Car seat with inbuilt harness up to 26kgs.....

I was a bit horrified when I went car seat shopping for #3 the other day. Was at my 4th baby shop for the day (ummm, I did a bit of shopping!!!) and at each and every one when I mentioned my seat dilemma the response from all of them was along the lines of just squeeze the Meridian seat and it won't matter how squashed it all is because at six months then you turn it around facing forwards and its then a narrower fit!!! One especially safety conscious fellow suggested I put my DDs in the 3rd row of my car, with DD3 in a baby seat in the middle row. All our anchor points are in the car ceiling, and he didn't see what my issue was when I commented that the tether strap from DD3's car seat would be going right over the head/neck of one of her sisters in the back! They also all looked at me as if I was some kind of freak when I said no way in hell was I turning my tiny baby forward facing at six months of age.

That's a mentality I really just don't get.

I know Lulu they just don't know any better. I tell people to be very careful accepting advice about car seats from shop assistants. Even though some of them are ACRI accredited I've still heard some terrible and dangerous advice from baby stores. The law says forward0facing is ok at 6 months and a lot of people assume they know what's best, sadly they just don't always. I'm not a qualified installer or adviser, but I've done my own research and just because your baby can hold their head up doesn't mean they'll withstand the forces in an accident forward-facing, not to mention their organs, and damage from the harness even head clashes with other occupants if they're forward-facing, doesn't even need to be a high speed accident.

ggrrr still confused about what to do about this.....
its doing me head in every time i get into the car

Have a look at carseat dot se Ginger.

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Have a look at carseat dot se Ginger.

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That's a good site! But they don't have a lot in the way of extended harnessing, they're more about extended rear-facing. I think they only have one seat that forward-faces with the harness, the Britax Two-way I think. They sell European seats and not many forward-face with harness. I just spoke them about this last week. Maybe Securatot in the UK might have more range for FF with harness. I'm not sure but could be worth a look.

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ggrrr still confused about what to do about this.....
its doing me head in every time i get into the car

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I felt the same for ages!! It's so frustrating.

I just had a quick look. The Two-Way harnesses forward-facing to 25kgs, there are a couple of others on carseat dot se that FF with harness but only to 18kgs.

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ggrrr still confused about what to do about this.....
its doing me head in every time i get into the car

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Me too hun, I thought this was going to be a helpful thread :rofl:................ Just jokes kids!! ;)

My problem is that with my anxiety if I imported one I would worry non-stop about the "legalities"so importing is really not an option at all for me, so I need to work out what is the safest seat/combination for us within Australian standards and at the moment I can't work that out. Posted on my FB book page and all mixed replies, especially around H harness, the INfa seat that has anti-submarine design as opposed to the anti-sub clip :doh: Arrghhh!

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I just had a quick look. The Two-Way harnesses forward-facing to 25kgs, there are a couple of others on carseat dot se that FF with harness but only to 18kgs.

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At 4 my DD1 is still only 16kg, so a harness til 25 kg will do her until she is at least 6. A 18kg limit would put her about 5.5 before she would go to a seat belt. She is super tall and went into a booster by 3 tjough as she was too tall for all the Australian seats.

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At 4 my DD1 is still only 16kg, so a harness til 25 kg will do her until she is at least 6. A 18kg limit would put her about 5.5 before she would go to a seat belt. She is super tall and went into a booster by 3 tjough as she was too tall for all the Australian seats.

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It would be illegal now to have a 3year old in a booster with adult belt as they are required to stay harnessed until 4. Australia needs to wake up and provide appropriate seats!
I think you mentioned LATCH being brought in in an earlier post. ISOFIX is being written into the standards now. It should be ready to go 2013. But this doesn't mean European(ISOFIX) or US (LATCH) seats will be legal here then. All it means is Australian manufacturers can produce them and sell them to install with ISOFIX, it doesn't mean we'll get extended rear-facing seats. There is campaigning to have type D seats (to rear-face up to 4years) manufactured for sale in Australia and also to have international ERF seats approved for use here. But it is very slow going.
Australia is very stubborn when it comes to car seats it drives me nuts. It's a lot to with protecting the Australian market :shakehead: my opinion of most Australian car seat manufacturers is pretty low after having contact with them about this. With the exception of Safe n Sound, they are making all the right noises so far about making a decent seat but are restricted by design and testing requirements here :wall:

Oh and the FF harnessed weight limit on the European seats was more for Ginger, she's not looking to ERF she wants to extended harness. carseat dot se is great for ERF not so good for extended harnessing. The Radians are good for both :)

S&S are owned by Britax.. it in their interest 'cause then they can use the same seats they sell else where.

Ginger maybe ring somewhere like kidsNcars as they have an advisory servixe

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S&S are owned by Britax.. it in their interest 'cause then they can use the same seats they sell else where.

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A lot of the Britax seats sold in Europe are really good seats, but don't meet Australian Standards so can't be used with out being slightly altered. Some don't have a top tether or anti rebound bar which are both required here. Some do though but there can be other design issues. Getting a straight answer on what they are is another matter :wall: Some issues here are to with the weight of the dummy for testing, but I'm still waiting on what the exact issue with that is too. Some tether but not Aussie style over the top, but Swedish style, to the floor, Australia won't accept that either.

Britax also lost a huge mount of sales when ISOFIX was introduced in the UK as Europe had seats ready to go that were legal in the UK. So SnS know what can happen here if they're not ready to go. I doubt that will happen as they seem to have some weight in they say so of things like introducing ISOFIX and type D seats. There is a committee that votes and 'apparently' SnS may have members on there...could help it to stay at there pace. Not really my idea of providing the best safety for kids, but rather protecting their pockets. But that's a whole other story lol

In regards to using an imported seat affecting medical insurance, surely you don't have to use your cover? Just go public? I doubt that they would refuse to treat your child because they were in an illegal seat.

Tbh, I am very happy with the maxi rider and meridian for my two. I don't know much about the isofix option but we were recently in the Uk and hired two car seats with the rental car. They were not isofix and I was so unhappy with them. We could not get a tight fit with the seat belt, so they moved constantly. Plus, dd had no issues undoing the harness herself. Yep, Isofix might be the better option, but I think the top tether and seatbelt is the next best thing as opposed to just a seatbelt install.

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The Radian allows the RF - there are NO seats on the Australian market that allow such extended RF.
It is also steel framed, something else I haven't found in any Australian seat (someone correct me if I am wrong, but I haven't been able to find one).

The Radian can also be fitted with the anchor strap and 3 point belt, just like any Australian seat. You can look up online if your car has LATCH/ISOFIX, but most new cars do, certainly models sold overseas do like most European brands. You can also call the dealership and ask them. You don't need it for a Radian though.

The Radian is around $300 depending on retailer, plus anywhere between $160-$200 to ship it.

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if you get it from NZ like we got our Radian, it only cost $18 to ship TWO Radians :)

We have our 4yo in a Maxirider. Not sure of her weight ..hasn't been weighed in a while! Just looking up the weight recommendations on the Maxirider and it doesn't seem to say?? It just goes by the height of the shoulder straps? Can someone link me to the weight recommendations?

We have our 6yr old in the HiLiner with the anti submarine clip. I'm happy with how the belt fits him in this seat. It's the positioning of the adult belt that is important, and I'm ok with how it fits him on his shoulder, and he is good at staying in his belt too, doesn't loosen it or take his arm out or anything. He'll probably be in this booster well after turning 7, he's still on the lowest setting LOL.

I seem to have mispalced the manual for our hipod senator and when looking up a manual online through their site it doesnt have a weight range listed for the harness anymore (is that right?) just height levels and once a certain height on the seat then you have to go up? So have inbuilt harnesses improved? Does the weight matter or only height on new seats? I think Im going to be doing a lot of rummaging through cars to find the original manual but now Im confused.