Car seat recommendations?

[Chibbsie]

My 8 month old is still in her infant car seat. The weight limit on the car seat I have seems to be max 13kg. She was 10lb 4 at birth and she’s quite a big girl. If she’s not outgrown it yet she will very soon and I’m so unsure of what car seat to upgrade to.

the one I have now is the maxi cosy g cell. Just wondered what everyone else’s preferences are safety wise!

The next best step would be an extended rear facing seat, have a look at Axkid.

Don't worry, the 13kg limit is usually more than sufficient - although they put on weight rapidly after birth, this slows down as they get bigger.

10lb 4oz at birth would put her roughly on the 98th centile, but children don't often stay on their birth centile. Do you know how heavy or long she is now, or what clothing size is she currently wearing? Even if she is on the 98th centile, that would predict 13kg at around 17 months old, so you have plenty of time unless her head is getting to the top of the seat.

The issue usually with Maxi Cosi is the height limit, though I'm not sure which exact one you have, G-Cell is the name of their side impact protection system which many of their seats have. Do you also have a base for your seat? If you know which base you have, sometimes it turns out cheaper to get the toddler seat which adds on to that base. Have a look at this chart. If the compatible toddler seat is more than £200 though, a standalone seat is better value.

For buying a whole new seat:

There are basically two major decisions to make for the next stage, and from there that narrows down your options so there is less to choose from.

First of all, the seats for the next stage go up to either 105cm with a weight limit of around 18-20kg (approx age 4, but might be age 3 or so if she is on the bigger centiles). As she is bigger for her age, you will probably need another seat with harness after this, before you move to high back booster. That is a bit of a pain if you only plan on having one child. If you think you'll have another child, it's not bad because you can pass the seats down in turn and maybe save doubling up on them being in the same stage at the same time.

Or you can get seats up to 125cm, with a weight limit of 25kg+ depending on the seat. This is approx age 6, meaning you can go directly from this seat to high back booster.

To simplify things, ignore the seats which go up to 150cm - they are usually not the best option anyway.

Secondly, at 8 months she still needs to be rear facing. So the next choice to make is whether you want a seat which will stay rear facing for the whole of the next stage (up to age 4-6) - this is the safest option, and these seats tend to be the longer-lasting ones as well as compact in the car with good leg room for the child.

Or, whether you prefer the idea of a seat which can be turned forward facing later down the line. Many of these seats have a spin function, which people often like, but most of them are only suitable up to the 105cm mark. If you are keen on the safety benefits of rear facing, a two-way/spin seat can also cause a problem in that it's almost a bit too easy to turn them forward, especially if your partner/a grandparent etc is keen to put them FF earlier than you'd like.

Eventually after she moves into the final stage at about 4-6 years when you feel she is ready, she will be FF anyway but that's another type of seat and I'd wait until you get there.

Any ideas from those two? Up to 105cm vs up to 125cm, and just RF vs both RF and FF?

@BertieBotts thank you so much for that reply that’s so helpful!

no, it’s just the car seat we don’t have the base so it just fixes in with the 3 point seat belt.

she’s in between some 9-12 and more 12-18 clothes just now. We tried measuring her length wise and she was around 80ish cm, give or take (she’s a wriggler)

I was looking at the Puggle Lockton however, heard these aren’t the best safety wise! And the Joie i-Spin 360 but I wanted RF and FF for when she gets a bit older too but I was wondering about leg space for those car seats as well!

The clothing sizes suggest she is somewhere between 75-80cm, which at 8mo is quite tall which means that a 105cm seat will only last her until she's about 3 years old, maybe even less.

I'm not keen on the Puggle Lockton personally. The rear facing limit on it is only 13kg (unless there is a newer version), and it gets very poor reviews for being difficult to use. Also despite it going up to age 12, the harnessed stage is the same as any other 105cm/18kg seat, so you'll end up needing to buy another seat to tide her over as she won't be ready for a high back booster when she reaches this limit, so the promise of it being one seat for ever is not likely to work in your case.

The Joie i-Spin 360 is a good seat, but again probably won't last her long enough. With it being about £150/175 at the moment, the price is very good and it might be a good option to start off with and then when she's getting close to the limit, you can assess at that point whether you want a rear facing seat up to 125cm, or a forward facing one with extended harness up to 125cm. There are a few coming out now, so the choice will probably be better in a couple of years' time. If going this route, there are also a couple of cheaper options which are very similar to the i-Spin - Joie i-Pivot, Joie 360 Spin R44 (which is on amazon for £110 currently), Graco Turn2Me and Turn2Me i-size. These would be worth a look. All of the Graco/Joie seats are much nicer to use and IMO, higher quality than the Puggle seats.

If you wanted to future proof and make sure you don't need to replace the seat with another expensive one when she outgrows it, you might want to invest in an Axkid Minikid 2, which is about £225 on clearance - you'll need to find an Axkid stockist, preferably near you in person, but possibly online if there aren't any near you.

The only seat that does both rear facing and forward facing and has the harness up to 125cm is the Besafe Beyond which is unfortunately very expensive, about £600 with the base.