Advice needed - baby car seat questions (merged)

Sensibledad

I saw mention of a M&P Pro-tec seat a little further down this thread so I thought I might provide a word of caution:

I bought one a few years ago expecting to take both our children through to age 4 in it. I must say I like the overall design and found it easy to set up in the car and it was well anchored when in place. Our children seemed to find it very comfortable. However, in my opinion there's a design problem that M&P don't point out and it's a big one.

A couple of days ago my wife was putting our son in the seat and as she reached across to clip his belt buckle she put some weight on the polystyrene side pads which cracked in her hand. These project 3-4 inches beyond the plastic sides and only the innermost section is anchored to give rigidity. Forces against the chair from the child side are fine but even small day-to-day forces (e.g. another child's hand or foot) pushing inward on the polystyrene will split it and ruin the chair.

I took the chair back to the M&P store but the staff were unsympathetic, quoting the generic 1 year guarantee rule and showing no interest in my advice to place a warning sticker on the problem area or include a note in the "Things Not To Do" section of the seat's instruction booklet.

My wife disapproved of me buying this M&P seat as she prefers the reviews of Britax products and I wish I'd listened to her. Rather than pay for M&P to profitably mend their broken product I've now bought a new Britax seat. After my experience of their impersonal service I won't buy an M&P product again.

My wife was discussing this with some of the mums at school and discovered another had exactly the same failure with the pro-tec design.

suisidevw

Hi All,

My wife has 2 months to go and we need to get a seat now. I'm well aware this is an old post but hoping people will be able to provide some assistance anyway.

What do you recommend on the market at the moment? MaxiCosi/Recaro/Britax etc? Models?

Our car DOES have ISOfix however we are a 1 car family so after speaking to various people, the value added by having ISOfix on the 'infant' car seat isn't that great as they are generally very easy to strap in and out of.....

Any help/recommendations much appreciated.

fluffnutter

suisidevw wrote: »

Hi All,

My wife has 2 months to go and we need to get a seat now. I'm well aware this is an old post but hoping people will be able to provide some assistance anyway.

What do you recommend on the market at the moment? MaxiCosi/Recaro/Britax etc? Models?

Our car DOES have ISOfix however we are a 1 car family so after speaking to various people, the value added by having ISOfix on the 'infant' car seat isn't that great as they are generally very easy to strap in and out of.....

Any help/recommendations much appreciated.

I've gone for a maxi-cosi with isofix for a number of reasons. The carrier is compatible with my pram so I will be taking it in and out of the car regularly. Isofix will make this easier. The base can also be used for the next group up so I'll be able to replace the seat when the baby's older and still use the same base.

I just like the idea of the base. I know fixing it with the 3 point harness is deemed just as safe, but I like the thought of a reassuring 'clunk' when I attach it to its base!

We went for the maxi-cosi in the first place simply because it's compatible with the pram we'd already decided on (the uppababy vista). Our choices were therefore limited and the only decision we had to make was whether to go for the base or not, and if so, whether to get the familyfix base (which works on the next size up) or the easyfix base (which doesn't).

lisa26_2

I have also gone for the maxi-cosi cabrio-fix and family-fix base (the one that fits the next stage seat too). From the research i have done I believe that isofix is the safest method of fitting a car seat into a car so that's why i went for it. our car didn't have iso-fix so we had it installed as I wouldn't have been happy using a seatbelt fixed seat. I went for maxi-cosi cabrio fix as it seems to be regarded as one of the safest and had good reviews both online and from people I know. With the family fix base it is easy to remove from the car using a single leaver at the front of the base. Also, the base uses coloured lights and an audible alarm to let you know if the seat is attached to the base correctly and also if the base is fitted correctly in the car. i found this feature reassuring.

suisidevw

Thanks for your advise so far both, it's much appreciated. We have a bugaboo chameleon pram with adaptors to fit a maxi cosi being easily available.

I'm keen on the isofix, not only because of the ease but also because of the safety. My wifes best friend didn't use isofix, so she's had a recommendation of the strap method and therefore, not quite as keen as myself on teh isofix.

shelley_crow

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.

I went with a maxi cosi cabrio and non-isofix base, they were both great and were a dream to use. The cabrio used to fit on my Quinny buzz, so that was a bonus too. My son is now in the next stage up and we have gone for the maxi cosi priori xp.

ema_o

We had the maxi cosi seat & non-isofix base for our stage 0 car seat - it was perfect & so easy to use. Strapping the carseat in using the seat belt was used as a back up option but was far more fiddly so I'm glad we had the base in the most used car.
Although the base is suitable for using with the next stage car seat, we found that the seat that fits it was expensive, and we didn't want to tie the base up for the next 3 years in case we have another one in that time!

NBirdy

We also had the maxi-cosi cabrio but at the time didn't have an isofix car so used it with the seatbelt - it was easy to fit and felt secure. Now we have an isofix car I would use the base for sure, but would be ok to use the seat in relatives cars using the seatbelt if necessary on occasion. For groups 1 onwards my two have had/have the Britax isofix seats which have been superb.

madtrekker

We have the Maxi Cosi cabriofix with the non-isofix base as when we purchased it, we didn't have isofix in the car.
The seat is great - quite light (until you put a chubby baby in it, lol!), roomy, both my kids have always seemed happy in it, it fits with our iCandy pram to make a travel system and so on.
The base, even though not isofix, is very easy to fit and once strapped in, it's solid as a rock and won't budge an inch. I have total confidence that it's correctly fitted. Clicking the actual seat in is super-quick which has been a godsend now we're on baby no 2 and I have both him and his wayward, wriggly 2 year old sister to get into the car!

Katie1980_2

I have a Maxi Cosi Tobi for Moo and a Bebe Confort multi booster with back thing for Snoobs I bought my Maxi Cosi for £9 still in it's sealed box from a friend and my Bebe Confort is about 8 years old and belonged to a friend who only used it at weekends when he had his son.
The Tobi is about 2 years old and looks good still