Car seat advice

[jennyh]

Hi

My soon to be 10 month old is quite long and in the next couple of months her head will be poking above the headrest on our maxicosi cabriofix. Looking for some advice about changing carseats for the next stage as im not sure where to start. I had read a couple of things saying to postpone the change for as long as possible as forward facing seats arent as safe. To be honest we don't often drive but it only takes one accident. Anyone got any tips or thoughts?

Thanks

Jenny

[snowboarder]

It's not so much postpone the car seat upgrade as maintain rear facing for as long as possible, if I understand right. You can get rear facing next stage up car seats - there is a website that tells all...

OUr 2 yr old is in a regular forward facing stage 1 seat (was a complete horror in the car until he fwd faced) but I am in a quandry about the baby, who is coming up to growing out of the maxi cosi too and doesn't seem to mind rear facing.

[Beagle]

We opted for a rear facing seat that is good up to 4/5 years. We went to the following store which has trained up staff who went through the options and fitted it for us and were really nice to deal with.

http://www.babycarepettswood.co.uk/carseatsbesafe.htm

It did cost a bit more but we have compromised on other items and decided we wanted to really think about the car seat and went for the rear facing option. It does mean the front passenger seat can't be moved back so might not suit everyone but we have had it 5 months and all is going well, lots of leg room for her to grow into.

We bought the Britax model. Although I think 5 months ago it was a bit cheaper!

[bluesuperted]

We also went rear-facing. My husband did the initial research and the site www.rearfacing.co.uk sold us on extended rear-facing. Makes me cross that it's so hard to get rear facing seats in the UK.

We went to the excellent In Car Safety Centre in Milton Keynes. What a day trip, lunch in KFC due to the lovely staff at Milton Keynes pointing out our tyre was flat so we had to get that fixed instead of our planned trip to Woburn gastro pub!

Anyway aside from tyre advice (!) the staff were really great, knowledgeable and passionate about RF.

We bought the Britax Two Way Elite which our maxi cosi detesting 16 month old is really happy in. It rear faces til 4yrs and when we do switch to FF it has a special 5 way harness til 25kg which is approximately 7 and is unusual in a seat for such an old child.

http://www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/cPath/30/products_id/46?osCsid=h82tjb7s08sjnk3g3t7lagp4j5

All for just over ?200 which I don't think is so crazy given how long it will last for.

Different seats fit different cars and you need to consider model and leg length of passenger; I'm short and we have a VW Golf.

[bluesuperted]

PS we didn't switch our very chunky boy til he was over 14 months as he still fit his maxi cosi infant carrier. So unless her head is popping over the back of the frame you should still have time.

[jennyh]

Thanks everyone! She is at an age where she hates being in the carseat and rarely sleeps so journeys are quite horrendous, lots of back arching and pushing legs up against the back of the chair with much crying!

I think she is just very uncomfortable because the slope of the maxicosi doesn't work now that she is so into sitting bolt upright. I will read up on those options, thank you! Sadly I do think that she will be popping out of the chair soon enough but frankly she hates being in it so much currently that I wonder if another one might be better...surely the screaming child for hours is more dangerous!? :)