Talkback: 10 of the best car seats to use from 9 months

The best thing to do when looking for a car seat is will it fit in your car will baby -toddler fit safe without the seat moveing about and will your child grow without haveing to buy another one the stage 23 seem a good idea as they will grow with the seat they have and save you the cost there are a lot of seats out there so i would say look on web sites like Halfords , Mothercare , Babbies r us Argos and other places
Then go and look at them and there is Smyths do seats Eddershaws and Mammas & Pappas think of the cost the style and the fit some places will fit the seat for you ask staff for advice and ask if your child can try the saet if they are with you as they are the one uesing it

What a good looking seat good for a baby then next a toddler then as the child has grown
Start age 9 mths up to 11 or 12 yrs one seat for your little one
The Recaro Young Sport car seat price is £149
I would say ask advice and get information take the little one and see how they look You do need a good seat for safety have a look at seats on the web and then go to stores

why haven't you featured the Britax Multi-tech car seat? suitable from 9+ months if your child is over 9kg and stays in the rear-facing position until your child reaches 25kg or approx 4 years of age: the safest way for small people to travel. see attached link from Volvo: http://www.volvocars.com/uk/top/my_volvo/volvo-accessories/child-safety/pages/25-kilos.aspx

Hi Diddymum,

I'm currently chatting to Britax's PR about getting this specialised car seat reviewed. Until we have one of our professional reviewers test it out for us, and it gets an MFM star rating, we aren't happy to include it in our "10 of the best".

We want to ensure everything included in our guides has performed well in our real-life testing!

Cheers,

C

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Hi Diddymum,

Sadly, at this point in time, Britax doesn't wish to pop the Multi-tech car seat up for review. We were chomping at the bit to get it out to one of our top professional reviewers, but Britax's PR has let us know the somewhat tricky specialist fitting means it's not a model the company likes to put up for roadtests.

If the situation changes, we'll be sure to get it trialled.

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Hi. I was a bit taken aback to read that you're not going to review a car seat because the company doesn't want to give you the seat. Does this mean that you only review products that the PR people in companies decide to give you for free?

Hi. I was taken aback to read your comment about how you review car seats. Does this mean that you only review the ones that PR people give you?

Hi mumoftwo,

We undertake hundreds and hundreds of reviews every year, of big cost items like car seats and buggies, and it would be financially impossible for us to purchase every single item we need to test. If we started purchasing all items, we would either need to make our reviews a pay-to-view set-up or completely suround the reviews with advertising to allow you to see the tests for free but cover costs. We think neither of these two option would be fair or ideal for users.

Heading direct to a company to get a sample for testing is how all publications I have ever known of embark on their roadtests. It's standard practice.

When I know a new item is in production or on shelves, I liaise with the company to have the item sent direct to one of our professional reviewers for it to be trialled in the real world, in real conditions. I work hard to ensure I know about all important new and pre-existing items, and do a lot of legwork to ensure they are trialled for MFM's users. We don't just review whatever a PR thinks they might like to offer for review.

As for getting items for free, MFM's seasonsed reviewers can attest to the fact that a vast number of brands request their items are returned after testing, despite the wear and tear they sufffer in our testers' hands.

I hope this has helped clear up any misconceptions you have about our reviewing process.

C

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Hi Cassandra,

Thanks for trying to shed some light on your reviews, but now I'm really confused - your earlier post says: "Sadly, at this point in time, Britax doesn't wish to pop the Multi-tech car seat up for review... Britax's PR has let us know the somewhat tricky specialist fitting means it's not a model the company likes to put up for roadtests." 

But your latest post says: "We don't just review whatever a PR thinks they might like to offer for review." 

So which is it? It sounds as though MFM will only review seats offered up by the manufacturer...

Sorry you're feeling confused there Dad of Iad!

My comment wasn't to say that we never take into consideration what companies and PRs can tell us about their products. We work closely with them to ensure we understand product features, what a products claim to do etc, so our reviewers know exactly which claims to pay special attention to as they put the item to the test. This is especially crucial with safety products, where the right car and correct installation is vital. As we don't purchase items, the company must send the product to our tester. I was attempting to explain that it's not a case of us just sitting back, awaiting a PR to offer us an item to trial as and when they like - we work hard finding out what's being designed, chasing up items we know are in production and of interest to MFM users. I hound many, many people in the industry!

The rest of Britax's main car seat range I believe we have covered and this is a car seat that I hope to periodically return to and push for a review. However, I cannot force a company to provide an item for review, and given that this isn't such a core product in the range, but a specialised item that can only be fitted at 19 locations in the UK, I have to prioritise my reviewing efforts and ensure car seats UK-based parents are most likely to encounter are covered off first.

As Britax states on its website, "The MULTI-TECH 2 is a car seat developed for the Swedish market to comply with the local standard. BRITAX does provide this seat in other EU countries but this type of car seat requires skilled and trained installation. Please make sure you test and purchase this seat by only taking your car to a specialist retailer with trained staff to make sure the seat will be installed correctly." 

I feel the answer to your ending question is mostly a matter of how you choose to interpret the phrase "offered up" - I chase items for review, and as manufacturers understand how valuable independent reviews are, they meet my request for a sample to trial. Some happily offer the car seat, others I must pester and pester. As I have been around a while, many companies know as soon as they have a new item, I'll want to test it, so they come to me immediately without pestering required! As for the rare one we can't get reviewed (as is the case here), if you count this as "MFM will only review seats offered up by the manufacturer", then the simple answer, which doesn't best reflect our process, can be taken to be yes.

If you want to know more about how we go about our reviews, feel free to talk to me directly via email cassandra.kempster-roberts@magicalia.com

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I wish Group 1 rear facing car seats were promoted a bit more to parents in the UK and Ireland as they are much safer than forward facing. I long to see the day there is an article about 10 of the best rearfacing car seats! We are so behind other countries when it comes to this and I believe parents should be made aware that there is another option. At the moment you really have to look hard to find a UK supplier of rearfacing seats. Why suddenly turn a baby forward when it weighs 9-13kg? A child's skeleton is very soft as it has not yet solidified into bone. During a crash if the head is catapulted forward the neck is vulnerable to great forces (a child's head is large and heavy in proportion to their body) and may stretch so much as to cause the spine to snap (internal decapitation). The rib cage too is soft and cannot protect the internal organs.
In rear facing seats the neck and spine are better protected because the child is flung into the back of the seat and the force of the impact is distributed along the whole back of the seat. If you want to know more and where you can buy a rearfacing seat in the UK here is a helpful website:-

http://www.rearfacing.co.uk/index.php

Here is the story of little Joel to make you think too:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8gU9zzCGA8
and
http://www.joelsjourney.org/


I would never have known about rear facing car seats if I hadn't done my research on the internet. All parents want the best and safest option for their children and at the moment they are being kept in the dark when it comes to car seat safety.

I got my seat from:-

http://incarsafetycentre.co.uk/catalog/index.php/cPath/30

I have the mamas and papas cybex and I think it's brilliant. I can easily lift it out and put it in my partners car and I don't have to worry about him fitting it correctly as it's so easy. My little girl is now 2 and it's still going strong.

Totally agree with the mums who are talking about rear facing seats. And Britax are shooting themselves in the foot saying it is difficult to install. I too bought a Britax rear facing seat from incarsafetycentre and it fits onto an ISOFIX base, so is very easy to install and remove, as anyone who has used ISOFIX will know, they just click in. The base itself is slighty more tricky but so worth it for the peace of mind, and for the ease of moving the seat itself from one car to another.

I predict that eventually Britain will catch up with Scandanavia in making it compulsory to keep children rear facing longer. One day people will look back incredulous at the memory of 9 month olds in forward facing seats the same way that we remember in amazement that when we were children we didn't have car seats, and only seat belts if we were lucky. When it has been proven that rearfacing is safer, why on earth this has not been publicised and adopted by UK seat manufacturers I cannot imagine.

I have seen on another site that there are some other companies other than Britax now marketing rear facing seats in the UK, so maybe this is something you could consider for the review panel. An example is the Volvo seat that someone put a link to, but there were others, I can't remember the brand names.  

Hi Victoria,

You're right that there's now a number of rear-facing car seats for older babies and toddlers on the market. We have reviewed some MFM, the BeSafe iZi Combi X3 and the Brio Zento. We've also reviewed a large number of Group 0+/1 car seats (car seats that span from birth until 18kg/roughly 4 years of age) that start life as a rear facing car seat, then can be forward facing once your child's weighing over 13kg (the end of the Group 0+ weight range). However, I think what you're talking about is more along the lines of keeping your child rear-facing for as many years as possible, like the Brio and the BeSafe. These are certainly car seat types we're eager to review! We'll be keeping our eyes out for brands to hit the UK so we can get tests underway.

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I actually think the besafe extended rearfacing car seat is the safest one. take a look at http://rearfacing.co.uk/