Head flopping forward

[poppyflower1803]

Hi there,

We have our 3 month daughter in the joie isnug, a really comfy seat which I love! However recently my daughters head has been flopping forward when she sleeps. Which obviously has me panicking! I've tried taking out the newborn insert (as she is just on the recommended height limit being a long baby) but that seemed to make it worse so immediately put it back in.

There is no recline feature on this car seat.

Is this ok? She has strong head control already but I worry she is too young to put her head back if she is in deep sleep.

Thanks for any advice

It's not ideal.

First of all I would try pulling her down further in the seat and kind of tilting her hips to encourage a lying rather than sitting position, although you are probably already placing her in a lying position at 3 months. Don't be afraid to sit with the seat when she's in a happy, calm mood and experiment with placing her higher up and lower down to see the difference. Kind of scoop your arms/hands under the sides of her and move her up and down a little bit.

Secondly, are you fitting using the base or seatbelt? Some cars have quite a steep slope in the back seats and this combined with isofix points that are located quite low down can place isofix seats at quite a severe angle which can cause this issue. The fix for this is to try fitting without the base, because you will generally find you have a little flexibility of angle when you're fitting the seat using the seatbelt alone. You might only need to do this for a couple of weeks until she gets more head control. Otherwise, Joie do a base called the i-Base Advance which is compatible with the i-Snug and has an angle adjust option on it, you can use this to counteract sloping seats.

Hi @BertieBotts,

Thank you for commenting! I should add a few more things of note. I realised my partner forgot to put the newborn wedge back in when we tried her without it (hence why her head was flopping forward!), with the newborn insert back in, we don't have any head flopping and she looks comfy and secure, but that leads me onto another question! The reason we took the insert out was because my long daughter is 65cm, and the manual says when the infant reaches 60cm to take out the infant insert, however that is when we get the head flopping. Is it ok to leave the infant insert in beyond the length? Her head is about an inch- inch 1/2 near to the top of the head support. She seems like she still has room? She's quite skinny so doesn't really 'fill out' the seat without the support.
I have seen the ibase advance and have looked into getting it, but for our next seat we will hopefully be getting the joie I-spin 360 so it wouldn't have much use left.

I can try play around with her without the infant insert to see if we can get it right :)

Keep the insert in if she doesn't get head flop :) It doesn't sound like you need the special base if that solves it. The 60cm is just a minimum height you have to leave it in until, it's totally fine to keep using it as long as it is comfortable. With Joie seats they tend to say keep it in as long as possible.

Just a heads up, although the Joie i-Spin 360 is a lovely seat, if your daughter is long, it might not last her as long as you would hope, as it is limited to 105cm child height, which if she continues on her current line (not guaranteed, it can also be tricky to measure them accurately and just a centimetre or two can make a dramatic difference to the centile) she will likely reach at around 2.5 years old.

Assuming one reason you've chosen it is for the extended rear facing use, I'd recommend looking at some of these seats just to see what you think as well as they can be used up to 125cm which would be more like 5 years old. These can all be used straight after the infant carrier so you wouldn't have to buy another seat in between.

Britax Max Way plus
Axkid Minikid
Besafe Stretch
Avionaut Sky

Hi again @BertieBotts!

Thank you for the clarification, I also contacted joie and sent over some pictures of my daughter in the seat who confirmed we needed to keep the insert in longer so luckily we haven't had any problems since!

Ah that's interesting on the height difference between the seats. I did have my heart set on the ispin 360 as it was an isize seat, but have heard of the axkid one and the britax one, not sure if they are isize or Swedish plus tested though? I'm having such a hard time navigating the world of ERF car seats as well as car seat safety vs value for money!

By i-Size are you looking for the standardised isofix fitting, or just the testing to the newer R129 standard with the side impact test? i-Size actually means the former but a lot of people use it to mean the latter so it can be a bit confusing. I can explain more about this if you like.

All four seats that I mentioned are Swedish Plus tested. The Joie i-Spin 360 is not plus tested, although the Joie i-Spin Safe is. That's very similar to the i-Spin 360, the main difference is that the 360 version also has the option to be used forward facing, whereas the i-Spin Safe is rear facing only. If the highest safety is your concern, then you won't want to use the forward facing mode at all anyway.

Besafe Stretch and Avionaut Sky are approved under the newer regulation R129, so they've been though that extra testing including side impact test. Axkid Minikid and Britax Max Way Plus are approved under the older regulation R44, but they both have really good side impact protection on them and it's likely that they would also meet or exceed the R129 standard, they were just older seats designed before that regulation came in.

If you're looking for isofix fitting there is only one 125cm limit rear facing seat which is also isofix, this is Axkid One. It's quite a bit more expensive than the Joie and other seats I've mentioned.

You could also just wait and see what her height is like when she's closer to outgrowing this seat, as when they are little it can be quite difficult to measure them accurately and this could potentially cause an incorrect estimate.

we have the axkid minikid. it's a brilliant car seat. I'd love to get the One but its out of our budget since we had to buy one for us, our childminder and grandparents car!

Hi @BertieBotts,

I have taken your advice and am looking away from the I-spin! I am interested in the axkid one, which is currently on sale so thinking of getting it but my other option would be waiting until she outgrows her isnug and then looking at the axkid mini kid I think it was?

@boydy99

We have the same problem! I would like the axkid one but I have to buy two/three car seats!

The One is meant to be a really quick and easy option to move between vehicles if that would mean you need to buy less seats. Or maybe the One for the car you use most and then Axkid move or Britax Max way for the other cars? As these often tend to go on offer for under £200. So you save money compared with 3x Minikid seats.

@BertieBotts that sounds like a plan to us! The axkid one is currently on offer, hefty initial price but hoping it will be worth it looking at the reviews :)