how safe are carrycots in car?

[horseymum]

Have read conflicting advice about this, britax leaflet says they are the safest, due to better baby position, have read it reduces incidence of cot death and good for spine. Whichseems not to recommend them (but do not subscribe so can't read full reports) Any one know where to get impartial advice from?
The carrycot i am buying is the Jane one. i don't have to use it in the car as I have a car seat anyway but it would be nice to know which is better.

Hi. I don't know where to get impartial advice, but we did use the Jane car cot for a while. Fortunately, we did not have a crash to test it out, but in my experience my DD was a great deal happier in this when travelling. I think the maxi cosi often meant that her tummy was squashed up and she was often uncomfortable. It meant that I was able to fully concerntrate on driving as there was less likely to be tears from the back. This must make for better safety in a round about way? It did take a few goes to get the hang of putting it in the car. The five point harness, plus the strap around their tummy made them feel secure inside. One thing I would advise against is putting the cot in the upright sitting position for the car. When you adjust it this way, we found that it was top heavy and did on one occasion fall over when going around a corner.
I think the maxi cosi is very safe and secure too - we would use this for the shorter journeys and then used the Jane for longer journeys when sleeps are needed. We were lucky to be lent the Jane by a friend so did not have to invest in both - do you know anyone who could lend you one to try out, or even borrow for a few months. DD grew out of the Jane around 9 months - and she is not very tall.

I had a Jane one as part of a travel system. The carry cot went accross the backseat. However we never used it in the car after seeing it described as a deathtrap (think in Which? but not positive), basically as the baby is only strapped round its tummy, there is no support at all for the head in the event of a crash.

It is true very small babies are best off lying down, I think the best you can do is avoid long car journeys for the first 2-3 months, and put them lying flat as soon as you get our (rather than putting the carseat on the pram chassis).

DH and I have decided, after MUCH deliberation, to go with a Britax carry cot.

It's the safest lie flat rated by Which, and number 7 overall (77% overall score compared to 82% for top rated Maxi Cosi Cabriofix)

We are also planning on getting a rearfacing seat - potentially a birth-4 one to get maximum life out of it - for shorter journeys. In the first 4-5 months of Baby's life, we are going to be doing a fair few long journeys to visit both sides of the family, and go on holiday and weekend trips to the seaside in the summer etc, so that's why it seems the best choice for us.

The opening statement from which is:
"The Best Buy Britax BABY-SAFE SLEEPER is the first 'lie-flat' child restraint system we've tested that protects the child well in a crash." And Britax say not to use it with the seat part raised - it has to be used as a lie flat.

I guess it's mostly down to personal choice. Yes it's more fiddly to fit into the car than an isofix seat, but if you're doing lots of long car journeys then it's better (IMHO) for peace of mind.

Sorry to longpost. Hope it helps.

Oops, forgot to add - is it the Jane Cup?

Which gave that 38%, with the following opening statement:

"We weren't very impressed with this baby seat. Although it gives good front crash protection and excellent head support, side crash protection isn't great, and it's not very user friendly."

Is this site any use to you?

I did look at the Britax and thought it looked good but went with the Jane as that was the one our friends were happy to lend us. There are a few comments above about them only having a tummy strap - this was not the case as we had the straps in the same way as a RF seat, plus the tummy strap - maybe this was a more recent model than those mentioned in the Which? reviews.

i wouldn't take which as gospel as they can mark seats down for user friendliness etc when they might actually get a good score for safety. they recently marked the group 1 rf seats down for this reason. you really need to see the whole report for each seat.

The Jane Transporter carrycot here www.pramsupermarket.com/compare-jane-transporter-carrycot is a lie flat one. Is that the one you are considering ?

Most car seats for young babies are rear facing and not lie flat and there must be good reason for this. On this basis I would stick with your existing car seat for transportation by car until there are some better stats available for safety for lie flat carry cots.

imho...if Britax have said they're safest go with that as their the best manufacturer by miles, they have their own test rig so crash test their seats to the hilt and back, maxi cosi only test to regulation.

Ooh, old thread! I've changed names a million times since then.

We got a good 7 months use out of the Britax Lie-flat. It was brilliant, and DD (as she turned out to be) was so comfy in there. We ended up leaving it in the car after a few weeks so we didn't have to fiddle with putting it in and out. But saying that, once the clips are attached in the right place on the seat belts, it was only a matter of clipping and unclipping the car seat. 30 second job tops. It was just very reassuring to know that she could stay in there for as long as she needed while she was asleep (she took some exceptionally long naps in there and we did some looong journeys) without having to move her out after the couple of hours you have to with rf infant carriers.

Now we have to see if it fits in the car with our extended rf seat so that we can use it for the next baby.