What age did you turn the car seat?

[melbel]

I am talking even newer than that HotI...the design standards have just been changed late last year and the new carseats coming out are made to different standards and regulations...we had a capsule when C was born and bought a new convertible carseat when he was 9 months olds so just before Christmas....it is multi adjustable. The newer ones like that and with the shoulder markings are still filtering through to the market even now and there are new bigger booster seats coming because you now have to be in one till 7 years......it is changing very rapidly at the moment in the carseat world.

[buliej]

I haven't read through all the replies but I purchased an overseas Britax model (Safe And Sound maker) via Amazon and had a friend ship it over so that DS can rear face for much longer than the seats in Australia allow for (oh - and even with the shipping, it cost much less than the equivalent seat here - and the seat I purchased is an excellent seat). Technically, the seat doesn't meat Aus requirements, but I've researched it's safety and am willing to risk being ticketed as DS will be so much safer rear facing for longer than any Aus seat would allow.

[Now we're 3]

Our seat was also up to 12Kg but we changed DS at sometime between 12-15 months. Can't remember his weight when we changed him but he's not 11kg yet and is 19 months. He was complaining a lot about being rear facing and his legs were also touching the back of the seat which is why we changed him. He is also quite an escape artist and wriggles out of the over the shoulder straps so is better that I can see what he is up to and pull over and restrap him in if necessary.

[Loula]

I haven't read through all the replies but I purchased an overseas Britax model (Safe And Sound maker) via Amazon and had a friend ship it over so that DS can rear face for much longer than the seats in Australia allow for (oh - and even with the shipping, it cost much less than the equivalent seat here - and the seat I purchased is an excellent seat). Technically, the seat doesn't meat Aus requirements, but I've researched it's safety and am willing to risk being ticketed as DS will be so much safer rear facing for longer than any Aus seat would allow.

I was just wondering how that works with insurance as I would look at getting a seat from OS if we are lucky to have another baby by the time DS needs turning in his current seat.

[willow5]

I was just wondering how that works with insurance as I would look at getting a seat from OS if we are lucky to have another baby by the time DS needs turning in his current seat.

Loula I was speaking to a friend who is in the process of deciding which car seat she wants to import. When I asked her about it she said you would get a ticket if pulled over, but, that your insurance should cover the seat. I guess it might depend on what type/who your insurance is with. This is something I wanted to look into more as well before making a purchase. It shouldn't be this complicated to keep your kids safe!
Maybe buliej has already checked it all out??

[buliej]

i haven't checked it out and really should. What I am wondering though is what it means "not to be covered". Here are my assumptions (which could be very wrong) - I assume damage to your car would be covered as the damage would occur regardless of what car seat you used. If the car seat needed to be replaced - not covered - to me, no big deal - well worth the safety factor...as is any ticket/fine that might be issued.

So now I guess we are talking injuries - and I guess injuries to the child in the un-Aussie car seat. This to me is the real concern - would Medicare and/or private health not cover these? Would Medicare/PHI even know about the car seat used. Really unpleasant things to think about! Hopefully, they would be very minor if the car seat does what it should.

If anyone does know the details on what would/would not be covered, I'd be so appreciative!

One of my big concerns is actually installation. We paid to have our capsules professionally installed and I'd like to do the same with the car seat. However, I'm unsure if any service would do this as the car seat isn't compliant and would be new to them although really not that different in terms of leveling and positioning (I'm sure RACV won't do it - I wouldn't even try as I'd be afraid they'd take the seat away! - but one of the private services may). My guess is that they would do it, but not give you the piece of paper that says that you have had the car seat professionally installed. I do think that we could probably do it properly as our car is equipped with the proper anchors since it has 2 types of anchor points.

Loula - when you go to the UK, you could buy the Swedish car seat that rear faces for the longest time - I'll try to remember to post it to your FB page later - I have to find it in my bookmarks.

Something to add to my reasoning - one of the reasons I picked this car seat in addition to the fact that it rear faces for much longer is that it's approved for usage on airplanes and we decided to purchase a seat for DS so that we can have him in a proper restraint system. On the plane we will use it front facing because apparently it's easier to do so given the seat configuration - given that the main concern is turbulence, I don't think we are losing much by not using it rear facing on the plane.