Joie I-spin 360

[Newmum0125]

Hi Mums,

I am looking to buy the Joie I -spin 360 as it serves a longer age /hight. The features mention it is suitable for new borns but a lady on FB said it is not. Does anyone have the I-spin 360 and have you put a new born straight away? I’m unsure if the recline is good enough for a new born. Thanks for any advise.

if not which is a good one under £200 that rotates and would be suitable for newborn to 4 years.

Unless you have a massive baby e.g. 10lbs a newborn won't get a good fit. The recline is good but you won't get the harness low enough. Other than that it's a good seat. The Avionaut Sky is a brilliant seat for longevity and genuinely does fit from newborn.

It's not the worst of the spin seats for newborns, IMO. I think people make too much of this. The fit isn't that much worse than some of the infant carriers you get with prams.

For £200 it is probably the best option (in terms of newborn suitability) in the 0-4 years category, or including rotation.

That said - whether the recline is good enough depends on what the angle is in your car. If you look at the back seats, how much are they tilted back? And are the isofix points right down at the bottom or are they raised up a bit levelled out with the edge of the seat?

What time of year is your baby due, what's your parking situation, distance from hospital and how much do you think you're likely to use the car in the first 6 weeks or so?

And do you know if you're expecting to have a bigger/smaller baby than average at all based on either scans or parental height/birth size?

Just get a good value infant seat (eg Joie) and then when your baby is older and you know what centiles for height/weight it will be easier to choose a seat to last as long as possible from age 1+.

I've got a 11 week old and used this seat from birth fine, he was 8lb 5

The only slight issue we've had is that my husband is tall and at the full recline it's a bit of a squeeze to get the seat turned round but we're so happy with it we bought another for our 2 year old as he wasn't in a spinny one and it was getting hard to squeeze him into his old rear facing seat

I've got this and have used it from about 6months, I wouldn't have been happy with her in it as a newborn I don't think.

Thank you, Due Jan, unlikely I would go out much in the first few weeks expect if there is a doc appointment. Hospital is a 10 min ride. Have you used this seat? What about the 360 I size ?

This is good to know :). I am quite petite so I think my baby will be not very huge. Did you have to use anything else to make it snug?

Please don't be tempted to add anything else into the seat - baby needs to be in indoor clothes eg vest and a grow while in the seat. If it's cold they can have a blanket over the top of the straps. But you can't add anything to pad the fit out.

You can't add products to the car seat to make it more snug, it's not safe to do that. It comes with a newborn insert which you need to use.

I have the Joie 360 Spin GT, though I didn't use it from newborn. I meant to put DS3 into it with the newborn insert just to take some photos, but it was too full on and I never got around to it and then he was too big. I used to work in a shop selling car seats and I fitted a few newborns into them. The Joie i-Spin, GB Vaya and Maxi Cosi Mica were the best fit, but the GB Vaya is no longer made. MC Mica has a terrible fit for babies in the in-between stage from about 3-9 months because they are too big for the insert but too small to sit in the seat with no other insert, and Maxi Cosi don't make one, so I don't think it's a good option from birth, even though it has a nice fit for newborns.

So, Joie i-Spin is the best option IMO. I didn't have access to a Britax newborn insert to try, and I don't know if Cybex improved their newborn inserts. When you factor the insert costs into these seats they come to about the £270 mark anyway.

Besafe izi Turn/Twist B are even better, but they are a lot more expensive.

I don't know what seat you mean by the 360 i-size, sorry - the i-Spin is the i-size version of the Joie 360 Spin. I do think it is worth having the i-Spin over the original if you are wanting to use it from birth, because the inserts are slightly nicer/easier to use.

Newborns always look ridiculous in these huge seats. However they tend to grow quickly which is why I asked about journey from hospital and how often you'd likely go out. Attached is a series of photos of the same baby aged 2 days, 2 weeks, and 6 weeks. You can see how they do fit much better into the seat at 6 weeks old.

You do have to be fairly confident in pulling the straps over where they need to be, and a lot of people get stressed out by the Joie inserts, which have parts that you remove as the baby grows. There are a couple of good videos by Rear Facing Toddlers on Youtube about these.

You might also want to consider whether on cold or rainy days, it's going to be miserable standing at the car trying to get the baby in, as opposed to an infant carrier seat where you can spend as long as you need getting them positioned right and then tucking a blanket in over them (on top of the straps) so they are all cosy and then you just carry them to the car. They can't go into the car seat in bulky outdoor clothing, like a pramsuit - they can only wear indoor layers, like a sleepsuit and a cardigan. So if you had wrapped them up to walk to the car, you would need to unwrap them again to put them in the car. It's a bit annoying.

Well I put my premature baby in it 😂 I had no idea it apparently isn't suitable for newborns until after. I don't believe half the stuff on that Facebook group about car seats as they are often trying to promote certain brands or their car seat service.
We are still using the car seat 2 years later and have loved it. So easy to get them in and out and ds always loves being in the car.

It's a good choice of seat for chunky babies. Please be careful with what you are advising - I'm assuming you didn't crash with your premature baby in the seat and so yes, you got away with it as the fit was never tested (thankfully!). To say that you think most advice is nonsense isn't very helpful.

It's not a great photo but this was coming home from the hospital, he felt very secure and could move positions. My mum has another joie but slightly different and his head did flop forward in hers, the inserts seemed different

Thank you for the detailed explanation and pics.

By snug I meant a blanket , I wouldn't do something that isn't safe. :) I should have explained.

I'm not sure how to respond to every post but thank you all for your responses and sharing your experiences. It is really helpful.