Is a swivel car seat necessary for baby?

[amy480]

Hello - just after some advice please as to whether a swivel car seat is necessary for 0-12/15 months? Have people found them really beneficial at this age? Any advice much appreciated! Thank you 😊

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MNHQ

For the amount of use totally worth it

Thanks so much everyone, you're all very helpful. Gosh such a minefield 🙈 I should add that we are looking to have a car seat that we can detach and add to the travel system (uppababy Cruz V2) which I think will cover the first year?! And then I guess we would be buying another after that that we would just keep in in the car?!

Not a necessity but if you have a bad back they are a god send. It also made getting them into DH's coupe much easier. If you have an SUV you won't struggle as much.

Op do you have two cars?

We had an infant seat that was easy to switch between the cars. Which was fine for DC1. Then we had two toddler seats. One new, one hand me down.

For DC2 we managed for a bit with just the infant seat, then once DH left me stuck with no seat, and I went back to work it became more convenient for us both to be able to collect both kids we bought a swivel. That did from baby to toddler (DC2 is 5 and still in it). So standard seat in one car the swivel in mine.

I do like the advantages of a baby carrier than can go in and out the car, esp for those early days. But they become VERY heavy once they have a 6 month old in them. And we tended to leave it in the car beyond that point unless baby was sleeping.

We only have a 2 door car so absolutely necessary for us!

Yes exactly. Travel system for first 6-9 months. You'll transfer the lightweight car seat between car-pram-house etc with baby in it.

At a certain point the baby will become too heavy for that, and awake for longer periods - so you'll go to a bigger fixed car seat I.e the swivel, and also a lighter-weight stroller/pushchair.

I don't find them to be beneficial enough for the space they take up. We had a Joie 360 in ours and also out Axkid Minikid and the 360 took up much more room than my Minikid. The sides on the Minikid are quite low so easy enough to get DS into.

Also, my DS hit 18kg very early (he's over 100th centile), so an 18kg seat ended up not being a good investment for us as we wanted to keep him rear facing.

I'd hold off buying anything until your DC hits 12 months and you know what centile they're following. If they're higher centile, you'll want a 25kg seat rather than an 18kg swivel seat.

I remember when the very first swivel seat came out (Maxi Cosi Axiss) in about 2010 I want to say, and MN was absolutely raving about it. Genius invention, everyone said.

Nowadays there is a huge amount of choice and most of them also rear face which is great. I agree it's a good idea to wait until your baby is close to outgrowing their baby seat. The baby seats are convenient to have for the first year or so, tend to fit all babies reasonably well and then you'll actually have the baby, so you can go to a shop and try different seats out. Look for a local independent retailer if you can, they tend to give better advice than chains. Not always, it's a generalisation.

Swivel is a nice feature, but it's also worth looking at safety rating - it is a potentially lifesaving device after all, and rotation is quite a complicated thing to add into a device that is designed to handle massive forces. I'd probably only use a swivel seat model that has a good safety rating, or from a brand that has a long standing history of good safety ratings. (Check Which, or you can read the test results in German on ADAC for free if you don't want to buy a Which subscription) If in doubt, stick to something simple.

Also important: ease of use, how it fits your car and crucially how it fits your child and is likely to fit them as they grow. A few people have mentioned that swivel type seats max out at 105cm height or 18kg weight - this is based on an average 4 year old, but about 40% of children will reach one or the other of those milestones before the age of 4 - and you only need to hit one for the seat to be outgrown. If your child is even slightly taller or heavier than average, it may be worth investing in a seat with higher limits such as 25kg or 125cm, if you don't think you'll have another baby to hand the toddler seat down to.

Car fitting issues can include the angle if you have angled seats/isofix points, plus the amount of space for the front seat passenger or driver.

Extended rear facing capability is definitely worth considering as it's safer. With the newer i-size seats, children must rear face to a minimum of 15 months but longer is better

This is such an informative and helpful post. And as I've just swiped on it to reply, I've spotted your username and remembered that we've had many a chat on here re: ERF seats in the past ❤️

I have loved having a swivel one but then again, I've no experience without one so don't know how it compares!

Ah thanks TokenGinger I have two ginger little ones now so your name always makes me smile too!