When my daughter was born, we started off with a pink Graco century car seat. We used this for hardly any time at all before we decided we just did not find it safe as it seemed to move too much and looked uncomfortable. We needed a seat that was safe, comfortable and suitable for a very small newborn.

We bought this Britax Babysafe Plus SHR II seat from Mothercare, priced £119.99 which is actually quite expensive for a newborn seat in comparison to others, but the name alone was reassuring let alone the actual seat! The seat comes in a wide range of colours but in the shops you usually only see black or red, a bit disappointing as I would have preferred pink, but hey ho. There is a removable fabric canopy which goes over the handle and offers some protection against wind/rain which is handy and not something I've seen on many seats. The covers can be machine washed at 30 degrees which is brilliant as we all know how babies love to make mess and posset!

The seat is suitable from birth until approx 12-15 months depending on weight - usually you would expect to move into the next stage seat at 9 months or 20lb, but as my daughter is very petite, she was actually in this seat until she was 15 months, at which point she became too tall for it and needed a forward facing seat.

The seat can be used in Britax travel systems such as Bmobile, Bsmart, and Bdual - however I still had my Graco pink stroller so I didn't purchase the whole travel system. The seat can be secured in the car with an adult seatbelt, an Isofix base (bought seperately, ranging from £80 - £100) or with a generic base that is secured with a seatbelt (slightly cheaper at approx £70).

Originally I used this seat with just the adult seatbelt and I found it very secure, the seat did not move or rock at all even when pushed. The seatbelt goes across the front of the seat (over baby's legs) and then wraps behind, clipping into the back. It is quite quick and easy to do and the instructions are very clear and simple. The only downside is it can be quite annoying having to fit the seat every single time you take it out of the car. For this reason, we bought an Isofix base, and you basically just click the seat onto the base each time which is a lot quicker and easier, no more fussing with seatbelts as the base is permanently in the car.

The seat is incredibly safe with superior side impact protection, something I insisted the car seat must have as I was in a side shunt a few years ago before I fell pregnant. This is very reassuring. Britax is reknowned for making some of the safest seats in the world, and indeed we bought a Britax forward facing seat when my daughter outgrew this one.

The downside is that the seat alone is almost 4kg in weight. Add that to the weight of baby, and it's damn heavy to carry around. Lucky for me, I never actually had to carry it far, but even lifting it into a trolley seat was difficult, and the bigger baby gets, the heavier it is!

Aside from the weight I really can't fault this seat. It serves its purpose perfectly, keeping baby safe and sound. It is comfortable and has a lot of padding and a newborn insert for when the baby is very small as my daughter was. It is modern looking, bright and attractive. The price is reasonable although there are cheaper seats out there. All in all, a brilliant seat.

MAY ALSO APPEAR ON CIAO UNDER MY USERNAME PINKPRINCESS244