Top Tether car seat questions

[taytay100]

Hey Mums,

I have ordered a new car seat as my little one has grown out of the one he is currently in.

i ordered the ickle bubba car seat, i just realised the isofix is a top tether instead of a supporting leg.

i was just told by someone on a Facebook group that it means it’s a rubbish car seat because it’s a top tether.

is this true? As it did cost me a lot of money.

and as well do I need to use the top tether rear facing or is it just used for forward facing.

thank you!

No, top tether doesn't mean the car seat is "rubbish" - that's a silly generalisation by them.

It is true that for the all stages type seats, top tethers can be a bit of a pain to use, and there is a bit of a pattern with some brands of including top tether for reasons of cheapness of the materials, without much consideration as to the end user's ease of use, and that's a problem because mistakes when using the car seat can have an effect on the safety of it. It doesn't help that the manuals are often a bit confusing as well.

I don't know which exact seat you have but usually, top tether is used for both rear facing and forward facing modes where you use the 5-point harness, and for the high back booster mode when the child uses the adult seatbelt, the top tether is not normally used any more, but I couldn't be 100% sure of any of this without seeing the instructions for the seat.

Sometimes with spin seats the top tether stops the seat from spinning which is very annoying, but it must be used if it says so in the instructions.

IIRC, there is an Ickle Bubba seat which uses a top tether and it sort of loops around the whole back of the seat, which is usually better in performance compared with a top tether which only connects around one side.

Do you know which exact model it is? I would be able to give more solid info if I can look up the instructions for it

When you've bought online, you do have 14 days from receiving the product to return under the distance selling act if not happy, but the seat will have been through testing and regulations in order to be sold and despite what some FB groups say that is much better than nothing, so if you want me to help you get the best out of this seat I will try, and if you want suggestions of easier-to-use seats under a specific budget I can try there too.

Thank you so much, it’s the ickle bubba 360 spin for all groups up to 12 years old. I got it on the nursery store website

i really should’ve looked into it more before i bought it.
silly me🤦🏼‍♀️

They have a few different ones on there - do you know if it's

Ickle Bubba Rotator (£109)
Ickle Bubba i-size Rotator (about £130)
Ickle Bubba Sphere i-size - I assume not this one, as it has a support leg.

Honestly don't worry. The FB groups have a very skewed idea of what constitutes a good brand, and some of it matches up with reality, but a lot of it is hugely overgeneralised, and the exaggeration is unhelpful. I wouldn't look too much into the responses as they are likely to be scaremongering.

If £100/130 is a lot of money to you, then it's a lot of money. It's important to have a car seat for your LO of course but it's not important which exact brand or model as long as it's appropriate for their age and stage. You don't need to spend hundreds, or go into debt or financial hardship to get a car seat for your child.

It’s the £109.95 one, it was reduced from £219 xx

OK, I'll see what I can find out

We have that exact one and it is fine!

OK - so good news.

The seat can be used rear facing up to 18kg - that's a great thing for a seat in this budget range. Indeed it MUST be used rear facing up to 15kg.

The top tether is the kind where it loops all the way around. That is actually the style used in Australia where they have very good car seat safety (though alarming early forward facing laws!)

It also has a little clip on the side, so you can easily open and close it, so that you can rotate the seat without sacrificing the top tether.

The instructions aren't bad. They mostly make sense and are easy enough to understand. I would clarify a couple of things -

They don't really explain properly what a top tether anchor is. You will only have one of these in your car per isofix seating point. If your car is 2013 or newer, it will be marked with an "anchor and child seat" symbol. If it's older, you'll have to check your car manual to see if you have top tether points.

Changing the height of the straps isn't well explained. It is a fairly straightforward process but it's a more old-fashioned method these days. You want to look at the plastic shell of the seat and notice there are several horizontal or sometimes slightly angled slots for the shoulder straps to go through. Then rest the seat against a wall in the house, sit your child into the seat, (with the insert, if he is under 13kg) and note with your finger which slots his shoulders are closest to. If he's between two slots, you want the slightly lower one for rear facing. If the straps aren't already threaded through this slot, then you'll need to unhook them from the metal piece and slot them through the slot they are currently in, then move them to the appropriate slot and re-attach to the metal piece making sure nothing is twisted and you've also gone through the cover at the right place.

The seat does NOT have a forward facing mode with 5 point harness. It's unusual in its category for this (but it is a safety benefit so actually a plus). Once your child weighs over 18kg or his shoulders are more than 2cm higher than the top slot for the shoulder straps, he would have to stop using the rear facing mode and convert the seat to high back booster mode. That might be a concern depending on how high the highest slot is. Something to check when it arrives, perhaps. But it should certainly work well enough for now.

You would think the FB groups would love it because it doesn't have a forward facing harness mode. I actually can't see much to complain about with this seat. Yes, it's basic, and it's cheaper than some others in its category, but basic doesn't matter if you are rear facing. I don't think you would realistically gain anything by swapping this for (e.g.) a Graco Extend R129/Graco Slimfit, aside from the newer side impact protection - and you would lose the spin function.