The Car Seat Journey
The whole process involved in bringing a New Baby into the world requires plenty of planning, many hours of research and loads of decision making. While there are numerous area’s that require careful consideration and often times some differing opinions, the car seat decision is generally the one which requires the most external guidance and third party specialist advice.
From when a baby is born right up until they are 36kg or 150cm tall they are going to require some form of child restraint. This journey is generally broken into 4 groups – Group 0,1,2 and 3. While there are ways to combine some of these stages together generally a child will need 3 different Car Seats throughout their car seat journey.
The Group 0 seat is generally suitable from Birth to 13Kg, the newer iSize versions usually cover up to 15months. The Group 0 seats can usually be purchased as part of your Pushchair/Pram system or many pram systems provide an adaptor to enable a Maxi Cosi, Cybex, Besafe seat to attach to the chassis. All Group 0 seats must rearward face by law and cannot be installed in a front seat with an active airbag. The majority of Group 0 seats now are installed in the car using an isofix base which attaches to the isofix points in your car and enable you to just click your seat into the base.
The Group 1 seat usually covers from 9-18Kg so there is a little overlap with the Group 0 however the best advice is to stick with Group 0 until baby is as close to 13kg as possible or until the top of their head goes above the side protectors. Maintaining rearward facing position for as long as possible is again the best advice for Group 1 with statistics proving Rearward facing Car seats are 5 times safer than forward facing.
Group 1 Car Seats can fall into different categories such as Extended Rearward Facing Seats, Swivel Car Seats and Seat Belt Installed Seats.
The Extended Rearward Facing (ERF) Seats generally cover from 9-25Kg and as the name suggests they keep your child rearward facing for the maximum period, ideally 25Kg equating to around a 5year old. The main brand which we would use in this category is Axkid, they have different models ranging in price from the Axkid Move to the Axkid Minikid and onto the Axkid One.
Swivel Car Seats as the name suggests rotate to face you at the door for ease of loading but more importantly rotate rearward facing so you can keep your child in that position for the maximum period possible, practically all swivel car seats can forward face when rearward space has being exhausted. Swivel Car Seats are Isofix Installed, the current popular models being Joie Spin 360, Joie iSpin 360, Cybex Sirona S2 and the Maxi Cosi Mica Pro Eco.
Lastly the belted category, these tend to be a little more affordable than the ERF or Swivel seats, as the name suggests they are installed using the seat belt in your car. The belted category can be useful in many instances, in a commercial vehicle where there is no isofix, in a saloon car where 3 seats wish to be fitted on the back seat, in grandparents car or child minders car where frequency of use and budget are concerns. Popular seats in this category are the Joie Every Stages, Joie Stages, Joie Steadi and Joie Tilt.
Finally Group 2/3 is the last Car Seat stage your child will need, these are generally known as Booster Seats or High Back Booster Seats. The Booster Car Seats generally cover from 15Kg to 36 Kg, again a slight overlap in weights of Group1 but we would advise using your Group1 seat right up to 18Kg before you make your final seat move. Again we have Belt Installed Booster Seats and Isofix Booster Seats, the belt installed ones just sit on the seat and are secured when child is fastened into seat with Car Seat Belt, the Isofix type are fixed into the isofix in the car and the seat belt secures the child. In the belted category the Britax Adventure and Joie Trillo are neat and compact, in the Isofix category the Maxi Cosi Kore Pro, Maxi Cosi Rodifix AP, Cybex Solution S2, Chicco Fold n Go and Besafe Iziflex are all worthy of a mention.
As outlined above a 3 seat strategy usually is successful in bringing your precious cargo from birth to 36kg or to the end of needing a child restraint. Sometimes the plan might not get executed to perfection, maybe where growth rates exceed expectations, child no.2 or even 3 come along and seats need to be shuffled or car capacity/compatibility can also become stumbling blocks.
