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Original poster

Lie flat car seats

48 replies

Lupe · 06/05/2004 22:02

I am expecting my first child in July and am getting round to getting all the bits...

I've just ordered a pram - the Bebe Confort Calypso carrrycot and Urban chassis, which seems perfect for me as it's light, portable and simple. I understand that the carrycot can also be used as a lie flat car seat. Does anyone have any experience of using these lie flat carriers - one shop I visited expressed doubt as to their usefulness, saying that the baby would quickly get bored. I had understood that it was best for the baby to lie flat for the first six months, particularly for longer journeys.

My car journeys will probably be regular (but no more than a few a week) but not of great length - maximum usually about 2 hours.

OP posts:
stace · 08/05/2004 12:11

My sister in law changed from a conventional baby seat to a lie flat one because she had a baby that just would not sleep in the car and could not be moved without waking. Whereas i had a dream baby that did sleep in car sear and could easily be taken out and popped into cot to finish nap. So it really sounds like you have the best of all worlds with yours, good luck!!!!

melsy · 08/05/2004 13:10

I think there great dont know what the women is going on about with the bordedam thing. I bought the jane matrix which is a lie flat car seat/carry cot amd also comes out and goes onto pram chassy. It also has 3 sitting up positions also as they get older.Is this new the bebe one ??? I now keep it permmantly in the car as upright rear facing car seat, as the pram chassy came with a buggy seat too. all in all its beena fab purchase and will re use it as a carry cot, please god, with the 2nd babs some time!!!! The only downside was the wieght and its a bit chunky and awkwards but it was a samll price to play to ensure my dd always had a lovely comfy place to sleep and I could take her in and out everywere laying flat for months, which I was happier about than a little tiny thing with their head llolloping all over. Its much better for her back. OOh and to stave off supossed boredom I had an activity thing tat went over it , kept her amused for ages. Let us know what you think.

Good luck with baby , look forward to reading your birth anouncement .

stace · 08/05/2004 19:05

my sister in laws was also the jane matrix and she was thrilled with it too!

ScotsBird · 08/05/2004 22:57

Hi Lupe, same as melsy and stace's sis-in-law I have a jane matrix lie-flat car seat and it was (and still is) fab. Dd is almost 9mths old and is using it as an upright car seat but for long journeys she can still lie flat in it (she is quite a wee thing). We travel from bristol to glasgow in the car quite a bit so for such a long journey it is great.

Hope you are keeping well ...

Original poster
Lupe · 09/05/2004 21:18

thanks all for the encouragement - the woman in the shop was a miserable old so and so anyway so I didn't want to take her word for it!

I think I'll go ahead and get the car fixing set - and I'm extra pleased cos it means I'll only be paying out another £20 instead of £60 or £70!

OP posts:
BearintheBigBlueHous · 10/05/2004 12:56

Lupe - have you committed to the Bebe Confort etc? I ask because we are selling our Jane Matrix Carrera travel system - we too loved the lie-flat car seat on long and short journeys but DS is too long for it now. The buggy is light and simple enough. I'm putting an ad on the Classifieds section of the site when I get round to typing it up, but if you're interested (it's in VGC and has all the accessories, btw) you'll save me the bother. Let me know.

Original poster
Lupe · 11/05/2004 16:06

Bear - thanks very much for the offer but I've actually put a deposit down on the Bebe Confort already and am very keen on the design as well - it's nice and compact and I live in a flat on the second floor, so that's ideal.

best of luck selling it anyway

OP posts:
stace · 13/05/2004 09:55

bear in the big blue house have you any ideahow much you want for it as i may be interested.

Twinkie · 13/05/2004 10:00

Lupe please please check the restraints on these lie flat carrycots - if they are just accross the babies torso you have to realise that they are not safe and will put any stress in the event of an accident on the most vunerable part of a babies body causing some horrific internal injuries.

My DPs brother lives in France and they had one of these car seats and I was shocked to see their new born child lying in a carrycot on the back seat with a strap across his middle!!

I may have the worng ene dof the stick and this seat is not like that at all but just wanted to make sure you were aware of this.

BearintheBigBlueHouse · 13/05/2004 14:13

I'm no expert, but I'm not sure I agree - the seat complies with the ECE R44.03 safety standard which provides that "The child restraint must provide [the same level of] protection in any position in which it is designed to be used." I looked into this in detail before we bought it - I think the Which? report recommended it above all others at the time. I know both our dd and ds have been fine in it, but I guess that's down to us not having had any accidents.

Anyway I guess that puts the kibosh on us selling it now

BearintheBigBlueHouse · 14/05/2004 09:39

DW looked at this thread last night and was upset about the inference that we would endanger our children by putting them into an unsafe seat. She agreed that when we bought the Matrix car seat we had researched and looked for the safest and best for our baby and the Which report amongst others pointed to this one. Anyway, we agreed that we are selling again, but understand if no-one's interested now. FYI Stace, we were looking for £150 ovno for the whole kit and caboodle against a new retail price of between £350 and £399.

sleeplessmum2be · 14/05/2004 16:27

bibbh - dont get upset i think the posting was sent with all the best intentions and yes i have done a little research for my own peace of mind too, just two (or twenty) questions for you

1 what do you have in the 'whole kit and kaboodle'
2 how old is it
3 do you still have the fixing bits and pieces too
4 Were are you based

sleeplessmum2be · 14/05/2004 16:28

oh yeah

could tell in the pictures is it a 3 point or 5 point harness?

BearintheBigBlueHouse · 14/05/2004 17:17

Thanks Sleepless. I think the sit up car seat is 3 point and the buggy is 5 point - but I'll check.

I had just typed up the following to stick on the classifieds yesterday when I was pulled up:

Because DS has shot of the centile scale for height, we?re selling our Jane Matrix Carrera travel system featuring the award-winning Matrix lie-flat or sit-up car seat which, according to the manufacturers, is suitable from birth to 18 months (9 months in lie-flat mode) (see Johnstons ). The Carrera buggy is the four wheel/two handled one, ie not the 3 wheel Powertrack. Raincovers and hoods, full instructions and accessory bag all included. It?s in ?Pistachio? - light blue and light green check. We?ve had it for about 2.5 years, but it has only been used for about 12 months in total and is in excellent condition. New, the travel system retails for £399, in view of its good condition we?ll sell for £150 o.v.n.o. It?s in Bristol.

BearintheBigBlueHouse · 14/05/2004 17:17

and we do have all the fixing bits and bobs

Twinkie · 14/05/2004 17:35

I'm not even going to reply to your post - I was not inferring anything to you but speaking to Lupe so your misguided offence is completely that MISGUIDED!!

sleeplessmum2be · 14/05/2004 19:24

sorry to drive you mad bibbh but just so that i can get excited and clear do you have a carry cot aswell or just the lie flat thing and would you uph or royal mail it because we are in essex/north london. But it does sound really interesting cos i was going to borrow my sil and see how it goes and then maybe buy one. I cant keep hers cos shes due baby 2, 7 weeks after
me!!!!

perhaps you should email me or vice versa try me on contact a talker and we'll make arrangements.

coddycodcod · 14/05/2004 19:28

bear! twinkie was being general and rather kind I think!

BearintheBigBlueHouse · 14/05/2004 20:12

(From bear's DW) twinkie, I appreciate you were addressing Luce but it was on a thread which mentions the seat we had already used for our two children and we saw it. I am sorry if my being upset was misguided but I was upset and Bear just suppported me in that. Neither of us want to cause offence.

Original poster
Lupe · 17/05/2004 09:37

Twinkie - I am concerned now! Surely these carrycots couldn't be marketed as car seats if they were not safe? I will try to do some research but if you have any more information I would be glad to hear it!

OP posts:
Twinkie · 17/05/2004 09:59

Lupe - I have always been aware that 3 point harnesses are such as to distribute the force of an impact over the babies body to cause the least amount of stress on vunerable parts yet keeping the baby safe and secure.

Sorry but I would never put any child in a lap belt or a lie flat seat with a belt across its middle as on impact the force would all be directly impacted on its internal organs - liver, kidneys, spleen which cuold be fatal (even as an adult a ruptured spleen is often fatal if not dealt with quickly - I would dread to think of somethign like that happeneing to a baby) and I can;t see that any way of strapping a baby in would b safe in my eyes in these sorts of seats - surely the fact that most seats are not like this should make people think that maybe that is not because they are not the safest - I think that way anyway and to me I could never imagine DD wanting to lie in a baby carry cot for more than 10 minutes and once she got to about 3 months it would be obsolete she would want to take more notice of things going on around her rather than the roof of the car.

Anyway thats my view and I am not saying that anyone who has used one of these is a bad parent but I wouldn't as many of you would not use walkers and I would!! - Personal choice!!

MrsDoolittle · 17/05/2004 10:08

I have a Mammas and Papas navetta carrycot which is also a car seat. We believe it to be safe - Group 0 - having also done the research.
Love it! The only pity is the car fitting kit means you can't use it for a second child because it takes all of the back seat.
It's great for long journeys.

LIZS · 17/05/2004 10:16

Lupe

Here are the Safety Standards which apply to all car seats under the latest regulations, as mentioned by BearintheBigBlueHouse further down the thread. All infant seats currently retailed new should conform to this whether of the lieflat/carrycot type or rear facing seat with handle type. There is a particular note that the carrycots should be fixed at 90 degrees to the direction of the car ie. along back seat, which I suppose is what the fixing kit is designed to do.

I remember when I was little my family would regularly travel 2 kids in back of a small car, neither of us belted and with baby in an unrestrained full size traditional carry cot on the seat between us. Fortunately we never had an accident but I do understand where Twinkie is coming from.

muddaofsuburbia · 17/05/2004 10:29

Lupe - just to reassure you. We have a Bebe Confort 4 in 1 pram from 2002 (discontinued and updated now). It has the carry cot bits and bobs and they have been absolutely brilliant. The carry cot is secured by the 2 passenger seatbelts either side with the fixing kit. The baby is further secured by a very wide foamy adjustable strap whi is attached inside the actual carrycot. So the cot is rigid in the car and the baby is secured inside the cot IYSWIM.

WE used it for long journeys (7 plus hours) to see family for the first 3 months - after that ds was then too big to lie flat in it - plus they're bigger and able to be in a car seat for longer periods by that age. AFIK babies shouldn't be in a car seat fro longer than 2/3 hours at a time because of their developing spines - car seats keep them too bunched up.

Also when we got to our destination we could either plonk the whole carry cot on the pram chassis or on the floor of someone's house and ds would still be fast asleep - fantastic invention.

If ds was awake while we were travelling then we just put an arch of pram toys across the carry cot and he fiddled with them quite happily for ages. Or you could prop up some of those fold out cloth books around the inside of the cot like a mini cot bumper.

Ds was very rarely awake in the car to get bored anyway. When they're under 3 months the car seems to send them off instantly especially if they're nice and comfy lying down

muddaofsuburbia · 17/05/2004 10:30

Meant to add - our fixing kit means that you can choose to fix the carry cot between window and middle or window and window seatbelts so there is room for another car seat if you fix it to the side - does that make sense?