The Little One is 9 months now and she’s outgrowing the car seat, getting too long for it.

Is there a recommended next seat that’s the go to option, or is it necessary to trawl through the millions of options out there!! P.S we don’t currently have an isofix seat

It’s more about whether they hit the weight limit or head is substantially out of the top. Legs aren’t a problem really, just look at how they’ll sleep.

It’s isofix, but I’m happy with the Recaro Zero.1 – being able to swivel sideways for loading is a godsend when they get heavier.

About that age our little dude moved to a Recaro Young Hero Sport which should see him through until he’s 12. They’ve dove well in tests etc.

He seems to really like it.

*watches with interest*

We had maxi cosi axis , think the law has changed re rear facing now but the fact it swizeled through 90° was a godsend for getting the boy in and out.

Bit of research now suggests we need a 1/2/3 seat so we don’t have to buy another one in a few years time.

The recaro hero looks decent, will last her, but doesn’t swivel.

I imagine the swivel function is definitely a godsend as mentioned, especially when she goes rigid and won’t play along, but I’ve not seen a 1/2/3 with it yet, and I’m not sure if it’s worth shelling out loads more for it!?

The rules are about to change so double and triple check everything. Not sure what the age is but they have to be rear facing for ages now, my two got really frustrated rear facing and were really cramped, I’m glad they’re old enough to not really need them now.

Rules change on 1st March but it’s mostly to do with backless boosters and things that happen in the car seat world when the little ones are about 4 to 6 years old.
Big thing with the 9 month thing is that they now have to rear facing until 15 months old minimum. Could make a difference to what’s available to you.

I was out looking at the next seat for junior at the weekend. Will be going for 2x Joie Spin 360, he seemed pretty happy sat in it, should last until he’s 4yrs old, and the spin feature looks like a bit of a back saver. Despite having Maxi Cosi bases/seats already, it makes more sense to sell that lot & go Joie, the next stage Maxi seat alone cost almost as much as the Joie with spin base.

Rules change on 1st March but it’s mostly to do with backless boosters and things that happen in the car seat world when the little ones are about 4 to 6 years old.
Big thing with the 9 month thing is that they now have to rear facing until 15 months old minimum. Could make a difference to what’s available to you.

AFAIK…

rule changes only apply to new seat manufacture, they don’t affect existing models or ones people already own.

the 15 month thing only applies to i-size seats, not weight based ones.

cp – true forgot to mention it’s only on new ones.

I really don’t get this i-size thing. It’s a complete minefield.
I’d say go and speak to someone in store for proper advice, but having read some watchdog report about shops fitting child seats a few months ago then it appears that half the staff don’t understand the rules either!

We went for the Recaro 1/2/3. No complaints. Freester JR is now 5 and it still gets used everyday.

I really don’t get this i-size thing. It’s a complete minefield.

car seat are a minefield. A massive confusion nicely set up between EU, UK Gov’t, the UK press and mumsnet.

Cybex Sirona here on the wife’s insistence, bloody expensive and big and heavy. But i’m pretty sure it would survive being hit by sizable munition which is the point I suppose.

+1 for swivelly seats – Britax Dualfix here. We liked it enough that we bought a second for our younger even though we knew it’d probably be less than a year before our elder outgrows hers. She’s still rear facing in it most of the time at 4.5 years, although she’s a little one.

-1 by anything by Jane.

The BeSafe iZi Plus is the highest rated child seat in Scandinavia, has been for a while, had these for both my kids and cannot recommend them high enough, fantastic quality and safety record.

They have now moved up to the iZi Up X3 Fix.

Axkid Minikid ERF (Extended Rear Facing) our 3 and a bit year old is still happily sitting in his and the 19month sits fine in his as well.
We use mirrors to keep an eye on them/ interact with them.
They are expensive – but dont need ISOFIX.

If you do a bit of searching about ERF the vitriol is horrendous.. people saying if you dont do it you are killing your children..
They quote lots of stats (all about head on collisions, they dont talk about sideways and rear end collisions.
I was really well accepted into these online communitys when I told them that their children would be safe if they all stopped crashing their cars head on into other cars/things… ok maybe i wasnt but just saying.
When you actually look at the actual science behind ERF recommendations I do wonder why the heck we are all not rear facing in cars.

Moving onto swivelling the minikids do not swivel but they are easier to get the children into by nature of being rear facing the door allows for it.

One last thing if you have long legs and push your seat far back this seat might not work for you – our Ocatvia and my stupid length legs only just fits the seat.
Paul Stride in York were really helpful fitting a test model so we could be sure it worked for us. (I was hopinh it wouldnt and we could get a new car!!)

HTH (I used to look at shiny new bikes online!)

Recaro hero young sport here, cracking bit of kit, and will last the little dude till he’s 12. Has great adjustability to fit him, plus you can alter the seat base angle to get a really good fit in the car.

So as far as I gather, the new legislation only affects isize seats and backless booster seats and it’s only a recommendation that they face rearwards for an extended period? (I understand it’s the safer option)

I think the recaro might be the way forward, the size of some of the rear facing seats makes me think they won’t fit in our motor