Car seat for 1yo

[ItsTheTreasure]

Looking for a new car seat for just turned 1yo. We are looking at rear facing but so many it seems would have the seatbelt in the way when trying to get the baby in and it seems like such a faff? Is there any without this that aren't £200 plus?

We also have 2 other kids in back on a booster and high back booster so it can't be too wide.

We were looking at a babyauto seat but I haven't heard much about them, does anyone have experience of these?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[BertieBotts]

Yes. It gets easier again once you get onto high backed boosters! It's just this in between stage which is complicated!

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

The Britax 2 Way Elite has the seat belt go under the seat so easy to get the little one in and out.

[ItsTheTreasure]

Thanks for such a great reply! We do have isofix but not sure about top tether points. I'll check out the seats you have suggested, thank you. It's much simpler when you're buying a infant car seat!

[BertieBotts]

Do you have isofix? It is the belt fitted ones that have the seatbelt in the way so you can avoid that by choosing an isofix seat. Joie 360 Spin is popular and Graco Turn2me is the same seat with cheaper covers on it. Isofix seats do take up a bit more space but these are fairly compact models.

Otherwise the seats that rear face up to 25kg are a bit more compact (better for fitting 3 across) and the seatbelt goes through the seat rather than around the back, then they use tethers to support instead. But they are mostly £200+. Axkid Move is sometimes about £190, or you could look at Britax Two Way Elite. Although they are expensive, it can be worth paying the extra because they do last that much longer. For an example for a child that will get to age 4 in an 18kg seat you will normally be able to use a 25kg seat until they are about 7 - so 6 years rather than 3 years for a baby who is 1 now. Or a child that will outgrow an 18kg seat by age 3.5 typically gets to age 6 in a 25kg seat - 5 years rather than 2.5 years.

Then yes there are some cheaper isofix ones on the market now unfortunately all from pretty dubious brands. BabyAuto seems slightly better than some of the others - as far as I could tell, they are a company based in Spain and they do testing at a university lab, so they aren't one of the mass produced generic ones (which is what most of the ultra cheap ones are) but they do make seats cheaply which can be a red flag and their seats do have the same problems as some of the other cheaper seats.

Anyway, for the cheap/unknown brand isofix ones, you'll want to download manuals or look at fitting videos to work out if they have these issues:

They often need to be fully reclined to rear face
They often have a lower rear facing limit (10kg or 13kg instead of 18kg)
They often need to use the seatbelt to fit rear facing, even if they are isofix.
They may use top tether (only newer vehicles have the anchor points for this)
If it's a spin seat, the belt or tether can sometimes prevent the seat from spinning.

That's aside from them generally being flimsy and poor quality. I'd also avoid any brands that only seem to exist on amazon - they are potential Chinese counterfeits.