Oyster capsule advice

[BellaBoo7]

Hi everyone,

I have the oyster capsule car seat which has the normal newborn inserts and some extra head padding as well. This feels ver snug on my 1 month old and was wondering when I remove the extra padding?

Thank you

We had this car seat for our DS as we got the whole travel system. He's now nearly 14 months and we've recently moved onto a Joie 360 spin one.

If I remember correctly, there were inserts for what I think would be a very small / prem baby (our DS wouldn't have fit in it at all from newborn - he was 8lbs).

Then with the normal headrest and inserts we kept until he was about 5 months but it was a squeeze towards the end, to the point that he hated the car seat because of this and would have a total meltdown wherever we were going / just put him in a bad mood.

At the time I don't think I could find any guidance as to when they could be removed. Only that they should have the headrest until they can support their own head or something like that (dont quote me on that I just remember thinking it was really vague and unhelpful!).

Removing the body insert was fine as he filled the car seat no problem, but I always felt like his head didn't have much protection if we were in an accident, but it is extremely snug with it in.

We switched to a Joie Juva baby car seat for a bit as we found the headset situation better and the 360 spin we have now is fantastic tbh. It goes from newborn and I kinda wish we'd just got that from the get go for him!

Hope that helps a little bit!

@Lottie917 That is a massive help thank you. She was 6lb 12 born so I’ve had all the inserts in but it’s been really tight on her head recently so I will remove the extra ones for small babies but leave the rest.

Was it at about 5 months that you removed the body inset as well?

Thank you

@BellaBoo7 yeah at 5 months we took all inserts out for him. He was quite a big baby (he's consistently been in 75th percentile for growth) so your little one may fit with the inserts a little longer if she is smaller.

I spent an afternoon playing about with it in the living room with DS to see what fitted better. He was not impressed with being repeatedly put into the car seat but ultimately it helped me find it was the best fit for him with no inserts at around the 5 month mark :)

@Lottie917 that’s great thank you. It’s mad it’s the 1 thing they don’t teach you about and it’s so important x

@BellaBoo7 I know! They dont make it easy sometimes

@Lottie917 did you have a wedge plus the body insert (that’s in the colour of your pram)? I’m trying to figure out if I’m supposed to take both of them out or just one

@Meeq688 yeah we had a wedge and insert. I took the wedge out first, pretty much after 10 weeks as DS sat better in the car seat. Kept the body insert until he was about 5 months. I had to play around with it to see what to take out and adjust and to figure out what was best constantly x

Hello,

My son is 6 weeks old and we have the Oyster Capsule travel system. Me and my partner are struggling with putting our son in the Oyster car seat as he always slouches down once he has been put in it (this looks very uncomfortable and half way through car journeys he will scream as I imagine he is very uncomfortable).

we are unsure what the wedge is for in the car seat? Does anyone have any ideas on how to place a newborn into this car seat comfortably without being slouched?

thank you x

The wedge pushed her up so stopped her from slouching. How big was your son born? It could be that he’s already too big for it? Have you done the straps up tight enough as he shouldn’t really be able to move once they’re done up.

Hi BellaBoo,

Thanks for your message.

My son is 10lb 6. Where abouts in the car seat do you place the wedge to stop your LO from slouching? Does it go behind the back or on the base where your LO’s feet are to push them up? Thanks x

I realise this is an old thread but it's super helpful. So from the gist of it, I just have to wing it deciding when to remove?

For us, our son looked like he was sitting on top of it essentially! We didn’t even take out the insert, we moved him to his next stage car seat at about 5.5 months as we wanted to get him used to it in preparation for a long car journey!

Yeah I hated making decisions for myself about the car seat but it is just a see how they look best. A lot of my friends had maxi cosi car seats recently and they come with no extra padding from birth at all, so don’t worry too much about it (easier said than done!)

Yep, it is trial and error and your judgement as a parent what you think works best / looks safest and most comfortable for your child. We moved our son into a Joie 360 spin at 14 months, and I honestly wish I'd just got one of those straight away 😂 I never used the Oyster car seat on the pram frame anyway as I couldn't ever get it off again with DS in the car seat 🤦🏼‍♀️

@Lottie917 its funny you say that, I could never get the car seat off the pram frame without take the adaptors off too 🙈 not the easiest when alone so I never bothered either!

We had the problem
getting it off the pram and rang the shop in a panic while stood in Morrisons car park! They said we needed to put furniture polish on the adapters and under the car seat where they attached. We haven’t had a problem since. We have also just swopped to the joie 360 spin when she was 10 months

Same here, this is a great tip. thank you. I had seen vaseline recommended but I think polish will be easier.

Yes Vaseline does work! I put it all over the adapters and now I have no problem getting the car seat off with baby in it x

I have been given an oyster capsule but it seems to be missing the newborn wedge, how essential to people think this is?

Is it missing the wedge bit altogether (just a car seat) or just the tiny baby wedge insert?

If it's just the tiny baby wedge, it will depend how big your baby is. My son was 8lb when born and we had to take the tiny wedge out as he was too big for that, but we still used the bigger wedge bits for a while after he was born.

It was just the tiny wedge, but I have discovered that you can phone BabyStyle who make them and you can buy replacements for all of the different inserts !

Oh that's really useful to know! Your message prompted me to look for the baby wedges for ours as I'm expecting my 2nd and I couldn't find them 🤦🏼‍♀️

The number for BabyStyle to order replacement wedges is 01509 816444 the newborn wedge was £5 including p&p

Thank you! 😊

Hi, sorry just jumping on this now as having trouble! Is the wedge the bit that goes under their bum? My baby is looking super scrunched up so thinking of taking that out but nervous too. Thanks!