Baby Seats
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Installing a baby seat
Detachable car seats keep your baby safe in the car. You need to install them properly to avoid any risks in a crash. Here are three ways to do it:
- Installation with seat belt – most detachable car seats can be secured to the car seat using the seat belt.
- Installation with Isofix – many baby seats can be attached to an Isofix base. Simply attach the base to the car seat and then easily remove and attach the car seat to the base.
- Installation with a belted base – a belted base is also installed using the seat belt, and can be used in the same way as an Isofix base.
Not all detachable car seats will fit all prams. If you want to use your detachable car seat in the pram, you must ensure that there are adapters for the pram you have chosen. Most prams come with their own detachable car seat adaptor, which works with all detachable car seats from one or more car seat manufacturers.
There is a big difference in price between car seats, related to both the brand and the features of the car seat.
- Rotating car seat: Some isofix bases allow the car seat to be rotated.
- Detachable car seat package: Some detachable car seats come in packs containing a base and a car seat, as a complete car solution for your child’s first year.
- Reclining position: Some detachable car seats can be folded out into a flat reclining position, but only when the detachable car seat is placed in a pram, or somewhere outside of the car.
- Canopy: To avoid the sun disturbing your baby's eyes, choose a detachable car seat with an adjustable canopy.
- Detachable car seats that become prams: There are detachable car seats with wheels and fold-out handles, which convert the car seat into a small pram.
FAQ
Most baby car seats can either be attached to the car using a seatbelt or with a previously installed base. The disadvantages of using a seatbelt to attach the baby car seat are that it’s easy to install it incorrectly, and it’s also fiddly to put the baby car seat into or remove it from the car.
The risk of incorrect installation is significantly reduced if you use a base, and still more if the base is attached to the car using Isofix brackets. Regardless of how the base is installed, you then simply click the baby car seat into the base. So for example this makes it easier to lift the baby car seat out without waking the baby.
Most, but not all, baby car seats can be attached directly in the car using a seatbelt. For the odd car journey, it can be preferable to do this rather than to remove the base from your own car and put it in somebody else’s. The base is often heavy and bulky to carry with you on the move.
You have to start with one or the other. Either you buy the pushchair first, check which adapters fit that chassis and then choose a baby car seat that’s compatible with the adapter, or you do the opposite and start with the baby car seat and then make sure you choose a pushchair that’s compatible with that model.
Most car seats for older children can be attached directly in the car using a seatbelt or with Isofix brackets. However, it’s becoming more common that car seat manufacturers sell a combination package where the base is used first for the baby car seat and then for a rear-facing car seat for an older child. Such solutions are available from all of the biggest car seat manufacturers.
Convenience. Although you often need to buy a car seat that attaches using a seatbelt once your child has outgrown the rear-facing car seat that attaches to the base. This is because car seats that are attached using Isofix brackets have a lower maximum weight and shorter period of use than car seats which are attached using seat belts.
Unfortunately, the car seat that is safest depends on any accident your car might be involved in. And the same applies to the position in the car that is safest to install the car seat. Because nobody knows in advance how any accident might play out, there’s no right or certain answer to these questions.
You should stop using the baby car seat if the child’s head is sticking up over the edge or if the child’s weight exceeds the maximum weight for the baby car seat. i-Size baby car seats also have a stated maximum length. Nor should you use a baby car seat where the child is too big for the internal harness to fit correctly.