Car seats & isofix- SO CONFUSED

[stepmum88]

Any help would be greatly appreciated;

Ordered our pram today (silver cross pioneer)& I am completely baffled by what the salesman said in the shop
About car seats etc.

Can anybody shed some light on the isofix / I safe car seats and which is the best? Do they make maxi cosi ones which swivel? Our pram will take a maxi cosi seat with adaptors.

Very confused 😫
Thanks x

Basically you can fit a car seat either using the seat belt in your car or via a metal loop fitted in the car and a matching clip on the seat. Not all cars pre 2004 have isofix however.

If fitted correctly they are equally as safe as each other according to the fitters we have spokento.

I safe is to do with weight ranges for seats rather than the old heigbt/age ratings I believe

The infant t carriers don't swivel, however maxi cos do a carseat called the axsis that does swivel. The original one was only forward facing altho there brands do do one from birth - cybex I think - but they won't fit to your pram.

Hth

If you want a car seat to fit on your pram wheels you need an infant carrier. This will normally have a separate isofix base that stays in the car & you slot the seat into. Sometimes the base comes with the car seat & sometimes you have to buy it separately.
The car seats that swivel are much bigger & heavier & stay in the car permanently. There are quite a few different ones available now. We have the Britax one & it's great. Really saved my back not having to twist inside the car. You can use them from newborn but you then lose the advantage of being able to clip the seat to the wheels which is very handy for a quick trip to the shops with a sleeping baby.

This might be the one for you. Pebble plus infant seat from birth then 2 way pearl for extended rear facing, both of which use the same 2wayfix isofix Base.

www.maxi-cosi.co.uk/gb-en/car-seats/2waypearl.aspx

If you have a big John lewis near you their staff are excellent at talking you through all the various options. We went with the combo Emma suggested and have been really pleased with it but it doesn't have a swivel function (unless I've missed it!)

If you have the carrycot for the pram I wouldn't worry about a compatible car seat too much. It's far better for the baby to sleep in the carrycot (i.e. flat) than in the car seat.

The only reasons to have a compatible car seat are to avoid buying a carrycot and to transfer them from car to pram without waking them up. The transfer thing really depends on your lifestyle but I never found it to be a big issue - they often wake up when you move the car seat anyway.

Don't know if this helps but what I was massively confused about was that I thought all seats would fit onto an isofix base. So we had a base and a first stage seat (Cybex Aton-Q) which also fitted onto the buggy frame with adaptors (although I only ever did that once, hated it). When it came to moving up I thought we just bought a bigger seat to clip into the existing base but no, the bigger seats have the base built in, they're all one unit. Maybe that's obvious but to me it wasn't!

We know have the Joie 360 which is also suitable from birth.

Oh sorry I didn't see the swivel bit, was just thinking forward and rear facing

I also wouldn't worry too much about car seats to fit your pram. Much better for newborns to lie flat to begin with and tbh, i could never understand why people would spend a fortune on a pram then just sit the car seat on it all the time.

Go to JL or somewhere and get someone to talk through the options so your buying the most suitable car seat for your car and budget.

1. Firstly, not all seats will fit your car.

1. The new regulations are called iSize (not iSafe, in case there's any confusion). They're not mandatory in the UK yet but the main difference is their limits work off child height, not weight, and they're subject to different testing standards so are considered safer.

1. Not all 'bigger' seats (those past Groups 0 and 0+, which are the infant carriers you see on prams and people leaving hospital with) a) need any base or b) come with their own base in-built if needed.

3a) Even within the same brands, not all seats fit on the same bases.

4. Extended rear-facing (until circa age 4) is five times safer than turning the child around to forward-face earlier. Please, please bear this in mind.

5. As a PP said, as long as they're fitted correctly, belted seats and seats on ISOFIX bases are equally safe (in terms of how they're secured). However, ISOFIX is often considered to be safer because it reduces the risk of mis-fitting a seat (it is also much less faffy).

6. There are a number of models that swivel - the odd one from birth (obviously you couldn't remove and put this on a pram) and some from Group 1 upwards. Maxi Cosi have launched an iSize seat that swivels but it only rear-faces until around age 2. Personally, particularly as we have five-door cars, ERF using iSize takes priority so our seats don't swivel (it's easier than it looks ) but I know people like the swivel aspect. The Nuna Rebl is iSize and swivels but there was a right hullabaloo a few months back when it failed an optional extra safety test on the continent (who are light hears ahead of us re car seat safety, sadly) and retailers ended up taking them back even when used etc due to the fallout.

7. If you at all can, try to get to a specialist car seat safety centre. They will have every option under the sun to advise on and for you to try in your car and choose from, whether that's infant carrier then longer-term seat, ERF or FF (they will generally recommend ERF), swivel and non-swivel, iSize, belted, whatever. Where are you located? Centres will often offer advice over the phone/email/FB as well. Just about all high street retailers have recently come under serious fire for not meeting necessary training standards re advice and fitting.

8. Occasionally you'll see someone say that all car seats have to meet the same standard (wrong - they mean a minimum standard) so there's no point paying hundreds of pounds when you can pick one up in Halfords for pittance. Obviously this is bull and these people need to go and read something and hush.

9. Obviously don't buy or use second-hand seats unless you're absolutely certain they've never been in accident, so from family or trustworthy friends. Any seat that is in a car that is in any bump needs to be replaced.

I'm not saying all of the above is even relevant to OP but it bears repeating while we're on the subject.

Basically - you need to work out what your priorities are and go from there, whether it's ERF, cost, portability between cars (something to bear in mind when considering ISOFIX vs belted), longevity, ease of use etc - then narrow down your choices from there.

We got the silver cross car seat "free" with the purchase of the travel system. (From toys r us.) Might be worth noting that the silver cross pioneer car seat doesn't fit on the simplicity isofix, it is the simplifix seat base.

We still use the car seat/adaptor with pram now and ds is 7 months, I didn't like using it when he was tiny as newborns need to lie flat, now he's are bit more robust we use it for short trips out.

Thankyou so so much for all of your help! We have decided not to go for the swivel one so that we can get one which goes into our pram and will have a base fixed in our car. Next step....... electric breast pumps..... any thoughts?!! X

Medela swing 😊