I-size and Extended rear facing car seat query

chocfan

Hi all

Just been looking through this forum and so impressed with people's knowledge on seats!

I was hoping for some advice/opinions. My little girl is just about to outgrow her MaxiCosi Cabriofix and we're looking into getting her the next size up. The issue is we need 2 as we both drop/collect from creche and different times and can't store seats there. This obviously is getting expensive!!

I've been looking them up and it seems i-size is going to be a new EU regulation in the future? I know they've brought it in now and apparently all seats going forward will have to be compatible so we figured it would make sense to splash out on one now in case we've other kids later who need a seat (save us re-purchasing and going through all this pain again!)

I'm also very keen on her being rear-facing as long as possible

The seat I was looking at is the Maxi-Cosi 2 way pearl. We'd have to buy 2 of them with 2 bases which would be around €800 (eek!) Obviously safety is paramount and very important to us but I was wondering if anybody had any other suggestions which mightn't be as costly. So basically am looking for an Extended Rear Facing (up to age 4) with i-size seat

Would really appreciate any advice, feel like I'm just getting bogged down in it all now!!

Thanks

CF

farmchoice

i'm not trying to talk you out of putting safety first but realistically once they move out of the baby seat you are moving away from rear facing, even if you could get one they are going to grow out of it v quickly plus as they get bigger as a rule they do not like facing away from mam and dad. plus they will now constantly be eating and drinking and playing with toys in the car and you wont really be able to see whats going on so for me, with my kids anyway i'd be worried about missing them choking on something.

whiskeyman

farmchoice wrote: »

do not like facing away from mam and dad. plus they will now constantly be eating and drinking and playing with toys in the car and you wont really be able to see whats going on so for me, with my kids anyway i'd be worried about missing them choking on something.

You can get simple mirrors so you can still keep an eye on them when in the reverse position.

jlm29

farmchoice wrote: »

i'm not trying to talk you out of putting safety first but realistically once they move out of the baby seat you are moving away from rear facing, even if you could get one they are going to grow out of it v quickly plus as they get bigger as a rule they do not like facing away from mam and dad. plus they will now constantly be eating and drinking and playing with toys in the car and you wont really be able to see whats going on so for me, with my kids anyway i'd be worried about missing them choking on something.

There's rear facing seats that are designed to do a child until they're 25 kg, which is your average 6 year old. The majority of others are to 18kg, which is roughly 4 years. They're 500% safer than forward facing. I find that my smaller boy doesn't know anything other than rear facing, so he doesn't complain. I don't give him food in the car, unless his older brother is sitting beside him to keep an eye. I wouldn't turn a child forward facing straight after an infant carrier, knowing the benefits of extended rear facing.

lazygal

I have two children in rear facing seats, aged 4.5 years and just over three years. They are much, much safer. Mine know nothing else now, they go into their seat just fine. It is an expense but TBH the safety factors overruled any financial hesitation. We don't even have them in the car much but we did the research and the rear facing is the way to go.

chocfan

Thanks for all of the replies-it's really appreciated

I've done the research as well and agree that rear-facing is definitely the way to go and has been pointed out above, many seats on the market now offer rear-facing options up to age 4.

Like I said, the maxi-cosi pearl is the option I'm tempted by (funds allowing) but would look at any others if anybody else had found a rear-facing seat that extended to the 4 years mark and was i-size

Thanks to all!

Anne_cordelia

chocfan wrote: »

Thanks for all of the replies-it's really appreciated

I've done the research as well and agree that rear-facing is definitely the way to go and has been pointed out above, many seats on the market now offer rear-facing options up to age 4.

Like I said, the maxi-cosi pearl is the option I'm tempted by (funds allowing) but would look at any others if anybody else had found a rear-facing seat that extended to the 4 years mark and was i-size

Thanks to all!

Personally I go for Swedish Plus tested seats as these are the safest. This is a good article. I would highly recommend contacting the owner of this website and asking advice as it depends on your cars which seat will be suitable. I never feed my kids in the car as it's too dangerous in case of choking/sudden brake etc. We just stop the car. Also saves car seats getting manky.

http://www.carseat.se/new-i-size-rear-facing-car-seats/

jlm29

I would second checking the compatibility with your car. I have an axkid minikid, which is plus tested, but not isize. My last car was a Ford Focus, and the seats in it were slightly sloped, so an isofix seat wasn't particularly suitable, as the baby seat would then be on a tilt, leading to the child's head slumping forward when asleep. Isofix also take up more space than belted in a lot of cases, so you lose a lot of front passenger space.

January

farmchoice wrote: »

i'm not trying to talk you out of putting safety first but realistically once they move out of the baby seat you are moving away from rear facing, even if you could get one they are going to grow out of it v quickly plus as they get bigger as a rule they do not like facing away from mam and dad. plus they will now constantly be eating and drinking and playing with toys in the car and you wont really be able to see whats going on so for me, with my kids anyway i'd be worried about missing them choking on something.

My son is nearly 3 and has recently been turned back to rear facing. He has no problems with this. We have a mirror we can see him in.

January

We have the Britax Two Way Elite and it's an amazing seat. It does up to 25kgs rearward and forward facing. It's not isofix, it uses tethers to fix to the seat in front and it leans on the seat in front too.

mirrorwall14

Up to age four we have three joie seats.

Joie tilt (no headrest so I think it won't last to age 4) but cheap, rear facing and the child minder loves it. Around 90e

Joie stages will last to 18kg rear facing and turn then to forward face as a booster. Around 150

Joie spin 360, rotating isofix seat. Rear facing to 18kg. Wouldn't have spent the ~250 myself but got an upgrade from joie.

Also my mother is using the Haick varioguard for 100e on sale which is not safe forward facing but good rear facing

Clashmore

We have a Britax Maxfix2 (isofix) rear facing til 18kg and a Joie Stages (seatbelt) rearfacing til 18kg then high back booster til 25kg. Little man is 26 months and doesn't mind rearfacing as he can see out the rear window of the car.

chocfan

Thanks very much to everyone for your advice
We both have Isofix in our cars with no issues with back seats etc so will be sticking with that

I'm now looking at the Concord Reverso Plus, it's passed the Swedish Plus test (thanks for bringing that to my attention) and looks like it would be a good buy

Is anybody familiar with it? In my car, it would be fine (usual 4 doors) but my husband has a 2 door so it's a little more awkward to navigate around the back seat.

Or even in general, with these bigger size seats-do people find it tricky to get babies in and out? And is it harder/easier if they're rear facing?

Thanks a million for all advice so far-very much appreciated

jlm29

chocfan wrote: »

Thanks very much to everyone for your advice
We both have Isofix in our cars with no issues with back seats etc so will be sticking with that

I'm now looking at the Concord Reverso Plus, it's passed the Swedish Plus test (thanks for bringing that to my attention) and looks like it would be a good buy

Is anybody familiar with it? In my car, it would be fine (usual 4 doors) but my husband has a 2 door so it's a little more awkward to navigate around the back seat.

Or even in general, with these bigger size seats-do people find it tricky to get babies in and out? And is it harder/easier if they're rear facing?

Thanks a million for all advice so far-very much appreciated

The only thing I know of the concord is that it has a shorter seat shell than other seats, so if your baby is long it might not be great from a longevity point of view. In general it's easy enough to get babies into rear facing seats because the door isn't in the way!

chocfan

Thanks very much again to all

We decided to go for the Concord Reverso Plus (based on a recommendation here) for my car
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Concord-Reverso-Plus-i-Size-Graphite/dp/B015P7XMRA/ref=sr_1_1_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1488684581&sr=8-1&keywords=concord+reverso+plus

They're actually on sale at the moment which is great if anybody else is interested-saved £100

We also got a seat for my husband's car-the Maxi Cosi AxissFix http://www.mothercare.ie/car-seats-carriers/shop-by-brand/maxi-cosi-axissfix-i-size-car-seat-origami-red.html Which was also on sale in Mothercare so very happy with those savings!

The Maxi Cosi was a bit of a compromise. It's i-Size (which I wanted) and it swivels to make access easier for his 2-door car. The only drawback with it is that it says it's rear-facing until the age of 2 and should be forward facing after that. However, our little girl isn't particularly tall (like her parents!) so we would be hoping to keep her in it a bit longer. We also use my car the majority of the time-he really only brings her to creche up the road so at least she'll be rear-facing until 4 the vast majority of the time

Thanks again!

CF