18kg just 6-12 months before you're happy for them to be in a booster seat.

Up to 18kg / 105cm - this will last an average sized child until about age 4. Most of them have the option to rear face and forward face, many of them spin to the side to help get the child in. The belt fitted ones are fairly lightweight and inexpensive so can be really good for your lesser-used seat - good options for this are Joie Tilt/Steadi/Stages or Graco Enhance. However, I wouldn't recommend using these seats forward facing at all. They are just not optimised for it and have no safety features to reduce the extra risks of forward facing. They can be annoying to use as a main seat as in rear facing, the seatbelt goes across the side of the seat (like the infant carrier when belt fitted).

If you think you will definitely use it forward facing then I'd go for an isofix one as these tend to have a support leg to help reduce forward movement. Good options (in both RF/FF mode) are Britax Dualfix, Joie 360 Spin, Cybex Sirona, Besafe izi Turn.

There is one RF seat up to 18kg which can use the harness up to 25kg FF - BabyAuto Dupla. But there is no independent safety rating on it. Can be a good option if you know you'll definitely need/want to harness up to 25kg, and need to rear face for now, but don't want to rear face all the way up to 25kg. Might be an option for your second/spare seat although needs top tether.

Rear facing up to 25kg / 125cm ("Swedish seats") - these are the granddaddy of rear facing seats and work incredibly well. Last rear facing for an average sized child until age 6/7. For larger than average kids you'll need the 25kg capacity to get to age 4/5.

Tend to be lighter than the 18kg isofix ones, less expensive, take up less space in the car while giving more space for the child. The downside is that they are only rear facing and need to use extra tethers to fit which can be annoying in a second car (though if you'll use the same car all the time you can buy a second set of tethers and leave them there). Most of these have passed the Swedish Plus Test which is the strictest car seat test in the world.

Examples:
Britax Multi-Tech 3 (Actually, this one can forward face up to 18kg harnessed as well, but it's the only one that can)
Britax Max Way / Max Way Plus
Axkid Move / Minikid

Sorry that was really long but hopefully it gives you a few starting points?

Britax 2 Way Elite may work as a RF spare. It rear faces to 25kg and is a belt install so pretty flexible on which cars it can go in.

Forward facing high backed boosters are v cheap so I'd go for a good extended rear facing to take her up to about 5/6yo then move to a forward facing high backed booster to see her through.

I had the Britax 2way Elite and think it is an excellent seat.

The 2way elite is very easy to move and install - just buy a second set of tethers for the second car (20quid).

I'm not sure I'd want to use any car seat for 10 years tbh. Especially not if you transfer it between cars or take on holiday.

I came to try and help but @BertieBotts has said it all. I'm a rear facing fan and I have a high percentile child so I have a Britax maxway which Bertie actually helped me choose when I was having a car seat related meltdown. It's not particularly heavy, doesn't take up that much space and comparatively wasn't that expensive. I won't need to buy a new seat until he's in a high backed booster. Probably around age 4/5 because he's lanky.

Bertie is our resident seat expert, she's helped many people

Hi all, thank you very very much for the responses, especially @BertieBotts So helpful!!
I’m not stuck on having the same seat for a long time, it was more that others (friends/family) had said best to get a long lasting one 🙄 - but I can’t imagine using the same seat for 10 years 🙈
I definitely want to rear face as long as possible, not to an unrealistic age, but up until 3 or a bit longer would be great. Much to the annoyance of my in-laws who think I should have FF months ago!!
I’m off to check these all out now, thank you again all, really helpful xx

If you want to RF until about 3/4 years then I'd check in your child's red book to see when they are likely to hit certain weight milestones. Because a 13kg RF limit is likely not to be long enough if you want to stay rear facing that long, an 18kg RF limit is enough for most children (but then you might not be keen to have them in a booster if for example they are just-turned-3), a 25kg limit is the kind of failsafe, and tends to be comfortable rear facing for the whole period. Just because it lasts up until 7 years for some children, you would not have to use it that long. In any case the cost is about the same as an 18kg seat. So if you wanted to use it until about age 4/5 and then move to a booster as soon as you feel your child is ready for that, then it's a good option for that too. You don't HAVE to rear face all the way to 25kg, but it means you don't have to buy another seat immediately at 18kg, if that makes sense.

If you think you'll have another child within about 3 years or so, then another option is to go for an 18kg seat short term anyway, because you can simply reassess when your second baby is growing out of the Cabriofix, see where your first child is in terms of weight and size and decide whether to get them a larger RF seat, a booster seat or a combination harness/booster forward facing (and if so, to which weight).

For example, I have just moved my 2.9yo from the Joie 360 Spin into the Britax Advansafix to make the Joie free for the new baby. I probably would have kept him rear facing, but DH puts him FF all the time anyway so I wanted a better rated FF one.

I think the problem is that baby seats are expensive, and the harnessed stage is expensive and most of them only last until 18kg which is about 3/4 years. So you can get to thinking OMG, why do I have to spend out £200+ every couple of years! And a seat for all the way up to 12 years for £150-200 (because for some reason they are so much cheaper!) seems like a much more economical option, especially if you're not fussed about rear facing.

But in reality, it's simply that young children grow very fast and the second stage (harnessed/RF/FF) is the most expensive and complex stage as they are physically bigger and heavier, but not yet robust or mature enough to cope just with a seatbelt. The baby seat you can really get away with any old one, and a high backed booster (from about age 4/5 until 12) is not quite "any old one" but you can get a decent but basic one for not much money, and even the top of the line ones max out at £150. So by splitting them out you do not spend that much extra money, and you do get a better product on both sides of the deal. But over your child's life the car seat spending is weighted more heavily in those early years.

It also makes sense to look into boosters in 3-5 years when your eldest needs one, because 3-5 years is significant in terms of new developments and features, so it's nice to have the choice of newer options rather than being stuck with whatever was available when they were 1yo. Because of a (boring and complicated) law change, I expect in the next couple of years we'll start to see more seats on the market with in between weight limits, so not stuck with "up to 18kg" or "up to 25kg" but some options in between. There are only a couple like this currently.