Rear and front facing car seat recommendations?

[chasinghilltops]

Hi,

My DD will be 15 months in a couple of weeks so we need to get on and get her a new car seat.

I’ve looked into it all and general belief seems to be to keep children rear facing as long as possible. Problem is, I can’t seem to find a decent car seat that both rear and forward faces (I want one that will grow with her instead of having to buy a new one when she’s 4).

Does anyone have any recommendations?

thanks!

I'd just get a 25kg or 36kg ERF seat that will last her rear facing until she's six or seven when she'll be fine to go into a cheaper high backed booster with an adult seat belt.

We've got the minikid axkid 4 which will rear face until 6 or 7. So should get good value for money and keeps them rearfacing for as long as possible

We've got the BeSafe Beyond 360 which should last until the average child is about 6. I'm sure BertieBotts will be on here herself, but I remember from another thread that for a seat to rearward face as a harnessed seat, forward face as a harnessed seat and work as a high backed booster, there's a lot of tradeoffs that need to be made, and especially for the HBB stage they tend to be really bulky and the shell isn't usually big enough to take a child through their HBB years anyway, so you'll probably need to buy anther car seat for her at some point.

YY exactly, Toast.

It is possible to get a decent seat which will just do rear facing and forward facing with harness. I don't hugely like the ones which do RF and then FF and then turn into high back booster as well, but two jobs which are fairly similar, ie, a spinning seat up to 105cm from a good brand with a support leg is a fine choice if you want to RF initially and then have the option to change to FF later on, especially if you think you might prefer to FF before the age of 4.

Otherwise, particularly if you are keen on the age 4 milestone for RF, a rear facing seat up to 125cm, which can be more comfortable as they tend to have more child legroom and be more compact in the car than isofix seats, and then swap to a high back booster after this (when you're ready at whatever age from ~4-7) is another good choice, as then each seat only has to do one job each. You can get some excellent HBBs starting at about £100 - don't think you have to keep pouring money into seats. They get cheaper.

There are forward facing seats with harness which convert to high back booster, which is OK as a combination as well, but I would not want to recommend that at 15 months old. It is better to stay rear facing at least initially. Those seats can work for older toddlers (e.g. 3+) who need to vacate their spinning seat for a younger sibling, but still need a 5 point harness, for example.

The Besafe Beyond system is lovely but it is very very expensive especially if you don't already have the base.

105cm is approx age 4 - OP do you know what centiles your LO is on or if they are big/small for their age? If not - what size clothes is she wearing?

Also, do you think you are likely to have another child within the next couple of years? That makes a difference because it makes sense to pass seats down between children rather than try to get one seat which will last your child all the way through and then have to buy a second one for the younger sibling.

Lastly - if your LO is still within the weight and height limits for their current seat then you don't necessarily have to change it just because she is turning 15 months The ages given are usually a guideline rather than a hard limit (the exception is that babies must not forward face before 15mo).

Thanks so much for all the advice everyone!

@BertieBotts thanks so much! Shes pretty tall - 75th percentile and wearing 12-18 month clothing but has long legs! I’m actually pregnant so we will be having another little one at the end of the summer! 🩷

Aww how exciting :) Makes sense to move her sooner rather than later then, so she doesn't feel pushed out.

With a 21 month gap it makes sense IMO to go for a spinning type seat for now. Britax Dualfix Plus (with or without the M) is a good one because it has slightly longer weight capacity, up to 20kg rather than the usual 18kg and it's on offer at the moment. Or Swingfix if you want the rear facing only version.

When the younger sibling is getting to the end of the use of the first car seat, DC1 will be about age 3 and you can make a decision at that point whether to go for a larger rear facing seat to continue RF for as long as possible, or whether to opt for a forward facing seat which converts into high back booster, based on things like how you feel about RF vs FF and what her height is at that point in terms of whether the harness seat will last long enough.

As these categories overlap, you'll only need one of each long term (1x spin seat to 105cm, 1x larger RF seat OR forward facing harness/HBB seat) and you will need a second high back booster at some point once the youngest needs one, or 2x high back boosters after the eldest moves out of the RF seat.

Or if you're already clear you're keen to rear face as long as possible then it might be worth getting a longer lasting ERF seat such as Axkid Minikid 2 or Britax Safe Way M, as these give better leg room for longer legs. If you go this route, you will eventually need two of these seats because your children will be in this stage at the same time, and then two HBB seats later on.