Do we need 4 car seats?

[FTMobvious]

Can I please have some realistic advice about car seats? Baby is 15 minths and reaching the point her infant car seat starts to look too small. Current one is a 360 swivel one which has been really handy so far and isofix.

Our routine is day 1- I drop off and pick up at grandparents 1 house. Day 2&3 home with me- day 4 I drop off and pick up at nursery, day 4 1 drop off at grandparents 2 house and DH picks up. Weekend generally both parents home. So currently I need the seat the most and put into the GP cars twice a week. DH puts back into his car on his pick up day. At the weekend it stays in whoever cars needs it. Safe to says there's alot of swapping about- so far not a major inconvenience but bit of a faff.

I want to keep baby RF, and all the next stage seats seem to be very heavy and bulky - and really not ideal for this level of swapping. How to other families get around this? Does everyone buy 4 car seats for 4 possible cars being used? GP need seats as they do older children school pick ups and in general don't want to be limited to being in the house.

Suggestions of seats welcome!

My husband and I have a car seat in each of our cars, and my mum went out and bought one for her car for when she has my DD.

My DH and mum have second hand ones though (from trusted friends) and they're both cheaper forward facing ones. I don't mind forward facing for quick nursery runs. Any long journeys are done in my car where my DD is rear facing.

We had 1 seat and swapped cars between me and my partner and moved the seat to my parents until about 18 months the only issue we had was only having one key for one of the cars.
We have a maxi Cosi 360 seat and got a second more basic that could rear face until 4. We still favoured my seat and predominantly used my car seat and moved mine between grandparents cars it only takes 3 minutes to move. The isofix are very easy to undo and refit. They are heavy but I've still managed to move the seat at 5 months pregnant without issue.
My daughter is now older and my parents will be getting a high backed booster for their car. She hasn't quite outgrown the upto 4 year seats in our cars, we will use the grandparent car seat when my in-laws visit too.

If you're looking at extended rear facing then most of those seats use seatbelt + tethers instead of isofix. I know it's possible to buy additional sets of the tether loops so you can keep the loops installed in each car and just move the seat over, which makes moving them quicker. They do tend to be big and bulky but some are more easily movable than others.

You might still want more than 1 seat, but you might not need 4.

I'm sure someone with good knowledge of ERF will be along to recommend seats that are more easily movable.

Depends on centiles if lower end could do a joke stages think it’s the newer r129 stage one that goes up to rear facing for 21kg rear facing but does have a height limit but very easy to fit in cars and a much cheaper budget

or get one like an axkid move I think it’s called that goes up to 25kg rear facing but have a set of tethers in each car as that’s the hardest part putting the seat in is simple I do that in minutes the tethers can be a pain depending on how the car seat in front is

I don’t find either of these seats bulky our joie 360 is so much heavier/bulkier

if you have an in car safety center near you then you could try the axkid or get advice somewhere like smyths/halfords have the joie one so you could try it but not somewhere to go if you actually want advice

in both sets of grandparents cars they have one seat already due to other grandkids and doing nursery pick ups etc and then we add our seat in for the other child

which has been a mix of the swivel or axkid as they have grown up

I've not found a solution to this sorry - I've got 2 kids, and we have 6 car seats for them to cover grandparent cars. When they are old enough for high backed boosters, swapping about would be much easier, but personally I wouldn't want to swap rear-facing car seats.

If you haven't already, one of the car seat groups on Facebook is worth joining to get recommendations on the safest seat for the next stage. Personally I really rate the Axkid Minikid for the main car (very safe and straps are so easy to do up), have more easily movable ones that can be used for travels in the grandparent cars.

We have three for GD but I bought the one in DIL's car and mine and her DM bought hers.
DS and DIL swap cars to the one with the seat in if their DD is with them. It would drive me mad lifting a seat in and out all the time.

Which seat do you have, OP?
I thought that most of the rotating seats were stage 0-1 or from 3 months to around 4 years (depending on height/weight) but I haven't bought a car seat for a newborn in many years.
Do you know your child's centiles for height and weight?

If you want one seat that you can swap between cars, this would be a good option: https://www.carseatmargaret.co.uk/products/tinyseats-two
Expensive but saves spending money on lots of seats, and portable enough to take on holiday too.

Thanks all!
We have the nuna mixx at the moment which was with the travel set- its been ideal up to now but max's out at 13kg/ 85cm which they say is about 1.5 Yr old. Baby is on the smaller size of about 25 centile so we probably have a couple months but we definitely need to think what were going to do as she will be there soon..

For various reasons swapping cars wouldn't work for us either.

I think a trip to halfords is in order!

I'm a GP and have bought my own car seats!

Don't go to Halfords! They give dreadful car seat advice. Google independent car seat retailers + your area and find someone who is properly trained. Or if you give your general location, someone here will probably be able to recommend a retailer.

Very kind of you- both the GP do already have seats they have offered from other kids but they do not rear face & don't seem to understand the newer information on the importance of rear facing for longer.

There was no way we were moving seats between cars. Getting the seat in as tight as possible takes time.

we bought a seat for each car and the grandparents. We did not buy quite as expensive of a seat with as many bells and whistles for the cars were rarely used. If a feature was only about convenience, it could be skipped if the seat only got used once a month.

If the seats are from older grandchildren, you also need to check that they are not expired.

I don’t think for that age they would be big enough for the cheapest axkid mine went in that maybe around 3 there are also newer axkids now so this may have changed I bought mine 4 years ago ish

as long as they are low centiles for height and weight I’d go for joie stages
if they are taller but weigh less if the shop still has the old version then it’s no height limit but weight is 18kg max (obv there is a limit in the sense that once there eyes are inline with a certain point etc but if a child’s all legs then that will last longer but with the new one even if there all legs it can’t be used past a certain height)
no idea how the above works as the seats look identical 😂was very annoying as the old one is what one set of grandparents have haha

A boy on the 25th centiles wouldn't weigh 13kg until he is nearly 3 years old, and his length/height wouldn't be 85cm until he is 23 months old.

https://www.goodeggcarsafety.com/blog/when-is-the-infant-car-seat-outgrown.html

Please don't go to Halfords! They're awful for car seats. Find an independent car seat retailer.

Depending on budget and child size. The axkid one3 is super easy to move between cars and only 10kg. It rear faces only and lasts till 23kg or 125cm which ever comes first.
The option is a different type of extended rear facing seat and buy tethers for each car as that's the slowest part unless you have Volvo as they have them built in.

4 car seats seems madness!
We had one that we swapped between mine and DHscars, tbh was a bit of a faff so whoever had DC had the car with the car seats in, however if one of you is doing nursery drop off and the other pick up I can see why you'd need 2. But can your parents share a car seat, do they really need one in both cars? Sounds very expensive to me.

We have a spin seat (nuna I think) and I can’t move it - my arms just don’t seem to be long enough to reach round both sides at once to release the 2 buttons at the sides at once!!

These RF toddler seats are the absolute worst stage for moving - baby seats are super easy and some high back boosters are too. I don’t know if you need 4 but I’d definitely have at least 2, for you and your partner. Could you get cheaper RF ones for the grandparents as it’s short infrequent journeys?

My small girl ( 9-25th c) didn’t grow out of her infant carrier on height until 2 and weight until about 3.5 😂

I’m confused as 85cm is definitely nearer 2 for most average sized children. My 3.5 year old has only just passed 13kg so it seems you have some way to go in this seat. I’d recommend not switching seats as installation errors may happen

Thanks all for your thoughts.
Babys legs are already hanging over- I know this is fine and expected for rear facing- but that combined with a red strap mark that keeps appearing by her neck/ shoulder and head being by the top tells me we need to start thinking about it hence the post. I'm aware baby won't max out this seat straight away but ultimately will at some point so may as well think about it now before time flies.

I think the GP/DH will just have to share a more basic but still safe one and keep one in my car as the main seat. it will just mean that seat being put in or out from another car 4 times a week. Not impossible but if heavy not ideal.

It's either that or buy the 4 seats which I agree is insane.

We had a big expensive ERF seat, before they were so much a thing as now, so none of the more affordable brands. It cost £395. Yes, we swapped it between cars.

It was isofix though, so really not a big deal. You just hoist it out and move it. The ones with the straps and tethers would be a pain and that’s one reason we went for the more expensive one.

At 4.5, they moved to a high back booster as hit the weight limit for the isofix, and then we bought one each because only £50.

No DGPs left unfortunately, but we own and use 3 vehicles. There was/is no way we were going to be messing around with moving the seats between cars, but we also have a limited budget. DCs are primarily ferried about in one vehicle, so we got the top end seats for that one. The vehicle that they rode/ride in most often after that (and only ever local, so lower speeds) got cheaper seats. The third vehicle is used infrequently, and I used second hand seats in that, which I'd rehomed from friends with older children (so knew they hadn't been in an accident etc).

We have a erf seat but an extra set of tethers so it’s really easy to reinstall in another car once you get the hang of it. That being said though in your position I’d get grandparents something like the graco slimfit or joie stages just to save you the hassle in the morning and DH can put it in his car on Friday and you can return it on Monday.

I think it's worth having at least two. I'd probably have a "main" seat in your car, since you seem to do the most driving, and then something easy to swap might work for the other three?

If you have a car seat that came with your Nuna Mixx (that's the pushchair model name) it's probably one of the Nuna infant carriers. Do you already have a base in all four cars, or have you been seatbelt fitting in the other three cars, or swapping the base as well? One of the Nuna seats (Pipa Lite) can't be fitted using seatbelt, so I assume it's probably Arra Next or Pipa Next.

There is a toddler seat which fits onto that base - the Todl Next. If you already have multiple bases, this is a good case where it would be worth getting the toddler seat that's compatible. If you don't have extra bases, then it's probably not economically worth it, as it can only be fitted with the base, not seatbelt.

FWIW you can use an infant seat until the baby's head pokes out of the top, which might be longer than you think. If the strap is making red marks near her neck, check the strap covers are on and in the right position (if they slide around, they are usually to prevent these kinds of marks) and if you can't move them, try pulling her clothing through to make sure it's between the strap and her skin. Because the straps are relatively tough due to their safety requirement they can rub on skin especially if DC have quite sensitive or easily marked skin. Sometimes it's harmless like a crease mark from a pillowcase, but if it seems sore, then it's fine to put something between them to make it softer. Just don't add any third-party padded items to the straps. (This always happens to my DC as well, and especially so in summer clothing).

Halfords is not actually a terrible idea in terms of them having quite a few cheaper options, although I agree their training of their staff is rarely up to much, so I wouldn't take their advice too seriously (or at least double check it later). But if you want to try seats out and see how easy they are to put in and out of the car, how your DC fits in them etc then it might be worth a trip.

They have Graco Extend R129 for £75 at the moment, which is a good seat and belt fitted so light to swap. It can sometimes be outgrown earlier than the 105cm height limit, so would caution this may only last taller children until about age 3.

They also have their own brand Halfords Impala which is the cheapest RF seat you can get full stop - it's £60 (sometimes less on offer) and allows RF up to 105cm/18kg. Meets the R129 safety standard. I don't know anything else about this seat, not sure how big the shell is compared with the Graco or how solid it feels in person - might be worth checking out.

They also have Graco Turn2Me i-size for £129 which is a really good price for a spin, isofix seat RF up to 105cm (and decent space) from a decent brand, good safety result. Obviously still quite expensive x4, but might be more reasonable than some others. Because it's isofix, it is heavy to move between cars but it is simple to fit (tip: If the isofix won't release, push the whole seat IN to the isofix bars and then try to release again.) If you have the cars parked side by side with enough space to open both doors, it's easy to move it.

Graco, Nuna and Joie are the same parent company so there are similarities between their products although Nuna is the "luxury" side and Graco the "budget" side. Joie is somewhere in the middle.