Which car seat?

[gottomakeithappen]

Hi,
Looking for some advice, we are due our first child in October and keen to make the right choice for a car seat. We think we are comfortable with not having a car seat which goes onto a pram frame, but happy to be advised otherwise.

We have identified 2 car seats which look like practical long term solutions but we really have no idea and when we have visited shops for advice they very much push the products on their shelves so hoping for more unbiased and real life experiences here.

www.mamasandpapas.com/products/joie-ispin-360-isize-baby-to-toddler-car-seat-coal-560779000

www.smythstoys.com/uk/en-gb/baby/car-seats-and-bases/00-36kg-%7c-group-0-1-2-3/babyauto-xperta-i-size-360-swivel-isofix-0%2b-1-2-3-car-seat/p/204952

Open to others but these were the two we had shortlisted but we really feel we have no idea despite reading up.

Thanks

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This thread is a little old now so some of the suggestions may be out of date, but if you’ve landed here looking for a car seat for your newborn, we’ve recently updated our best baby car seats article with lots of great options, as tried and tested by Mumsnet users. We hope you find it useful.
MNHQ

We’ve got the joie ispin 360. Absolutely love it and cannot fault it. Now she’s bigger having it spin to the side makes it a lot easier to get her in her seat when someone has parked super close to your car. Haven’t found it a problem that it stays in the car. DD now 1 will fall asleep and happily cuddle into me for transfer to house/pram. We have a blanket over the seat (when not in use) to keep the straps from getting hot or if it was raining to cover her head when we’d go inside.

downside, we really don’t transfer it car to car. So I’ve got a cheaper seat for if we’re going out with friends/family and they are driving.

We got the Maxi Cosi Marble as I did research which pointed out that babies are safer in a baby seat (i.e not one meant for toddlers) so we got that one, he's still in it at 16 months and I'll get the toddler one next. He was so secure and safe in it when he was born, I was shocked when I saw other newborns in car seats with way less support around them. That was my choice after doing all the research but everyone is different. Rear seat facing is safer for years but often people don't follow that advice either xx

I have the Joie ispin. It’s great BUT not at all portable; it’s really heavy and unwieldy with the isofix attached so you couldn’t easily move it between cars and definitely no good if you wanted to take it somewhere when travelling by train/plane. We also have a maxicosi pebble which we use for travel.

Would definitely go joie over babyauto as they do additional safety testing. I had the joie 360 for my first and loved it, apparently the joie spin safe is on offer at the moment though and cheaper than the 360. The spin safe has passed the Swedish plus test (one of the hardest tests they can be put through) so if you're open to suggestions I'd suggest that one too.

Out of the two you've linked here, definitely the Joie one, as long as you're happy with the idea of the car seat being fixed in the car and not being able to carry it around. It's great value for money and is one of the better fitting fixed seats for newborns in terms of positioning. The only thing I'd say to check is what the angle is like in your car. Some cars have angled back seats and the isofix points are low down, which kind of tips the seat back towards the back of the car, which is against the recline when the baby is rear facing as they must be to begin with. See if you can get a test fit when parked on level ground, and check that the seat isn't any more steep than 45 degrees measured with all the newborn inserts in. (There are free angle measuring tools for smartphones or you can use a spirit level).

I would personally rule out any of the up to 12 years ones - you're better off buying a separate booster seat once your baby is old enough for a booster, as boosters need to be light and flexible, none of the combination seats are (or if they are, they make terrible harnessed seats). The toddler stage is also really rough on seats - lots of manhandling, stickiness and potentially puke. You won't want to keep using the same seat for years and years. Booster seats are the cheapest stage so it's not usually economical to include them in a combination seat in any case.

The other reason I wouldn't recommend that Baby Auto one in particular is that it uses top tether. Top tether is a great system for forward facing seats but it doesn't work very well for rear facing seats, and in this case although the seat can also be fitted forward facing when the child is older, when set up like this you would either have to detach the tether every time you use it (which is a pain as they are in the boot) or you can't operate the spin feature because the tether holds it in place. The Joie seat uses a support leg instead, which is good both for rear facing and forward facing, it's just more expensive to produce which is why the cheaper seats tend towards top tether. (All isofix seats have one or the other).

There is no general difference in safety between infant carriers and combination seats, this is a bit of a myth. There are so many different models that it's impossible to make a generalisation like this in any case, you should look at the individual seat to make a decision. What I would say is that rotation is quite a complex thing to add into something that is essentially functioning as a piece of lifesaving equipment if you were to crash, so it's worth only using a rotating seat that has been through one of the consumer tests - Joie i-Spin 360 has (and it did very well). You can look at the Which? results in English if you buy a subscription, or read the results for free in German here using Google translate: www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/ausstattung-technik-zubehoer/kindersitze/kindersitztest/marken/joie/joie-i-spin-360-id-640/ and more detail here www.familiebaer.com/kindersitztest-2019-herbst-ergebnisse-stiftung-warentest-adac/

Just be aware that if you have a small baby (I cooked mine tiny for some reason) the through seats are a bit big at birth - I borrowed an infant carrier for dd1 then bought a stay in car seat when we moved away (so I could return the borrowed seat) at about 6 months. As it said from birth I tried to use for dd2 (moving dd1 to a cheaper booster seat with removable harness which was the norm then, hadn't invented extended rear facing) and dd2 was too small, hospital lent us an infant carrier for the first fortnight to give us time to get one (lovely rich American hospital!)

Ispin 360 !!

My last baby was a 6lb'er and needed to be in an infant carrier for the first few weeks as the spin seat we had was too big for them.

I think for an autumn / winter baby, an infant car seat is definitely so much better. You will be able to nip from the car to the supermarket / doctor's / grannies house a lot easier without having to stand in the rain / cold transferring the baby from the pram or your arms to the car seat and fiddling around with the straps. With an infant carrier, you can take your time to properly strap them in safely in the warm and dry house, tuck a blanket over them and quickly rush to the car (even better if you get an isofix base).
Yes, the birth - toddler ones last longer but they aren't as safe for tiny babies (in terms of crash safety but also they end up a bit crumpled / slouched which can compromise their breathing / oxygen saturation when they're very small).

Thanks for all your responses, you make some good points.

Interesting that those of you who have the Joie Ispin also have a spare, with that in mind and realising the winter weather will impact the experience of putting the baby in the car. I think we are going to go for a readily portable and therefore able to attach to a pram frame car seat. @BertieBotts thank you for the link to those websites, they are really useful and i will be keeping on using them. Great find by you!
We are now thinking a Maxi Cosi Pebble Pro - potentially this one
www.dewaldenspramcentre.com/products/maxi-cosi-pebble-pro-i-size-displayx?variant=40156293660843&gclid=Cj0KCQjw_viWBhD8ARIsAH1mCd7RI8R1TwNAl1I2FZ18z7EL__uLtDWcEyaLcxNJCLl4dcVW0i-_AUsaAouEEALw_wcB
Which scored well:
www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/ausstattung-technik-zubehoer/kindersitze/kindersitztest/marken/maxi-cosi/maxi-cosi-pebble-pro-i-size-id-595/

Any recommendations other than this?
We will then look to the next car seat as they come to the point of outgrowing this one.

Yes, I really like the pebble Pro, lovely seat. The only downside to it is the 75cm limit on it. This is annoyingly short if you have long babies. However it's not the huge issue it was a few years ago as it used to be the case all the extended rear facing seats from Sweden started at approx 80cm so you had a gap there. There are now plenty of options from 60cm so it means a good overlap, although the bigger starting ones are cheaper as they are older models. For reference my long but not enormous 11mo is about 79cm now. If you look at seats with a height limit over 80cm then you're much more likely to get use out of them past a year, if you wanted to. A lot of people like to swap at around 9 months in which case the lower limit won't matter as much.

Assuming you like the pebble Pro for the inserts and weight, I'd look at avionaut pixel as an alternative.

When you get to the next stage bear extended rear facing in mind, as it is the safest option. With the new i-size seats, children must be rear facing to a minimum of 15 months but the longer the better really.

We have joie travel system, so the car seat attached to the pram and into the car in an isofix. Have just got the joie ispin 360 and it’s great! Would have kept baby in the baby seat longer but he’s a big boy and the straps around his waist we’re starting to get too tight. I definitely think having a car seat you can clip to the pram is a life safer. I don’t think we ever used our carry cot for the pram apart from in the house as a Moses basket.

It's really frustrating isn't it? The main shops were rubbish with info. We ended up buying a Joie spin and have been pleased with it although the straps are a bit clunky. I've also heard good things about cybex although maxi Cosi is the standard go to in the UK. Basically you need to try a few to see if you can use them and then check crash testing. Don't forget correct installation makes a massive difference too.

Generally the German and Swedish brands test to a higher speed and are more compatible with extended rear facing which is recommended by the crash tests people (EuroNCAP has their crash testing ratings explanation page if you want more info).

If you want one to go on the pram I would definitely look at what styles you can put on the pram you have chosen. We could only have about 7 different car seats that fitted our pram.

My advice is to start with an infant seat, a light one, and preferably one with a decent amount of growing room so it won't get outgrown too quickly. They are so practical in the early days for easily taking baby in and out of the car, and you only need one seat.

Personally I'd go with Joie (as it's good value, decent price with good safety ratings) but brands like Maxi Cosi, Britax etc are good too.

I had an ickle bubba travel system which came with the infant carrier that attached to the pram which was brilliant for the first few months as my lo was a 6lb baby. Then I bought a cosatto spin and i personally would never buy from them again. Swapped to a joie spin and it's brilliant, I wish I had got it instead of the cosatto xxx

I would recommend researching extended rear facing (safer for children) seats that go up to 25kg like Axkid Move/Axkid Minikid. That way, you can get a normal infant seat like the Maxi Cosi Pebble one you've identified but then your next one lasts a lot longer.

Extended rear facing is a personal choice and I have many friends who don't do it, so no judgement from me if it's not your cup of tea, but it is considerably safer. Our son is nearly 4 and is outgrowing his Maxi Cosi Pearl Smart but he's not big enough to be forward facing in a high backed booster so he has the Axkid Move. If I had know when he was younger, I would never have bothered buying the Pearl Smarts for our cars.

Here is a post on Facebook that explains it all better than I can! Some people think I'm bonkers but my son loves facing backwards and it makes no difference putting him in the car. He's got long legs and they are comfortable too.
Rear Facing (Facebook) m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0LJHGZFKoxcgXCaoay5LRxpvKY76j7Hziu2FQYXZBgTxgfcXw2Kkq1BMQFBhfxJ9il&id=105943618686906

Just trying to save you money 😂

Cosatto. All in one. It's great. X

If you want a seat that stays in the car, can be used from birth and will keep them rear facing until they are old enough for a high backed booster, then I’d go for an avionaut sky or axkid one. Neither are cheap but both are amazing seats and you won’t have to buy another for 6/7 years.

If you want an infant carrier then I’d look at the avionaut pixel pro - it is super light and gives babies a fabulous position. Once outgrown you can look at axkid move/minikid etc.

There’s faults either way with car seats

we have the maxi cosi mica from birth. The annoying thing about it was the newborn insert to make baby higher and support head actually is to be removed at 62cm. Ds was long baby so was only about 6 weeks old when he didn’t fit. But without insert the seat didn’t feel very supportive. I adde a maxi cosi Pearl insert which worked but isn’t official. So basically the 0-4 was fine, but wasn’t great 2-6 months with larger baby.

On the other hand, the maxi cosi marble you show, is only up to 75cm. So also doesn’t help really with long baby. We tried Ds in at 5 months to see if any better and he didn’t really fit. So that and isofix base is pretty pricey for only 5-6 months

suggest looking for a baby seat that lasts longer than 75cm. I thing cybex ones went bigger when I looked ( maybe 90cm)

I would agree with all of this.
Infant seat
A 25kg+ weight limit seat
High back booster seat
The only three seats you need to buy.
The 18kg spin seats look good but once the child get heavy they are difficult to use and newborns are difficult to get a good fit.

I'm quite new to looking at car seats and my brain is completely frazzled by it all! (I think) what I would like is an isofix base that spins round that can be used with a seat that you can clip onto a pram and then when the baby gets bigger, a different seat that fixes onto the same spinny round base. Obviously with good safety ratings etc. Does such a thing exist?

@redlou123 it does, but it will cost you more overall, isn’t the safest option and if you end up with a higher centile child then the whole set up will be useless as you’ll end up having to buy a 25kg seat anyway!

Don’t think too far ahead. Get a decent infant carrier - as I recommended above, the avionaut pixel pro is a really lightweight seat, you can fit it with the seatbelt so no need to buy an expensive isofix base, because it’s so light you can put baby in it in the house then carry to the car and strap in so the swivel function is unnecessary. Once the baby is over a year old, they’ll be settled on a centile and you can work out which seat will work best next.

Cybex, maxi cosi and britax all do that sort of thing but they can be expensive for how long they last.
You should only really need to buy three seats for a child.
Infant (you can miss this if you buy something like the Axkid ONE2+ or Avionaut Sky)
25kg+ seat
Hight back booster-avoid just using a booster seat without the back as they offer no head or side protection.

So you could for example get a maxi cosi pebble 360 and a Pearl 360. With the base, that will set you back around £700, and if you end up with a high centile child, you’d then have to buy a 25kg seat for around £200-300 when they reach 18kg.

Alternatively you buy the avionaut sky for £369, which will be the only seat you need until your child is old enough for a booster. It’s a safer seat too!