Re: car seat threads- has anyone contacted Britax

[tigermeow]

There have been quite a few threads on here about extended rear facing and extending harnessing of kids in car seats.

It seems that there are very limited options available for both extended rear facing and harnessing in this country. In the US and other parts of Europe a child can rear face until 6yrs old and be in a 5 point harness until 80lbs.

Has anyone ever contacted Britax in the UK and asked why the seats that are available in Europe/US are not available here?

I haven't personally, but talking to people that have one reason seems to be "UK parents prefer the colour options of the forward facing seats".

The US have different regulations, so I can believe that seats approved in the US aren't approved for sale in the EU (even though they may be more than capable of passing the tests) - but the UK has no requirements over and above those that exist across Europe so any seat for sale in the EU could be sold legally in the UK without any more testing or paperwork. Its pretty depressing, really, that they come up with such specious reasons not to

That's exactly what I was told about the Jane Matrix and the new Britax carrycots that pass as car seats and indeed the Bebe Confort ones.
I used to own a baby equipment shop and when they first came out I was taken in by the whole affects their breathing research.
Whilst it does it only affects a tiny % of babies and now people are told not to keep the baby in a car seat for more than 2 hours per day there's really no reason not to use the significantly safer bucket type seats.
I like Jane prams but would always go for the rebel/santana option not the Matrix.

Photo's here of children aged 3.5 in rear facing seats, for anybody doubting their child would fit/be comfortable/accept it. Mine will damn well do as they are told if their safety is at risk.

www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1577108&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=5082203682&aid =-1&id=5016 67492&oid=5082203682#/photo.php?pid=81148&o=all&op=1&view=all&subj=5082203682&aid=-1&id=1067428535&o id=5082203682

I feel an enquiring letter to Britax forming!

DD rear faced until 24months. I'm now looking for a car seat that will harness her for much much longer than the 18kgs her current seat goes to. I posted a thread on this a few weeks ago. It looks like I can order from Sweden or buy a special needs seat for £200+. MY friend's DD has a seat that keeps her in a harness until 80lbs, but they are in the US so we cant get one of those.

incarsafetycentre.co.uk/shop/childrens_re_12.html

Too be fair though a maxi cosy forward facing isofix car seat would cost you £200 so I don't have too big a problem with that price.

tigermeow - if you're looking at the BeSafe IziKid we've just got one for DD (21 months). It's a lovely seat and she's very comfy in it. What's really frustrating is that its only tested to 25kg using the Swedish T-test - as far as ECE tests go its only approved to 18kg. The only seats I could find that were ECE approved to 25kg were the Britax ones.

We still bought the IziKid, as it was one of only 2 seats that fitted in our car and made DD look anything like comfortable and there was a marked difference in the amount of side impact protection. For now we feel that she's as safe as we can make her - we'll just have to revisit when she gets bigger.

DD is nearly 4 now. She is fast outgrowing her Britax First Class Si height wise. She also has en Evolva 123 but that only harnesses to 18kg, I want something that harnesses over 18kg so I don't have to put her in booster. I posted a whole thread about this a while ago and got some great answers.
My original post on this thread was really to find out why you can't get extended rear facing and harnessing seats here in the UK.