| Product: |
Graco Junior Maxi Car Seat |
| Date: |
11.04.08 (239 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Smart, practical and safe
Disadvantages: none!
Getting the right car seat is so important for your children's safety and it is one of the areas where I don't mind spending a little bit more money in order to get the right one. There is not much difference in age between our two daughters, so we found ourselves recently with the need to be buying replacement car seats for both of them. As they are now both over three, there was no longer any need to get ones with a five point harness, but what I did want to do was to get ones which would last them all the way through to the time when they will no longer need one and would be safe.
I looked in quite a lot of places but eventually found the graco junior maxi car seat at boots.com for£39.99. You can seats for less than this, but as these seemed to do what I wanted I thought they were worth the price.
The first thing I noticed is that this seat is suitable from 3 to ten years, thus fulfilling one of my criteria. At the moment we are using them with reclinable back rests but at some point when the girls are a bit older, we will change them into just booster seats which is one of the things you can do with this seat.
There are lots of things you can do with these seats to make them more comfortable for your child. There are two different positions for reclining, adjustable arm rests and an adjustable head support. I think the best thing is to let your child ride in it a few times and then see what they say about its comfort.
Another of the things I like about it is that it is very easy to fit into to the back seat of your car and is only attached using the adult seat belt that is already there. (This has to be the type that passes over your shoulder - not just a lap belt.) This is great if you want to give someone bigger a lift because you can just whip the seat out very easily. And as it only weighs 4.5 kg, it's not too heavy to move either. There is also a slot at the back of the seat to feed the seat belt through which ensures that your child is both safe and comfortable. When you move up to just the booster seat there is an attachment to go with the adult seat belt to make sure that it's in the correct position too.
The seats are very attractive and fairly easy to keep clean. Ours are mainly blue in colour and at the moment are still quite clean, only having had them a month. The cover does come off very easily though and then it can either be sponge cleaned or if necessary, put in the washing machine.
My girls love the fact that these seats come with their very own cup holders - one on each side of the seat. These pull out and although they are obviously designed for placing a drink holder (not hot of course!) they can also be use as a secret place for little toys or snacks!
The seats come with quite extensive instructions including diagrams which demonstrate how to put them in the car and how to change them into boosters. It also says in this manual that it has been approved to European Standard ECE R44.04. I'm not entirely sure what it means but it's good to see that there is a safety standard it meets. There are also a lot of DOs and DON'Ts in the manual and it is worth reading this through as a lot of what it says is very practical advice about passenger safety. They recommend keeping the manual with the seat in the car which seems like an obvious idea!
So overall, we are very pleased with these seats and there is a lot to recommend them - they are smart, practical and safe - everything you would look for in a car seat!
Summary: A very good car seat that changes as the child grows!
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