Hello and WWYD re rearfacing

Hello!

Hadn't posted on here for aaaages until MrsLF pulled me out of lurking with her BFP post! Hope everyone is doing ok...

I am after a bit of advice that only hitched can give. I really wanted to keep my girls rearfacing once they are out of their infant carriers - I am totally convinced by everything I have read, and don't feel like I could turn them at the moment having read what I have. And once I have decided I'm going to do something I usually do it!

However.... we had a day trip to a showroom which had all the models to try in the car. And they just don't fit in our car We don't have isofix, so were restricted to the belted in ones. The first issue was the slope on our back seats, which tipped the seats right forward, e.g. the Combi Besafe was practically upright even on the reclined position. The second issue is my height - I am 6ft and just couldn't drive in the position my seat would have to be. And of course I can't put the seat behind the passenger seat because I have twins! The only seat that seemed to fit was the Maxi Cosi, but my seat was just too far forward to drive comfortably. We only have one car and weren't planning on changing it anytime soon.

There was one seat that fitted - the Britax 2-way elite.... but it just looked like there was nothing to it in comparison to all the other seats! It just looked so big and open, without all the side impact cushions etc. My two looked so little and lost in the seat. Also it has to sit right up against the back of the seat, so their feet were up against it.... whereas the maxi cosi, besafe etc have a gap between the baby seat and car seat and more room for growth. I just had this feeling that we'd end up switching it to forward facing sooner because of the fit, and if I was going to go forward facing, I wouldn't choose this seat.

So basically, I'm stuck between going forward facing in a decent seat, buying the britax 2 way elite, or buying a new car. None of which are paarticularly what I want to do....

HELPPP!!!!

have you looked into the kiddy infinity pro seats they are FF but have a cushion impact bar thing not a 5 pt harness they are meant to be next best to rf, may be worth a look as a compromise, also some of them the cushion removes to make a high back booster so cutting costs alot when buying double of everything

We have the Britax first class plus.  It's rear facing until 13kg.  C is now past this so is forward facing. I would have liked him to be rear facing for as long as possible but this was the best option for our car as we have a 3 door car so were quite limited as to what we could fit in it.

I bought a new car !  I had a 3 door Focus and desperately wanted to keep Z rear facing so changed it for a 5 door. 

However, one thing I'd suggest trying is the Britax First Class.  It's only rear facing until 13kg, but at 27 mths Z is still under that and I know a lot of others are too.  The reason we moved her out of the infant carrier was because her head was at the top but that wouldn't have been an issue in the first Class I really wish we'd just bought one of those instead of the BeSafe, certainly for our second car.

The other thing to look at is the Kiddy seats with the impact cushion, I know that people on here have been told by the In Car Safety Centre that they are second to rear facing seats for safety.

I know what you mean about once you've decided.  We've had to move Z temporarily forward facing in a borrowed carseat whilst waiting for our insurance claim to be settled, and I'm still in two minds about buying another BeSafe Combifix or saving some money and moving her forward facing.

did the place you went to have a good range of seats? Are there any that you could still try by going somewhere else? We had an infant carrier that then went to a rear facing seat that lasted until sarah was 17 months when we put her to a FF seat. Its the matrix cup car seat but probably a bit much to buy those to only get a few extra months RF!

what car have you got BTW? 

We had a similar problem.... I desperately wanted to stay rear facitng, and had in fact convinced a number of my friends, but when it came to it they just didn't work for us. H is 6'3" and just couldn't be comfortable in the front seat with the rear facing child seat in the back. We do lots of long journes from Essex to Leeds so he really does need not to have his knees round his ears. In the end we settled for the Kiddy infinity pro as the next best alternative to rear facing according to the Milton Keynes guys, and we kept LO in the baby carrier as long as possible... 19 months if I remember correctly. It was nice however when I went on a training course with work about crash testing and safety standards that our in house expert agreed that the Infinity pro type seat was the next best thing to rear facing. One point though.... DO NOT get the mamas and papas equivalent as a friend bought this and there is a smaller minimum gap between the bolster and the seat back meaning that her daughter can wriggle out if she tries hard enough.

In your situation, I'd go for the best ffing one so the k.i.p.

Ah thank you so much everyone, that is so helpful. I am going to have a look at the Britax first class. And thanks for suggesting the infinity pro... I hadn't heard of that at all. It was the Milton Keynes place that we went to, and they were very helpful.

We have a mondeo, which you'd think would be a big enough car! The slope of the seats is a right pain. We had a real problem getting a decent enough angle on our infant carriers. SO that combined with me being tall is proving impossible. Bizarrely, my friend's besafe seat fits better in her golf than in her H's audi estate.... so the size of the car doesn't seem to be a great guide to the length of legroom!

We recently bought the Britax First Class and son is really comfortable in it, we had the problem of a 3 - 6 months overlap (son is 6 months old but only just 7kg) as we had borrowed the 0 car seat travel system from SIL but her baby due in 6 weeks time.  We did not want to buy a car seat for 3 - 6 months then have to buy another one so the best option for us was the Britax First Class which we have rearfacing now and will think about turning it to forward facing when son is 9 months old or if not 9kg then will keep rearfacing for longer.  Son is very nosy so think he will probably enjoy more being forward facing.

Hello all...

Thought I'd update in case anyone else is having similar issues... thanks for your suggestions, I'm not sure about the Britax as I'm not sure how much use we'll get out of it (girls are 75th centile)... and Infinity Pro looks utterly bizarre! But gets good reviews. So I still felt a bit stuck.

However, I talked to Securatot today and they had a suggestion to deal with the incline on the seats. Apparently, they've had the safety man from Besafe over from Sweden for talks/training etc and one of the their questions for him was about dealing with sloping seats. He said that they were bringing out a wedge to fit under the seat and lift the front up. In the meantime he suggested that putting a folded up small towel under the front of the seat would be acceptable. We ruled out the besafe purely on being too upright, but I've tried a friend's today with a towel under the front, and the incline was fine. And I could fit in the drivers seat!!!! SO we might have a solution!

The Milton Keynes place said you shouldn't put anything under the seats as they weren't tested properly like that..... but the people we bought our infant carriers off were National carseat safety trainers and they said it was ok (we had the same issue with our infant carriers). And the securatot lady said they absolutely wouldn't say something which they didn't have confidence in, and the Besafe man said it was fine as long as the towel was compressed by a well fitted seat.

SO I think we're going to order one and try it out... we can return it if it doesn't work!!

I feel much happier that we might have a solution and be able to keep them rearfacing. HOpefully none of you will reply with 'don't do the towel thing' !!!!

x

jelly baby:

However, one thing I'd suggest trying is the Britax First Class.  It's only rear facing until 13kg, but at 27 mths Z is still under that and I know a lot of others are too.  The reason we moved her out of the infant carrier was because her head was at the top but that wouldn't have been an issue in the first Class I really wish we'd just bought one of those instead of the BeSafe, certainly for our second car.

 

WJBS

We bought the Britax First Class, as O is so teeny, it will ba ages before she reaches the 13kg weight limit!

We have the Britax 2-way elite for Dyl - I know what you mean about it not looking very substantial but the straps are pretty sturdy and we've had no problems with D in it - we also bought a head support to fit in it as he has a tendency to slump when asleep due to his CP. He has quite long legs too and it seems to be ok. I'd say if it works for him then it would be fine for your girls - though I'd also have thought they could stay in their infant carriers for a bit longer? We only just moved D into his new seat now because of Amelie arriving.

HTH

Sx

Hi Widdle,

We have two Izi Combis (bought in the UK) and two Besafe Hi-ways (bought from Sweden) and the two Hi-Ways both came with a piece of hard polystyrene with a kind of W shape cut out of them. They go under the bar at the front of the carseat, between it and the seat of the car and I think they are for the situation you describe. These seats are in our Focus which does have a slight incline and they do help keep the seat in a good position.

We have 2 cybex (from mama's and papas), one for each car. They too have the impact cushion rather than the 5 point harness.