I hate our carseat! What is the best newborn to 4 convertible car seats?

Our carseats are horrible! We have 2 the same, that we bought second hand from a lady moving overseas. I can't even remember what brand they are off the top of my head to tell the truth. But anyway...

Elly is only a 6 pound bubba, so really tiny, and of course needs her insert, but the insert doesn't allow for her nappy, it's ridiculous! We are squeezing her in so tightly that I'm worried about her comfort in the legs, and her circulation! But we can't leave the insert out, she's still too little!

And the seat belt straps to hold the whole seat in place are so high to lift Elly over, she's almost hitting her head on the roof, and she's meant to stay in rear facing position till she's 9kg? She is only 3kg at the moment, so it's going to be so hard to lift her in and out, especially as she becomes more of a wriggler, her head will be hitting the roof all the time!

Plus it's so hard to adjust her own seatbelts...I had so much difficulties today, and only got the tiniest bit of adjustment out of it, and it took minutes!

And it's a very upright and verticle rear-facing position...she's got great neck support now at month old, but not good for newborn! She needed more of a reclining position,

Please exclude safe-and-sound from your replies as I've heard about a ladies accident where the buckle broke and her baby ended up flying through to the front seats and the company ignored her claims and just blamed her saying she mustn't have buckled up properly. If that's their attitude, I don't want to bother, they don't deserve the customers, no matter how cushy their product is.

Hi, we purchased a Safe n sound Royale Capsule, our son has had this since he was born and it has changed from him facing the rear to him facing the front. http://www.babyzonedirect.com.au/cat...5/c57/c69/p539

I would highly recommend this car seat. I hope this helps.

We bought a Babylove 0-4 used it 3 babies so far, it also is a good size so they can stay in it until ythye are big enough to go into a booster seat we found we got until around 3 years in it. Adjustment is quick and easy, a one strap pull down, or lift up...we found we had the problem of being to upright as well, it because of the slope in the seat, we use a rolled up towel underneath to lift it a bit (I'm not sure if that would effect the safety of the seat, if you consider doing it you might want to ask around?? we can't see any reason why it would, plus bub is in a much better safer looking postion, rather than head slunped forward)
P.S. I hate our booster seats, they looked fantastic , with loads of adjustment, bought 2 the same and they are just awful...I here you on Safe and Sound. I must complain, but sounds like I should'nt expect much help.

we have safe n sound too. whatever seat you go for please get a MANUAL retractor not an automatic. automatic suck!

id advise you to take it to a proper fitting place (baby bunting, RACV etc..) and get them to look at the installation, they may be able to refit it properly so its reclined, as for the straps they/should be able to loosen the straps so you dont have t lift over, the safe and sound do, another reason to get it properly fitted, they will show you how to use the seat correctly, the people baby bunting use are brilliant.
do you have the instructions??? if you dont then perhaps ring the manufacturer and ask for some to be sent out

ETA i should say ive just turned our seats for DD2 and to make it recline properly the person installing had place rolled up carpet underlay under the seat to make it sit properly, was awesome! and very secure

Hey Hun,

I know you said you don't want to hear about Safe and Sound, but I have to say that just because one lady had a bad experience doesn't mean you will too. There are always exceptions to the rule and there will never be any guarantees that ANY product will fail for at least one person. I guess you need to weigh everything up.

Safe and Sound have a HUGE safety rating IF correctly installed and looked after the way the manufacturer recommends. Do you know 100% that this ladies car seat was a new one? had never previously been in an accident? was correctly installed? was the bolt section on the vehicle 100% secure? I am sure it can happen but it sounds more like with the bolt fitting the fault maybe it hadn't been correctly put on in the first place.

IF you definately do not want Safe and Sound then you will need to look further into ALL the car seat manufacturers as I believe Britex (sp?) is the parent company that make SnS they also make Baby Love and something else from memory.

We have a SnS compaq delux and we love it. We did buy a head support thing for Shae when she was newborn to stop her head moving around heaps when we go around corners but we live around some pretty windy roads.

I would also highly recommend spending the money and having the car seat professionally fitted, I insisted quite firmly when DH was planning on doing it himself and we needed to purchase something to stop the seat belt releasing (keeping it tightly secure) worth the peace of mind as far as I am concerned.

We also looked at the "turn a tot" can't remember who makes it only reason we went with the SnS was their 5 star safety rating and it was the only one that fit in our car ;)

HTH

Nae x

I have 2 Turn-A-Tots and i LOVE them, they are a little bulky compared to some i think but they are BRILLIANT.
In the newborn position it actually TURNS to face the door for ease of taking bubs in and out of the car.
The newborn insert is great and very very comfy for them.

DD1 uses my SIL's old one and it looks so so comfy, she's always falling asleep and never had a complaint from her.

I suggest going to a baby store, trying bubs in them, having a fiddle and ask them to pop it in the car so you see how it fits etc.

We have just bought one from 'the unmentionable' company :), but don't yet have a baby to put in it, so can't really comment.

However I just wanted to second people's comments about getting it professionally fitted. We thought we had it kind of right, but it still moved around too much for our liking... took it to a pro for $35 and the fit he achieved is vastly different to how we had it. Turns out we needed a special part because of our car. Initially I didn't want to spend the money, but soooo glad I did. Good luck with your hunting!

i think if you are with RACQ (or your state equivalent) you get the fitting for free. we have something called kid safe house here in QLD and they did it for $15. i think the ambos do it too but you have to book in advance with them.

as surpised said the belt needs a special clip called a gater clip! keeps the seat very secure!!

I was going to recommend S'N'S too.

For what its worth I have had multiple dealings with Britax and in my experience their after sales customer service is outstanding. They fixed an issue with one of my child seats and in QA'ing it they also found and fixed two other issues that I wouldnt have know about. Now this seat I bought for DS1, so its 5 years old and Id expect straps to wear etc - there were no major faults witht he seat just wear and tear, but this was still covered by warranty.

Both my babies were over 10lb and fitten in there with the insert with no probs at all.

I know you don't want to hear about safe n sound BUT I have to praise our car seat. we got the Safe-n-Sound Meridian AHR, it is the safest car seat on the market (when we purchased it), although quite expensive, we found we really didn't mind paying the price for the best seat out there. DS seems quite comfy in it and it has a lot of safety features other seats don't, such as, Active Head Restraint (AHR) with an EPS layer to absorb energy in a crash to reduce the potential injury etc.

You can losen the side strap so you don't have to lift baby up high to get them in too.

I would highly recommend that you reconsider safe n sound as they are in my opinion the best ones out there.

We have a Turn-A-Tot that we used for DS and now using for DD. It's brilliant. As it turns there is no need to lift the baby over the anchor straps and it makes it so much easier to get baby in and out. DS was rear facing in it until about 10 months and he was in it as forward facing until he was 20 months when DD was born. It's been a great seat.

Wow, I'm sorry your friend had such a bad response from SNS :(. That is actually pretty unusual, you normally get fantastic service from them. They will actually replace your car seat free of charge if it has been involved in an accident. My kids all have SNS car seats and they are fantastic, we've had no problems.

Baby Love are another good brand, they meet and exceed the Australian standards.

Thankyou all ladies!

I am actually more concerned by Safe'n'Sounds attitude, than the general safety issue as all have to meet the same standard anyways but I do appreciate reading your thoughts on their seats and in particular Trish, your experience with SNS customer service too, food for thought!

I must say I am leaning towards the Turn a Tot, my brother has one of these, and it seems good

Also appreciate comments on professional fitting, I ruled that out thinking the cost would be exhorbitant, but what you girls said $35, $15, it doesn't seem too much after all! Might have to look into it further - with a better carseat but!

I looked at the seat that we haven't installed yet, and it's a Fisher-Price Sapphire, tried googling it, and get nothing, and Fisher-Price don't have ANY car seats on their website, so I'm gathering it's a/ OLD and b/they don't make them anymore, perhaps for a good reason? Correct me if I'm making wrong assumptions there...

The fisher price sapphire was the first one I had. It is made by IGC and I didnt like it. It also buckles in the stabilising arm pretty easily when you are taking it in and out of your car a lot. I replaced it with a Cargo Amazon and then a Infa Secure Optimus. Mine was back in 2005/06

i absolutely love my DS's, S'N'S meridian. it's just comfort plus and done him from birth. i would buy another one for another bub in a second.

i forgot to add i got my car seat fitted at the ambulance station, i just had to book a date a few weeks before bub was born and i can't remember exact prices but i know it wasn't much and i had no idea about the seat belts and other things the lady told me about. well worth the money.

I got DS in a Fisher-Price carseat. I got it from target about 1 year ago. I like it.

i have only ever heard good things about s'n's but have no experience of my own. RAA (SA version of NRMA, RACV, RACQ) recomends s'n's over any other brand. we are hiring a s'n's capsule from the red cross for the 1st 6months then going to the s'n's meridian ahr tilt and adjust which is the safest convertible seat on the market atm but the capsule is still the safest for newborns. not sure about other states but most baby shops who sell car seats in SA have someone trained to fit them and will fit yoru seat for free if you buy/hire from them or the red cross and RAA will fit for a small fee.
sorry i know you dont like s'n's but from everything i have read/heard/researched they are the best out there.

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Thankyou all ladies!

I am actually more concerned by Safe'n'Sounds attitude, than the general safety issue as all have to meet the same standard anyways but I do appreciate reading your thoughts on their seats and in particular Trish, your experience with SNS customer service too, food for thought!

I must say I am leaning towards the Turn a Tot, my brother has one of these, and it seems good

Also appreciate comments on professional fitting, I ruled that out thinking the cost would be exhorbitant, but what you girls said $35, $15, it doesn't seem too much after all! Might have to look into it further - with a better carseat but!

I looked at the seat that we haven't installed yet, and it's a Fisher-Price Sapphire, tried googling it, and get nothing, and Fisher-Price don't have ANY car seats on their website, so I'm gathering it's a/ OLD and b/they don't make them anymore, perhaps for a good reason? Correct me if I'm making wrong assumptions there...

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If the carseat is too old/non-compliant the person/company fitting the car seat will refuse. This happened to my mum who got given a car seat & it did not comply with the safety standards so she had to buy another one.

FWIW - I have a baby love & SnS - both are great.