Theres a lot more to it than you think! (Buyer's Guide: Child Car Seats)

Member Name: Sarah Edensor

Product:	Buyer's Guide: Child Car Seats
Date:	26/07/02 (354 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: That you have as safe a seat as possible

Disadvantages: can be time consuming

When we bought our first car seat we gave very little consideraton to the practicalities of buying a seat that fits our car correctly, we just bought what we could afford and what looked nice. We were aware that a baby seat needs to be fitted securely into the car and suffice to say that by luck more than judgement, our first seat did fit our car at the time beautifully.
It was only when we needed to replace that original car seat through wear and tear that we realised the full extent of the pitfalls that line the way to choosing the correct seat for your car. It is true that not all seats are suitable for all cars. It is also true that no professional body has looked into this and produced a comprehensive guide detailing which seat is suitable for which car. Britax do have a limited amount of information but in our case they were unable to tell us which of their seats was suitable for our Landrover Discovery.
Mothercare profess to offer a car seat fitting service but in actual fact are only able to advise which seat they think is the best fit aftr trying it in your car - they are not allowed to actually fit the seat. This you may think is not really a problem as after all we all fit our own kids seats into our cars at one time or another after cleaning etc. So we thought, but it took us four trips to mothercare and three different (recommended by them ) car seats before we were actually happy that we had found one to fit correctly. I was horrified to think that you can go to a 'professional' for advice on what product to buy for you precious offspring (and let's face it, it has to be the most important safety item you'll ever buy) and it may not be until you have a car accident that you find out their advice was wrong - TOO LATE!!!
We found that our local council offered a service in conjunction with trading standards that check the compatabiltiy of your car seat with your car; ie they come out to your vehicle and advise you whether o
r not is suitably fitted - they also run occasional car seat safety awareness days.

Buying a car seat is such a costly business, especially if you change your car regularly that it really does pay to take your time and get the decision right. The car seat should be fitted in to the seat of the vehicle tightly enough that if you tug sharply on the safety harness, the seat does not move from it's anchorage point. The seat should not be able to twist or turn from the position that it is anchored in either. Most importantly of all and something that many people are not aware of is 'buckle crunching' where the seatbelt fastening actually rest on the frame at the point where the belt is plugged into its housing. In the event of an accident, a seat that does buckle crunch would not be held in position because the belt would come undone.

Incidently, after trying many many seats, the only baby seat that fits a Landrover Discovery (a 1994 model at least) is the new style Britax Club Class extra.

Summary: