Two Month Olds Are Not Meant To Be Sitting (Mamas & Papas Primo Viaggio)

Member Name: MagdaDH

Product:	Mamas & Papas Primo Viaggio
Date:	24/09/06 (1807 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: quick loading and unloading, solid and safe mould, generous padding

Disadvantages: much to vertical on a back seat slope, cumbersome

If you have a car or frequently use one and have a baby you need a car seat. It's a legal requirement and a sensible way of ensuring your child's (comparative) safety.

Manufacturers are capitalising on this by charging what I consider extortionate amounts of money. There is also a number of warnings going round of 'never ever use a second hand car seat as it MIGHT HAVE BEEN in an accident which MIGHT HAVE affected how well it protects the child' variety which in my personal opinion are over the top. Firstly, I would certainly trust my friends and family not to give me a car seat that was in an accident. Secondly, I don't believe that there is many people out there who would sell on a car set that has been in an accident and for the sake of something between £10 and £30 willingly endanger another child's safety. But that's me and my personal opinion and please don't take it for anything else: so far it's not illegal to use a second hand car seat. It's not really that relevant to the subject of my review apart from the fact that the car seat I am writing about was indeed bought second hand on ebay for about £30 including postage.

This is first stage rear facing car seat which will theoretically serve a child till about 10-13 kg (1 year old) but for most people will probably be used up to about 6 months.

The distinguishing feature of this seat is the fact that it's a 'click-in' one, which means that you have a base that can stay permanently in the car and a seat proper that can be very easily taken out and put in without a need to do much threading of the webbing.

The seat can be also clipped onto the relevant Mamas and Papas chassis to become a part of a travel system. The idea of a travel system never appealed to me at all, I think babies should spend as little time as possible within confines of a car seat and I always thought it was as easy to take the baby out of the seat as to the whole contraption out. But the idea of reducing the amount of threading was rather attractive and thus I decided to try this seat.

Does it work, then? Yes, it does work in the sense that the base stays in the car and the seat clips in and out very easily. It's not a totally threading-free job as the diagonal part of the belt still has to be threaded in the back of the seat, but it's indeed easier.

But apart from that the seat has been a bit of a disaster.

Firstly, it's very heavy and bulky and carrying it around for any length of time when you go somewhere without a buggy (and I mean something like 10 minutes) is a real pain.

Secondly and most importantly, in our car (and I believe it's the case in at least some others too) the back seat has a raising slope which means that the base doesn't sit flat (as in parallel to the ground) and thus when the seat is clipped in the baby is rather vertical. I have not experienced the forward head-lolling I read complained about but my son doesn't like it.

Thirdly, which compounds the problem with the base, is the fact that the seat is a solid mould, rather deep and the back rest is not adjustable.

These two factors mean that my baby is folded at something approaching 90 degrees angle, and virtually *sits* in the seat. And I can tell you, two month olds are not made to be sitting for any length of time! Considering the fact that we live in the countryside and thus do almost no get-in-and-out quick town driving but do less frequent and longer journeys varying from 30 to 90 minutes, the comfort factor is crucially important and he is just not comfortable in this seat. After about 20-30 minutes he seems to get something like a crick in his neck and starts grumbling, crying or screaming until he gets adjusted and his position changed a bit. It's also very difficult to give him milk or water while he's in the seat as it tends to dribble out of his mouth.

All in all I have to say that when my (also second hand) excellent three wheeler arrived and happened to come with a Cossatto Go Safe car seat (which seems to be everything Primo Viaggio is not), I was very happy indeed and I don't think I will be using the Primo Viaggio again.

In addition to the car seat/travel system buggy top, the seat has a curved bottom and thus can be used as a rocker. I found this pretty useless feature as my baby doesn't like sitting in it out of the car either (though the line up is better on the floor) and prospect of rocking doesn't seem to make much difference, but some people might find it useful.

The padding on this seat is generous and snug and both the cover and the webbing can be taken off for washing (though threading the webbing back is a pain).

The buckle is easy to put together and easy to open while the length of the harness can be adjusted without any problems.

All in all, it's not a BAD product as such, but it didn't work for me at all. This doesn't mean that it won't work for you, but this would depend on your car (and specifically the slope of its back seat), how well your baby takes to *sitting* for longer periods of time and the kind of driving you do. For a busy mother with more than one child who needs to do a lot of taking the baby in and out of the car on short distances this might be just what's needed, especially if combined into a travel system with the compatible Mamas and Papas chassis. For somebody who travels on longer distances but without the need for quick and frequent loading and unloading I would recommend a traditional seat with adjustable back rest or at least one in which the baby is closer to a horizontal position.

And of course, for people with two cars or people with no car who might want to take a travel system somewhere by public transport and then scrounge a lift, this combination of base and seat doesn't make any sense and in fact would be more cumbersome than traditional car seat.

I would suggest trying one out before buying, otherwise, at well over £100 (RRP is something like £150 but you can get it for less online), it might be a very expensive mistake to make!

Summary: Might be good for quick town driving and with the travel system, no good for me...