Birth to 12 year car seat?

[hatchedby2chicks]

I'm considering getting one of these for my parents car, it will barely be used which makes me not want to buy one for each life stage. By barely used I mean maybe once a fortnight/month

Has anyone had one? Any pros or cons I might not have thought of?

TIA

big con would be the expiry date which is usually around 3 years

My experience is that expiry dates are a bit longer than 3 years, but not generally 12, so no, you probably won't be able to the one car seat actually from birth to twelve.

The other is that by trying to do everything, they tend to do none of their jobs very well. So not a very safe infant seat, not a very safe toddler/preschooler seat, not a very safe high back booster. I would particularly worry about that at the young baby stage, where a poor fit can affect baby's breathing.

If it's used as seldom as that, can you instead focus on seats that are easy to move between cars? Infant carrier that can be strapped in with the seat belt, or get a separate isofix base for their car, but move the actual seat between them? Possibly the isofix for the toddler seat, or our selts (belted) are quick to move between cars if you have an extra set of tethers already in each car, and the tethers are cheap.

No, don't bother with them, they are a massive pain and usually a false economy. The longest stage in car seats is the high back booster stage and if the seat will be taken in and out of the car, you'll be shooting your mum in the foot by having lumbered her with a big heavy thing when she could have a much lighter one which is brand new and not 5 years out of date. High back boosters aren't as expensive as the first two stages.

Plus, if you end up having multiple children or there are other grandchildren, it comes in useful to have multiple seats later on.

You are best off going for something which covers 0-4 years and then something which covers the high back booster stage. Joie and Graco have some great value seats which fit with seatbelt and are lightweight, so easy to take in and out, e.g. Graco Extend R129. Or if you like the rotation look at the Joie 360 Spin or Graco Turn2Me.

The only 0-12 one I think might be worth a look is Graco Slimfit R129/Joie Every Stage R129. But again, it doesn't save you any money compared to a 0-4 years belted seat (about £90) and a cheap high back booster (about £50)

Most children don't need a car seat past the age of 10 (it depends on their size/weight really). We got one of those all stages seat but when oldest child outgrew the high back booster we just used it for the youngest and got rid of the multi age. Biggest con for me was having to store all those extra baby bits it needs for years. Also it is heavier and chunkier than a normal booster once you no longer need more than that. But we got a good few years use out if it.