Advice needed - car sear for new baby vs existing BeSafe

[LimePi]

Hi all,

need some advice re car seat for DD2 who is due in couple of weeks.

DD1 is currently in BeSafe izi Twist which I’m very happy with, she’ll be 4 in December, well below 15Kg but might be approaching 105 cm limit so ill need to
move her to something else (probably Axkid or another ERF one) soon.

It was purchased in 2020 so should have life left. In theory it is from newborn and I still have an insert, so I could i guess put new baby in BeSafe and her into new one straight away.

2 issues:

• i want a new baby car seat light and pushchair compatible at least for 6m (and BeSafe isnt it)
• by husband is tall so BeSafe won’t fit behind him and I guess it means an ERF Axkid for DD1 either. Don’t know what to do with this one.

also not all car seats are compatible with my chosen pushchair (Mountain Buggy Swift)

so - I was going to get a Cybex with Isofix base or maxi cosi with isofix base for DD2 and then figure out swapping car seats situation later when DD1 will definitely be too big

question:

• would you choose Cybex Aton or Cybex cloud in this situation? Somehow I’m not keen on Maxi cosi although we had old cabriofix with DD1 for first few months
• would you move DD2 to a different carseat earlier? Are there ERF which are not as big as BeSafe and can fit behind my husband’s seat?

thank you

Do you have the newborn insert for the Besafe ie the Baby-Hugg one? The normal insert for it is only from 60cm (about 3-5 months) not from birth. Unless you had it for your DD from birth you probably wouldn't have this one because it costs about £100 extra.

If you don't have that the issue is solved because it costs about as much as an infant carrier :)

The Axkid ERFs take up less room than the isofix spin seats, so should fit behind DH. It's because they aren't as reclined, and don't have the rebound bar.

The pushchair lists are always incomplete and out of date. If it says that a Cybex will fit then usually any newer Cybex will fit (etc).

Personally I don't think the Cybex Cloud is worth paying 3x the cost of the basic Aton - whichever Aton is the latest. But others will disagree.

Kids are screaming, be back later.

OK I am back.

Sorry I used the wrong name for the Besafe insert, it's called "Baby Shell" and it would have been the Besafe izi Twist B. If you do not have this insert it is only suitable from 61cm.

I wonder if you have been put off Maxi Cosi because you likely got advice from one of the car seat pages when you bought the Besafe about 3-4ish years ago. People don't usually end up with this seat unless they have been speaking to car seat enthusiasts, it's not a common model in the UK. (I love it, I think it's great).

So at this time, R129 seats were still fairly new, meaning you had 0-4 years seats, or 9m-7 year seats, and nothing in between, and all the Maxi Cosi baby seats except the original Cabriofix had a 75cm limit, which was a problem when babies outgrew them before they fit into the "from 9 months" seats. Around 3-4 years ago, Maxi Cosi were getting loads of negative comments on those car seat expert pages for this reason and everyone said to avoid them.

However, this isn't really an issue for you. You already have the Besafe seat to move DC2 into, which is suitable from 61cm (or maybe from birth if you have the baby shell inlay). There are loads of "from 61cm" seats around now. 75cm is usually enough to get to 6 months and the Maxi Cosi seats are lightweight and tend to fit nicely with a seatbelt if you don't want a base - so I would not necessarily rule out maxi cosi in your position. You may also be able to get a Besafe infant carrier, if you prefer that brand - they use the same adapters.

The other thing I'd query is whether you got the Besafe because you have sloped seats in your car. If you did, then you might want to factor that into your infant carrier choice, because only a few brands have the tilting base for infant seats.

Thank you so much for your super thorough response, BertieBotts! ❤️

sorry I myself went down rabbit hole of trying to find out whether I have Baby Shell or not, and you are totally right - I don’t! Izi twist back then was advertised from 6m anyway and that’s when we bought it.

and you are right that I ended up buying it because of talking to a friend who was major ERF enthusiast so I totally geeked out on ERF research in 2020, going down the rabbit hole of comparing ADAC and Plus Test results etc 🤣 I remember I really considered Axkid One but it was fairly new and didn’t go through the Plus Test yet at this stage or something (it was lockdown and I had plenty of time to read on anything I could find once I got slightly obsessed 🤣 plus we couldn’t look at car seats or get an installer so had to choose online and went with safest option). I’m still quite happy with it!

so re DD2, thank you so much for your tips! I will probably go with Cybex Aton B2, just need to decide whether we should get an Isofix base or not…considering I’m likely to have it for 6m or a year max, and then move on. I think our seats are pretty regular. May I ask, does the base make it safer (in which case ill get the base) or just more convenient?

We had cabrio fix without base with DD1 for first 6m that something in the family passed along but then we barely went anywhere because of lockdown.

I don’t remember why I don’t want Maxi Cosi, more so that Cybex feels a bit nicer for me and seems to have a bigger hood. 🤷‍♀️ and price wise its not massively different from Cybex Aton (and Pebble Plus is pretty expensive with the base as well).

sorry for so many questions but the last one - if I consider Axkid for DD2 as next seat, do you know by any chance which retailer in South East is now stocking them in-store? So we can try if it fits behind DH seat? There definitely was barely anyone in 2020, but maybe that’s changed. I think my husband will have a heart attack if I propose Axkid One due to its cost but it has a handlebar and looks huge and I suspect it won’t fit 🤣

Thank you again, really appreciate your answers!

If you’re on Facebook, join Extended Rear Facing (ERF) Car Seat Safety and make a post with your questions and they should be able to point you towards your nearest independent retailer. They’ll help you with the fit and provide aftercare too.

This one has been ADAC tested both with and without the base, and in this case it gets very slightly better safety with the base - but it's 0.1 points difference - it doesn't really matter. Both really good scores.

In theory, the base makes it less likely it will be fitted incorrectly, but you do have to make sure you push the seat into the base and hear the "click" - it's possible to accidentally not click it into place, although usually the movement of the car plus weight of the baby would make it click in after some driving anyway.

It is not difficult to fit a car seat with seatbelt, you can again usually try this out in the shop before you buy to see what it's like. If you ever fitted the Cabriofix with seatbelt,it's basically the same.

I don't know which retailers have stock, sorry. But if you go on the Axkid website you should be able to get a list of local retailers and if they have websites, they would probably show stock levels and/or have an email contact for you. Some of them don't have retail premises, but will drive to meet you at your house and bring the seat(s) that you want to try with them.

Yes, a lot of the FB groups have the ERF specialist retailers as members or even admin, so it is not a bad place to ask who has stock of a particular seat, as you'll quite often get an answer.