Choosing The Best Child Car Seat For Your Little One

When you are planning your budget for the arrival of your new baby, one of the most important items to include, apart from the pram or pushchair, is the safest and most secure child car seat you can afford.

Flickr credit: Jon Pinder 

The car accident statistics make grim reading. Each year around 25 children between 0-11 years are killed while travelling in cars with approximately 250 sustaining a serious injury and around 6,000 being slightly injured.

Even if you don't have a car yourself, if you are planning to travel anywhere by car, the law says that children under 3 must be in a child car seat.

If you do have a car but you don't have room for a third child seat in the back of your car, children aged three or under can use the front seat but they must be in a child car seat.

The only exception to this rule is if it's in a licensed taxi or minicab and the rear seats are separated from the driver by a fixed partition and the child travels on the rear seats. If you ignore the law you are liable to a fine of £500.

I don't know about where you live, but here in Cardiff although we have some of the traditional black 'London' cabs, most taxis are saloon cars where there is certainly no partition.

In fact, UK law currently says that children must use a child car seat until they're 12 years old or 135 cm (4 ft 5 in) tall, whichever comes sooner.

In Ireland and in some European countries such as Germany and France, this height limit is higher at 150 cm (4 ft 11 in).

As children grow, the type of child car seat they can use changes until, eventually, they progress to what is known as a child booster seat.

For the first time parent, buying a child car seat can be quite daunting.  Not only are there loads of brands to choose from, but the car seats are classified in groups:-

Group 0+ - weight 13 kg, age birth to 12/15 months
Group 0/1 - weight 18 kg, age birth to 4 years
Group 1 - weight 9 - 18 kg, age 9 months to 4 years
Group 1,2,3 - weight 9-36 kg, age 9 months to 12 years
Group 2/3 - weight 15-36 kg, age 3 years to 12 years

So, to choose the right seat for your little one, you have to consider not only their age but their size too.

Then there is the choice between rear facing seats, where the baby obviously faces the back of the car seat and forward facing seats for older children.

Safety experts say that rear facing seats are safer than forward facing seats for children under 4 years old and advise that young children should be kept in rear facing seats for as long as possible. Despite this, generally, according to The British Medical Journal, many babies are switched from a rear facing to a forward facing seat at 9 kg or around 8 to 9 months.

Then there is a wealth of other safety factors and design features to consider for example, recline positions, the ease of adjusting the straps on the safety harness, compatibility with adult seat belts, washable cushions and a booster cushion for newborns who may be too tiny for even the starter car seat.

There are also loads of accessories to go with your car seat, from waterproof covers to toys you can attach to keep your little one occupied when on the road.

You can also buy pram systems where the child car seat can be attached to the pram frame so that you can lift baby straight of the car and onto the pram wheels without having to transfer them over from the car seat to the pram - no fun in pouring rain and a gale I can tell you!

There is so much to consider that your best bet is to find a child car seat retailer who offers the widest choice and helps you compare the different makes and models at a glance, such as Online4baby.com.

Online 4 Baby is the UK's cheapest online baby megastore and offers a wide range of discounted travel systems, prams, pushchairs, twins, car seats, baby cots, furniture and nursery equipment stockists of top brands including Graco, Cosatto, Baby Jogger, Mamas and Papas, Hauck at discounted prices.

In addition, the company has had over 255,000 positive reviews and is ranked the No. 1 top rated power seller in the UK for nursery products.

Whatever you choose, be sure that you are buying the best child car seat you can afford for your children and keep yourself appraised of the latest Government rules and regulations.

And don't be afraid to ask for advice. The best child car seat retailers won't hesitate to answer all your questions - and don't worry, you're sure to have quite a few.

I know we did!

A note on child backless booster seats - at present, children weighing as little as 15 kg (2 stone 5 lbs) can travel in backless booster seats but from the end of 2016 the rules about using these are changing. You can read about them here

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Child Backless Booster Car Seats - New Rules From December 2016

Changes to the rules relating to the use of backless booster seats for children are coming into force at the end of 2016.

UK law currently states that children must use a child car seat until they're 12 years old or 135 cm (4 ft 5 in) tall, whichever comes sooner.

In Ireland and in some European countries such as Germany and France, this height limit is higher at 150 cm (4 ft 11 in).

Children under three must be in a child car seat.

If you don't have room for a third child seat in the back of your car, children aged three or under can use the front seat but they must be in a child car seat.

You can’t take children under three on an unexpected journey in a vehicle without a seat belt or the correct child car seat.

The only exception to this rule is if it's in a licensed taxi or minicab and the rear seats are separated from the driver by a fixed partition and the child travels on the rear seats.

If you ignore the law you are liable to a fine of £500.

At present, children weighing as little as 15 kg (2 stone 5 lbs) can travel in backless booster seats

Under the new rules, backless booster seats must only be used for children taller than 125 cm (4 ft 1 in) and weighing more than 22 kg (3 stone 6 lbs).

The rules about using these are changing

Many child car seat experts feel that this type of seat is unsafe for young children and you can easily see why.

The only security these seats offer is via the adult seat belt and there is no protection for your child if you are involved in a crash sideways on.

You can easily pull a booster seat back and forward even when your child is sitting on it and there is a risk of them sliding forward on the seat.

The problem is that backless booster seats (or booster cushions) can be bought relatively cheaply, costing anywhere from £10 - £30.

If you have more than one car, or share the responsibility for driving your children about with other family members (such as grandparents), the costs of multiple car seats can really stack up and it is easy to see why booster cushions are relied on.

They can be thrown in the boot or swopped from one car to another in a matter of minutes.

Car safety experts, however, would prefer us to use high-backed booster seats because they guide the adult seat belt across the child's body properly and in crash tests carried out by Which?, they were found to offer much more protection in a side-impact crash than a backless booster seat.

These changes to the child car seat regulations are expected to come into effect in December 2016 but will only apply to new products on the market.

If you plan to buy a booster seat next year, you will have to check the height / weight limit on the seat you buy to ensure that it complies with the new rules.

You can still use the booster seats you have already bought but, given the warnings by safety experts it is worth reviewing the child seats you use to check your family travel is as safe as possible - even if that means investing in new, and potentially safer, child car seats.

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When can a child travel in the front of a car?

Yes, we all fell in love with this sporty BMW at our recent visit to the BMW pop-up shop which appeared in St. David's shopping centre in Cardiff.  Leaving aside the fact that we'd probably have to sell the kids to get one, the knotty issue of kids' safety and sitting in the front seat reared (ha!) its head again.

Every time we measure the kids, we check to see how close they are to 135 cm (approx 4 ft 6"), because I had it in my head that once they reach this height, they are allowed to travel in the front seat and / or no longer need a booster seat.  

What are my chances of getting one of these for Mothers' Day? 

Ieuan, dreaming of getting his hands on the keys...

I am aware, of course, that it is considered safer for children to travel in the back of the car, but there are occasional instances when the ability to put Caitlin or Ieuan in the front seat would be helpful- for example when travel sickness rears its ugly head.

There seems to be a great deal of confusion on this topic. For example, if you have a two seater vehicle, you obviously have no choice but to put your child in the front,using the appropriate and correctly fitted car seat and with the airbag switched OFF if the car seat is rear facing.  

This afternoon we measured the children again.  Caitlin is 124 cm and Ieuan 119 cm and, after a repeat of the "when will I be tall enough to sit in the front" conversation, I thought it time to check out what the Law actually says.

And here it is, according to www.childcarseats.org.uk:-

All children travelling in the front or rear seat of any car, van or goods vehicle must use the correct child car seat until they are either 135 cm in height or 12 years old (whichever is reached first).  

After this they must use an adult seat belt.  There are very few exceptions.

It is the driver's responsibility to ensure that children under the age of 14 years are restrained correctly in accordance with the law.

The law is different for buses, coaches and minibuses with seat belts fitted.

To my mind, this raises more questions than it answers.  It certainly does not draw any distinction between front and rear seat travel.

Details of the most appropriate child car seat are available on the Childcarseats.org.uk website but these recommendations go according to weight and not height. In other words, the car seat you choose must be appropriate for your child's weight up to the age of 12 or the height of 135 cm, whichever is reached first.

The Government's website is not much clearer at www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules/using-a-child-car-seat-or-booster-seat.   

"Children must normally use a child car seat until they're 12 years old or 135 cm tall".

But even this does not really give a definitive answer to the front / rear seat question. 

Child safety in vehicles is such an important issue that I think it's time we were given a much clearer set of rules appropriate for different classes of private vehicles.  There seem to be so many contradictions.

Caitlin and Ieuan travel in the back of our car on booster seats and that, until they reach the magic height of 135 cm or the age of 12 is where they'll be staying. But my understanding is that if I had to put them in the front, I could do so as long as they are placed on their booster seats.

If you are aware of any other regulations that may clarify this child safety issue, please let me know!

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