Rear/Forward facing car seats. Any opinions?

[Ceolas]

Here's my situation:

DD3, 8 months, 17lbs, hates the car and screams nearly every journey. DD1 was similar but improved greatly when she went forward facing.

Now, obviously that's a long way off for DD3, and having watched some crash test videos last night I want to keep her rear facing anyway.

I have been looking at some rear/forward facing seats and wondering if she might be happier in one of those? (bigger seat, might see out of the window)

We already have a Maxi Cosi group 1 so I don't want to fork out unneccessarily. But if we do go for it, Mothercare have their own brand, Britax First Class (which I've heard is huge) Concord Ulimax and Graco Mini Junior (or Junior Mini!). Does anyone have any information/opinions on their safety?

depends on car britax have fit finder on website which is very useful all second stage car seats are slightly wider but try any in your car see what fit etc safety wise get one with added side impact protection and look on the which website

not to0 hot on safety details but we had a primo viaggio (is that possibly what it was called...auto base thing?) and darling son positively foamed at the mouth screaming when we put him in it...we then changed to a britax first class and had a mirror so we could see him and he could laught at the laughing baby..he did this all the way to serre chevalier and back and it made a big difference to my blood pressure!...he looked safe and snug in that...if you have to fit three car seats in the back of a car it may be a bit too big...depending on age of oldest child in middle

Another vote for the first class and a panda mirror ( from NCT) to keep an eye, yes it is big but I much prefer it to some of the travel system seats, and it fits most cars.

do you have isofix? Britax make a rear facing seat Group 1 (available through volvo) which dd1 was in until she was nearly 3 (and dd2 will go into once she is heavy enough)

Glad to hear about your happy trip oxford! Yes, my blood pressure is suffering big time.

We have 2 in the middle row and two in the back of a Zafira so no real problem with it being big, except when we go on holiday (once a year!)

We do have isofix, but I've never considered an isofix seat cos they're so much more expensive. I reckon I'm pretty good at fitting them myself

fair enough - it is pricey, I only have it because I am a huge believer in rear-facing for as long as possible, and given that dd2 is such a shrimp, she'll probably be about 6 before she goes forward facing!

With the others (eg First class) You can use them rear facing for as long as you want, can't you? Is there a recommended time for turning them round?

I think (and I haven't ever owned one) that the combi seats are ok rear facing up until 13kg, and then you turn it round from 13kg up to 18kg (you can, of course have it forwards facing from 9kg if you wish).

That's why I went for the volvo one, as rear facing (and only rear facing) until 18kg

Also just come across the Jane Racing. Any views on it?

oh, meant to add, because I had a group 0+, which is rear facing until 13kg anyway... so never saw the point of the combi ones.

Can you link to this seat silverfrog?

I don't know it, sorry. I've only ever had Britax seats.

I'm inclined to agree on the group 0, it's just that DD seems to hate her current seat (bebeconfort Creatisfix). I'm wondering if a bigger seat, higher up and looking out of the window might be better for my blood pressure!

there is a picture of it here. It looks quite cramped there, but my dd1 was ok leg wise (and she is a tall girl - 98th centile stuff) until she was 3, and probably would have been ok beyond that, but we needed the base for the baby seat for dd2 (that's why it worked out cost effective for us, as it uses the same isofix base as the baby seat)

same pic but a bit more info here

and more info here (but I think the article is wrong on the second page - the seat is not birth-18kg, it is 9-18kg)

that's brilliant, thanks!

oh, and pic in the last link is not the same seat, but gives a better imprssion of how much legroom there is.

Anyone used any of the others?

We are in similar position.

With DS, he hated Creatis from about 4 months. I had the Britax First Class rear facing in my car and he was much better in that. I can't quite remeber when we switched to forward facing but I would guess well before 9 months as he was big and had a handy trick of bracing his legs against the rear seat, which HV said was one of the indicators to move.

DD has been in Jane Rebel and seems happy enough, except now at 5.5 m is already well over 9 kg with legs hanging off the end. Although she cannot sit unaided for the required 15 mins, she only has about 2 cm more of growth room to the top of the rebel so I think we will have to move her pronto.

However...got to tell you that although rear facing Britax was great once the child is in it, getting them in when they are are bigger is a total pain - the seat belt coming over the side and the door frame of the car leave hardly any room to manouvre them in. If you can, I would have car seat in the middle seat, so the seatbelt is on the oppoosite side to the side you are putting the child into, IYSWIM.

Just a minor point but worth noting - our Britax First Class sits quite low in our Zafira, would prefer DS to be able to see a bit more out of the window, say in a Tobi

Thanks stripey bump. I think if I had it in the middle it would stop us flipping the seats down at either side to access the back ones though...

I think the Concord Ultimax goes in slightly differently. Must investigate!