urgent advise re car seats

[seaandsand]

I have a M&P pliko pramette travel system but I have hated the Primo Viaggio car seat (which is a part of the system) from the beginning.
My baby is now 16 weeks and I have just decided to buy another car seat. As I don't want another dissapointment with another car seat I urgently need your advise. For example, how is maxi cosi? Any other ideas?

What did you not like about the other car seat?

I have a couple of maxi cosi car seats, and they have been fine

We've had Britax Rock a Tots which are great IMO. You're quite welcome to ours FFP if you want it?

would it be wiser, money-wise, to look at a dual stage seat; you would save a bit of money that way

I mean one that goes rear-facing, then turns to forward when baby is big enough (for example, the britax first class si)

Loopymumsy - I know what you mean about the bigger ones fitting into it - we had to stop DS1 getting in it when we got one for DS2!

Personally, we took both of ours out of first stage car seats, and put them into the second stage ones as soon as they hit the weight requirements (which was far before the 9 months / 13kg - think they can go into a second stage at 9kg or 10kg?) because the smaller seat gave both of them terrible wind problems. This was particularly bad for DS2 who had severe reflux. Both of their problems eased greatly once in the more upright seats. This was at 5m for both DS1 & 2.

s&s - how much does your DD weigh now? Can she support her own head yet? If she's close to the weight requirements for the next stage seat, it might be worth waiting a month or so before getting a new one. My offer stands though if you want our old Rock a Tot. It was a premium cosy version from Mothercare.

You're really supposed to wait until the baby is 9 months before putting her into a forward facing seat, even if they're 9kg well before that (not a problem for us - DS was 15 months before he was 9kg!)

We have the Britax cosytot Isofix which is absolutely brilliant. If your car has isofix, these carseats are, though pricey, wonderful for ease of use and peace of mind. One click, it's in - no faffing with belts. Bloody marvellous when it's tipping down with rain.

CD - I would disagree with that. Everything that I read at the time suggested that the most important factors were weight, height and ability to hold head upright. Both of our boys satisfied all of these criteria at 5m. They were actually 10kg at this age, rather than 9kg. The age is a guide to the approximate time that your child will be this weight.

Agree Isofix is great though - we have Isofix second stage carseats for both boys.

I am with CD. I thought they had to be capable of sitting unaided for quite a long period of time (20mins maybe?) before going forward facing.

I do however agree that Which do not rate any multi-stage carseat as highly as the single stage seats.

TBH they are far far safer reward facing....DD3 is still in her carrier at 18m....and will be for the next few months as she is still well under 13kg and fits in her Graco Autobaby(which I love but don't have anything to compare it to). Whilst she still fits in it she will still use it on grounds of being safer than forward facing. END OF STORY

Thank you very much guys. NormanBatesFletcher, I don't like Primo Viaggio car seat because it is too upright. I am a first time parent and I didn't know much about carseats before. I now feel very guilty about using that carseat. It is, I believe worst possible design for babies spine. I don't even want to see it again.
Does maxi cosi or britax recline back to a lying flat position? Does anyone have maxi cosi topline? And how about chicco synthesis, anybody know anything about it? I need to solve this car seat problem as soon as possible.

OK, looked at the ROSPA site, we're both kind of right. They are safer rearward facing, so long as they're still suitable for the rearward carseat. My DS's weren't as their heads were beginning to come above the top of the seat (they are both 99.8 centile for height).

From website:

Babies should be in rearward-facing baby seats. Do not move your child to a forward-facing seat until they weigh at least 9 kgs and can sit up unaided, but keep them in a rearward-facing seat for as long as possible. Once your child is above the maximum weight for a rearward-facing seat or the top of their head is above the top of the seat , they should be moved into a forward-facing seat. It is not important if their knees are bent in the seat, provided they are still within the seat's weight range.

So even within the weight range, they were too tall. So, if they can stay in the baby seat, they are best to. For us personally, the safety aspect had to be considered in conjunction with DS2 being violently sick from the position of the carseat, and both DS1 and DS2 getting bad stomach ache for hours after being in the carseat.

seaandsand, Which? crash tested some recline flat car seats last year (I think it was last year) and they were appalling - fell apart in 40mph crashes. Avoid. I think one model was taken off the market, not sure about the other one.

we had britx rock a tot and maxi cosi for new babes
ditched both in favour of the bebe comfot iseos multi stage seat from about 5 mths...
also saves your back as you never had to lug the goddamn seat in and out...
although if you depend on a travel system....

Maxi cosi have a really good newborn wedge included which makes the seat very nearly flat, there's also a headhugger as well so very secure.
Lisa X

the choice of rear facing baby seats is absolutely apalling. I did loads of research and in the end reluctantly stuck with the mamas and papas one. the problem with all of them is that if you don't fit them exactly right they are nigh on useless. we did keep ds in it for quite a long time (at least9mths i think). since then we've had a maxi cosi and i've been very happy with it. i would be worried about a forward facing or lie flat seat at 16 weeks though, sorry.