Carseat: forward or rearward facing?

pwurple

tinkerbell wrote: »

I'm looking into our next car seat at the moment and saw this one on Tony Kealys website this morning - has anyone seen it / thoughts?

http://tonykealys.com/nuna-rebl-car-seat.html

Nearly 600 euro though. Holy moly that's expensive.

I think it does depend on your car usage a little bit. For the amount of time we are in the car, the risk has to be very low. We are walking/cycling or bus links to nearly everything we go to, so they are in the carseats maybe once or twice a month for very short spins. I'd say we do maybe 40k per month, in city traffic with them. If we were doing big commutes now or something it would be different for us. I've got a booster seat with a back for the 4.5 year old, and an isofix front-facing one for the 15 month old.

Sligo1

tinkerbell wrote: »

I'm looking into our next car seat at the moment and saw this one on Tony Kealys website this morning - has anyone seen it / thoughts?

http://tonykealys.com/nuna-rebl-car-seat.html

Ooo that looks nice!

lazygal

A lot of accidents happen a short distance from home, on short commutes. I'm looking into options for a grandparent's car, the child will only be in it once or twice a week at most but I'm not going to let the frequency of use be the main deciding factor. Ours are only really in our car on weekends as we both use public transport to commute and they walk to the minder, but we still went for the rearfacing pricier option. While the price of some of the highly rated ones is a huge issue, I'd rather bite the bullet on car safety. I couldn't live with myself if I skimped on them and bought something based on price because it was only going to be used rarely. Clothes, books, toys, the cheaper/second hand options don't bother me at all. But car safety is something I don't think you can skimp on. I was in a couple of accidents as a child and thankfully even back then our parents insisted on seatbelts and car seats for the baby of the family.

tinkerbell

Yeah it's very expensive but it rotates 360 degrees and is suitable for rearward facing until 4 years of age. The features look incredible. I'll have to go see it in person, me thinks.

prosaic

We got a Britax Two Way Elite for daughter in the Belfast place (great guy, well informed, unlike shops here in Dublin).
It's rated to 25kg rear facing I think. Seatbelt + tethers to front seat. When rear facing, it has a fairly big recline angle. This didn't seem a problem. She stayed rear facing until head getting near top of back, age 3.5 years maybe. She seemed happy rear facing until end though she had begun to cop on to fact that others were fwd facing. We still use it fwd facing. She's only around 18kg yet.
We'll go looking for a larger seat with 5 point harness some time soonish as she's getting a bit tall for the harness at around 110cm.

Very happy with that seat and very much recommend it. It is quite low cost but seems to have good standard. Sides are a bit shallow for side impact maybe but I'm not sure about that. It doesn't sit very well on the car seat when rear facing but that is cosmetic rather than safety issue.

Shops here in Ireland are very slow to move with the latest information on best practices. They didn't do rear facing except for smallest size when we went looking for bigger seat in 2011. It was becoming obvious at that stage, to anyone who read a bit on the subject, that children should be rear facing to 3 or 4 years old. They were slow in bringing in the rear facing and they were/are slow bringing in 5 point harness seats for bigger children. When you talk to them, they sound very authoritative and informed while actually being wrong or out of date with info.

Millem

Incarsafetycentre are great. I wouldn't waste my time with ANY of the shops in the rep of Ireland. I have yet to find anyone in them who knows even 50% of the info I had when buying mine. One major issue (and I know I bang on about it is) is that a rearward isofix seat base must only sit on a solid floor....putting it in the middle seat if your car has a "hump" or on any floor with underfloor storage is so dangerous.

If you want a rearward only seat choose one what has passed the "Swedish plus test" which is far stricter than any which test.
Any seat that can go forward cannot be tested for the test.

I personally wouldn't buy any ERF seat that doesnt have either an isofix or tethers as these what prevents the seat from rotating/buckling in the event of a crash.

Incarsafetycentre have seen every car so can best advise you what seat suits your car space wise.

John Mason

tinkerbell wrote: »

Yeah it's very expensive but it rotates 360 degrees and is suitable for rearward facing until 4 years of age. The features look incredible. I'll have to go see it in person, me thinks.

The maxi Cosi Axiss is very similar and slightly cheaper. I love ours. that 360 rotating is brilliant, don't know how I cope with out !

mariedrmr

I got my one literally the other day from Cherish Me in Ballinteer.
Have to say I just love it, it feels really solid and as I have a bad back the fact you can rotate it is great for putting your child in so much easier. have to say they were really helpful and showed us how to fit it into both of our cars and its so easy, they are a bit pricy but in fairness you get a lot of seat for your money

Soooky

Oh thank god someone started a thread on this - have the same dilemma here! Was going to go to tony Kealys on Monday - is it a waste of time?!! Too far for us to travel to belfast for incarsafety : ( I read somewhere that certain rf seats won't fit in some cars due to the shape of the backs of the driver/passenger car seats so I am afraid that if I order on line it won't fit my car correctly!! Also afraid that little one will hate it!! OH is useless when he comes to things like this so he would prefer if we got isofix or an expert fitted seat for us!!

ShaShaBear

Soooky wrote: »

Oh thank god someone started a thread on this - have the same dilemma here! Was going to go to tony Kealys on Monday - is it a waste of time?!! Too far for us to travel to belfast for incarsafety : ( I read somewhere that certain rf seats won't fit in some cars due to the shape of the backs of the driver/passenger car seats so I am afraid that if I order on line it won't fit my car correctly!! Also afraid that little one will hate it!! OH is useless when he comes to things like this so he would prefer if we got isofix or an expert fitted seat for us!!

The one we ordered off Kiddicare was definitely a tight enough fit into our Kia Picanto. We had to start putting it behind the passenger seat as my OH couldn't drive with his knees pressed against the wheel :pac:
But she will be rear facing until it's absolutely necessary to put her forward. We have a mirror in front of her that she loves to look at and I can glance in the RV mirror to make sure she is okay, I think OH and I would find it distracting if she were facing us as wed constantly be looking. She cares absolutely none that she is rear facing.
Although we've another baby to add to the car in December. Two car seats in a teeny Picanto is going to be some craic :pac:

contrary_mary

Soooky wrote: »

Oh thank god someone started a thread on this - have the same dilemma here! Was going to go to tony Kealys on Monday - is it a waste of time?!! Too far for us to travel to belfast for incarsafety : ( I read somewhere that certain rf seats won't fit in some cars due to the shape of the backs of the driver/passenger car seats so I am afraid that if I order on line it won't fit my car correctly!! Also afraid that little one will hate it!! OH is useless when he comes to things like this so he would prefer if we got isofix or an expert fitted seat for us!!

Soooky I emailed ICSC in belfast with details of what we wanted and the car models - they answered promptly with some suggestions and once I had decided I rang up and paid over the phone and I think they were delivered for free a day or two later - much easier than going to a shop. They had youtube videos on installation too. I would highly recommend them.

Our fella has only ever faced backwards so he knows no difference!

dori_dormer

I agree with above. Ring or email in car safety and ask their opinion on your car/ budget. You don't have to buy from them. Actually with the pound so strong it's better to buy in euro and have it ðlivered from Sweden.

We got our axkid minikid from in car safety. Brilliant seat rf to 23kg. Very neat and doesn't take up much room. Our fella is a bruiser and already 14kg at 16 months so really needed the 23kg to hopefully keep him from til 4yrs. The erf Ireland Facebook page is great for info. Loads of people on there might have the same car as you.

We found tony kealys push isofix as its easier to install. They are not well trained in installing tethers etc. if you hear someone pushing forward facing and saying it's safer do complain as they need to keep their staff updated.

We also got our seat checked by the rosa check it fits roadshow. They made it rock solid!

We needed a second seat for hubby's car and got the joie stages. Rf to 18kg. Only issue I havens the belt gets. In the way when putting him in

Soooky

Thanks everyone for the replies (& sorry Sligo1 for hijacking the thread! ). I emailed incarsafety and they came back with a few suggestions. I have also emailed carseat.se for a few suggestions so will let ye all know :)

Sligo1

Awesome! No probs sooky and hope you find a good one. Thanks contrary Mary, great idea to email them!!! I still haven't had a chance to ring Belfast as I'm so busy with the kids during the day and the couple days I'm at work I don't get a second! So email is am awesome idea as I would be able to do it in bed at night ... With no screaming in the background . Tomorrow night will be the night! . Thanks again.

Sligo1

Ok so just a quick update. After a couple emails to incarsafety, they recommended the britax dualfix or the nuna rebl for our 15 month old. Both look like great seats and We have decided on the nuna rebl.

http://incarsafetycentre.co.uk/product/rebl-slate/

http://incarsafetycentre.co.uk/product/advansafix-black-thunder/

For our 2.5 year old they recommeded the britax 2 way elite or the advansafix. i like the 2-way elite but am thinking of the advansafix as it has isofix up till 36kg. Undecided yet tho as the 2-way elite seems good aswell.

Thanks again for all the feedback here. It's been great and has helped me with the decision .

Soooky

Glad you got sorted Sligo1 - its a headwrecker:eek::eek: In the end we went with the BeSafe Izi Kid X1 I-Size which we purchased from carseat.se

It is the new BeSafe and is pretty compact however as it is isofix it only goes up to 18kg but our little one is petite so we feel we will get plenty of time out of it :) It was a bit of a bitch to fit (I fitted it myself as hubby away) as it was quite heavy and bulky to manoeuvre but I got there in the end and our little one absolutely loves it!!! She is quite high up in it and so she can look out the window properly now - she goes "Wheeeee" everytime we go around a roundabout :D:D

antodeco

With my eldest being 12 when my new baby comes along, it seems theres alot of changes!

Is this rear facing seat only isofix compliant? I have a car that's not isofix (2006 Almera) so not sure how it works!

Millem

antodeco wrote: »

With my eldest being 12 when my new baby comes along, it seems theres alot of changes!

Is this rear facing seat only isofix compliant? I have a car that's not isofix (2006 Almera) so not sure how it works!

No you can use your seat belt to go rearfacing.... You can even by bases that stay in car that attach with seat belt and for an ERF you can use seat belt and tether straps

antodeco

Millem wrote: »

No you can use your seat belt to go rearfacing.... You can even by bases that stay in car that attach with seat belt and for an ERF you can use seat belt and tether straps

Perfect! Thanks for that. I hope to get a new car in the next 12 - 18 months anyway so hopefully will not have any issues after :-) Thanks

Millem

antodeco wrote: »

Perfect! Thanks for that. I hope to get a new car in the next 12 - 18 months anyway so hopefully will not have any issues after :-) Thanks

My sis had one of those bases for the baby seat that stayed in car permanently...I think it was called an easy base anyway you can ask for it instead of an isofix one for a maxi cosi cabriofix/pebble
Any ERF seat that is uses tether straps and seat belt will go up to 25kg whereas an ERF isofix only goes to 18kg

mirrorwall14

I was non isofix I thought. We have a maxi cost infant carrier with an easy fix base (either seatbelt or isofix compatible) rear facing to 13kg or the head reaching the top of the shell. Depending on the child this could be anything from 9 months to nearly 2 years if you have a small girl! I'm going to be the lower end I suspect because my 6 month old has all his height in his body.

Because we have multiple cars and a babysitter we will need multiple seats so we currently also have the Joie tilt (93e in Argos on sale at the time). This is rearfacing to 18kg or the head at the top of the shell. This will last up to age 3/4 again depending on the height/weight of the child.

When he outgrows the maxi cosi we'll be going for the Joie stages. This is also rear facing to 18kg but is not outgrown until the tip of the ear passes the head rest. It then turns forward facing to 25 kg.

Extended rear facing (up to age 4 at least) is 5 times safer for their head/neck/spine/hips as they haven't fused yet. Our budget doesn't extend to the longer lasting options Swedish plus test rated seats (Swedish car seats extra safe!) such as the be safe izi or the axkid mini kid unfortunately because we need multiple seats but we're still sticking with rear facing as long as possible

uck51js9zml2yt

Ours is both RF and FF.
Swapped ours around at 20 months to 2 years as they were tall.