Confused about the Car seat options.. | ExpatWoman.com
 

Confused about the Car seat options..

32
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 09 April 2012 - 18:11

Hi can anybody shed some light on choosing the better/best options for choosing a car seat.. I'm due around the end of Aug...

I'm toying with two options the first is the regular infant car seat for example http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12326446
The second is what they are calling the convertible seat .. like http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12264643

They both seem to have their merits... but I would like to get the best bang for my buck out of whichever one we decide to go with.. but it is also very confusing as to which is better to get...

Help!!!! I'm pulling my hair out ....

32
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 12 April 2012 - 18:56
Sorry about the late reply.... Thanks for the offer SunDevil.. we do need a car seat.. but it is not terribly urgent since our baby is not due very soon.... maybe somebody else who needs it right away can benefit from your car seat... I will definitely look at the Chicco brand.. i was kind of sticking to the sort of traditional brands that I've seen around..
774
Posts
EW GURU
Latest post on 11 April 2012 - 13:48
Dxb19 I have the Chicco Keyfit 30 for sale right now on Dubizzle. We bought in the US from Babies R Us and brought it here when DD was born. It's only 8 months old and had a cover on it the entire time so it's practically brand new. Not a spot on it. The nice thing about the Chicco is you can buy more than one base for each of your cars. The base is attached to the car with the LATCH system and it remains in the car but you can take the "bucket seat" in and out easily. When you get to your destination you just take out the bucket and the baby stays in it. You can hook it to your buggy and it makes a travel system. The baby can rest in there and never be disturbed if they are sleeping. Now we have 9 month old DD in the Britax Roundabout (which is a convertible) b/c she was getting too heavy for the Chicco and the thing I miss is when she was in the Chicco I could strap her in and then run around the house getting the last few things ready and then pick up the "bucket" and head out the door and click her in. Now I have to make sure everything is totally ready to go, get all my things, grab the baby and then get her buckled into her car seat in the car. If she's fallen asleep on the ride home I wake her up when I unbuckle her whereas if she was still in the Chicco she'd stay asleep while I carried her inside in the "bucket".
391
Posts
EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 10 April 2012 - 18:23
Isofix has metal 'teeth' for a better word. See this website page. http://www.wak-tt.com/mods/ISOFIX.htm Latch has a seatbelt kind of system that loops through the seat and then anchors to the points in the car. http://www.walmart.com/cp/LATCH-Car-Seats/538404#34447
32
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 10 April 2012 - 13:58
Thank you!!!! One more silly question.... How can you tell whether your car has the Isofix or latch connections??
391
Posts
EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 10 April 2012 - 13:47
I was so excited to be able to choose a seat of any standard when we moved to Dubai!!!! After 6 years of being confined to the backwards Australian standard I got to do quite a bit of research and choose what I wanted from anywhere in the world. I just got a MAxiCosi Ferofix booster which would have been illegal in Aus so was very happy. But it was for a 6 year old not a baby. You mainly get UK and US seats here in Dubai - there is quite a good selection if you look around. But for a newborn I believe that the EU standard with a rigid connection to the car (ISOFIX) is the best. The US system called LATCH uses a flexible attachment to the same anchor points in the car. Make sure your Dubai car has isofix points before you buy one! The main benefit of US seats is that some of them allow you to keep you child in a full harness to a higher weight. For example there is a seat called a Sunshine Kids Radian that has a harness that goes very high and another one called a Britax Frontier. I am considering these types of seats for my 3.5 year old but for now he's way under 18kg so I can keep in a harness for an EU/UK or Australian seat. But under 18kg I would stick with an isofix seat (ie. an EU or UK standard). Or be daring and go Swedish - which wasn't an option for me as my youngest is already 3.5 yrs old and been forward facing for 2 years as the Australian system doesn't allow extended rearfacing and I wasn't willing to turn him back again. HAd he never have known any different....
32
Posts
EW NEWBIE
Latest post on 10 April 2012 - 13:01
Thank you much for the advice!!! I was looking at the US Standards since that is where we are from originally and we were thinking about getting one from the Babies R US website in the US.... but from what you've said it may be a good idea to look at the inventory here .... Thanks again!
391
Posts
EW EXPLORER
Latest post on 10 April 2012 - 08:31
For a newborn you can choose between a capsule or a rear facing convertible seat. Then you have other choices like isofix, latch, seatbelt installation, base or no base. What you get will depend on the standard it conforms to - ie. USA, UK, EU, Australia etc. If I had lived in Dubai at the time when my kids were newborn I would have got a Maxi Cosi seat with an isofix base. Either the Pebble or the Cabriofix seats which go up to 13kg. These click into a number of prams so you can get baby out without waking them. My preference of the 2 is the Cabriofix seat. Like this one http://www.maxi-cosi.co.uk/gb-en/products/car-seats/baby/cabriofix.aspx You should aim to keep your baby rearfacing as long as possible as this is much safer than turning to forward facing. 12 months is a real minimum. But for example in Sweden they require rearfacing to 4 years of age and their statistics are amazing compared to other countries. Their rearfacing seats are quite different to the capsules that the rest of the world sells. I have seen some people using swedish seats in Dubai. I would also check buying on the internet and having it shipped. I recently got a booster for my 6 year old shipped from this site Babycare.nl for 400 AED less than I could get it locally in Dubai. I would definitely choose a European seat and isofix. Firstly because the European/British testing regime is more stringent than the US one (better side impact testing). And secondly because isofix has been repeatedly been shown to be more failsafe to install and performs better in side impacts than a seat installed with either the American Latch system or the seatbelt method (like they use in Australia). HOpe this helps and not confuses.
 
 

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