Advice needed - baby car seat questions (merged)

deanos

spendapennyortwo wrote: »

thanks apples1 - that's why I'm on this forum to try and get some good advice about whether to use this seat with newborn. DH thinks that it wouldn't be in the shops best interests to be selling a car seat that wasn't safe, otherwise they'd get bad press and it wouldn't do their reputation any good either..he thinks I'm being daft and that they just cannot sell seats if they are not safe. I'm just annoyed that something I would normally take for granted, any other item like a hoover or a food processor would come with manufacturer details yet this seat doesn't. I've never come across this before with an item I've bought. Not sure whether to be suspicious of it or not because it does state it has met the minimum safety requirements on it.

You husband thinks what i used to think, but as you look on the internet you find that they pass minimum tests but they can still be unsafe (see the which link above) , ask him when hes in a car would he rather have a 5 star rated one or a 1 star rated one when in a crash , they both pass minimum safety but they 5 star one would be alot safer in a crash

shelley_crow

What is the safest group 0 car seat for a car without isofix? I am looking to buy one in preparation for our new arrival in september.

spendapennyortwo

Right - so after being on this thread it got me thinking...I checked the car seat itself last night and checked all the stickers on it. One of them contains an 'E' with a circle around it, and also the letters 'ECE R44.04'. I Googled this and found a website which told me what this means...
http://www.childcarseats.org.uk/standards/r4403.htm

Basically means it conforms to United Nations regulations. It doesn't conform to British Standard, but United Nations. What difference does this make? Does it mean the seat is less safe/more safe?

spendapennyortwo

DH checked the website too and he insists (still) that I'm making a fuss over nothing and it has been checked for safety. He said it has a trademark on it, even if there's no manufacturer. Apparently nothing wrong with this??? I don't know.

deanos

Yes it has been checked for safety and it passes the minimum safety test BUT just because it passes that test does not mean its totally safe , like i say read the which link

http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/child-car-seats/page/how-we-test-child-car-seats/

The Which? child car seat tests reveal big differences between child car seats. Some protect babies and children well, but others expose them to the risk of serious injury or even death.

apples1

shelley_crow wrote: »

What is the safest group 0 car seat for a car without isofix? I am looking to buy one in preparation for our new arrival in september.

Check out the Which reviews. You can sign up usually for a free (or £1) trial. Read the reports you want (and print them off) then cancel so no further cost. Each time we need a next stage car seat I do this. They don't test every seat out there but it's the best advice you will get.

apples1

spendapennyortwo wrote: »

DH checked the website too and he insists (still) that I'm making a fuss over nothing and it has been checked for safety. He said it has a trademark on it, even if there's no manufacturer. Apparently nothing wrong with this??? I don't know.

I think you were wise to check out your concerns over the seat. Clearly it would have been better to do the research then buy a seat rather then the other way round but what puzzles me most is that you have asked for an explanation about seats being sold that are not safe. You have had clear answers explaining that seats pass minimum safety standards but that doesn't mean they will be the safest seat you can get (or the safest seat you can afford) and yet you are still questioning the same thing. You now have a link to Which so (and your partner) can see the differences in results for yourselves so to what are you still saying you "don't know"?

spendapennyortwo

apples1 - I've been on the Which website actually and had a look but cannot find any links to the seat I've bought which isn't really much use when I really want to know if anyone else has bought a similar car seat, or had experience with this one (good or bad). So yes, I am still questioning it because I haven't found a poster who's in a similar situation to myself yet, so holding out hope that someone somewhere may have come across this type of seat. Surely there's nothing wrong with that??? If you don't want to respond to my queries then feel free not to.

deanos

Well unless there has been a Which crash test then im sorry you wont know how good it is, personally i wouldn't use it but that's just me.

Even if someone has this seat they wont know how good it is either

apples1

deanos wrote: »

Well unless there has been a Which crash test then im sorry you wont know how good it is, personally i wouldn't use it but that's just me.

Even if someone has this seat they wont know how good it is either

Absolutely.