Choosing a Car Seat (9kgs plus)

November 2010
We are in the process of buying a new car seat for Curious George. He is getting to the top of the weight and height range for his little Graco snug ride which goes up to 10kgs and 73cm. So we decided to start looking around at seats on the market and have found ourselves completely overwhelmed. It feels like and immense decision - it’s the safety of your child after all. So in my usual fashion I have done two things - worried that I would make the wrong decision and find out as much as I could about different makes and models. The former is definitely not helpful to you or me for that matter but I thought that the latter information may help you to make a decision as well. This is by no means the definitive list of all car seats and all specs but it’s the information I used to make my decision.

Firstly it is important to understand when your child is ready to change to a bigger seat. Once your child is outside the range of the weight category of a seat they must be moved to a bigger seat. Some sales people will give you an age that the child can use the seat until, this is just a guide and should not be taken as gospel. As you know every child is different and some may weigh 10kgs at 6mnths while other will only weight 10kgs at 10mnths. Go by weight and height. This is important because the harness or straps are stress tested for the max weight capacity of the chair. If your child it too heavy the straps or buckle could give way in am impact.
The other important thing to know is which way the seat will face. There are two types of seats rear facing and forward facing. All infant seats must be rear facing only once you baby can sit unassisted and has very good head and neck control should you consider moving him to a forward facing chair. This is because in an accident the whip lash that adults experience can actually snap an immature neck (sounds horrible but I thought it best not to sugar coat safety precautions).

We looked at lots of chairs and here's what we discovered.

Maxi Cosi Tobi

Maxi Cosi Priori XP or Maxi Cosi Tobi- If you have around R 4000 to spend on a car seat this is the best one you can find in the shops. With spring loaded shoulder straps and a green indicator 'light' to tell you when the straps are tight enough it’s got all the bells and whistles and is rated one of the safest seats on the market. It’s weight range is 9 - 18 kgs which is about 9mnths to 3.5 years old.

Unfortunately not many of us have that kind of money to spend. Fortunately there are other options. A good thing to remember is that any seat has to pass the South Africa Bureau of Standards safety test to be sold in SA. But as with all things some seats are better than others.

Chelino Atlantis Top Line

My other two top choices are the Safeway Imola (around R1200) and the Chelino Atlantis (around R1400). Of every seat I looked at and I've look at a lot (maybe even them all) these two have the best features for their price. I was told that the Chelino people looked at all the top seats and copied the best parts putting them all together in one seat. I have to admit that on comparing the Maxi Cosi Tobi to the Chelino Atlantis they definitely have some very similar features.

There are two top of the range Chelino's, the Atlantis and the Racer. The latter I did not like because it has a very rigid head rest. This is fine when baby is small but as soon as they want to look out it becomes and issue and my son just ended up leaning forward when I tried him in it. The features that sold me on the Chelino Atlantis were:

• The mechanism for strapping the seat into the car. Very easy to use and the seat flips forward off the base to allow you access to the clips etc for the seat belt. It works mostly on clips rather than having to thread the belt through.
• It has a push button, between baby's legs, for tightening and releasing the shoulder straps. It does not have the green indicator light that the Maxi Cosi has but as the sales person demonstrated two fingers between the baby's chest and the strap is just as good an indicator. On some other seats, like the Fisher Price, the adjustment is done on each strap individually - how painful.
• The Chelino, Safeway and Maxi Cosi all have a very similar buckle as well which I really like. The release button is inside a casing and has a small ridge which you push to release. It looks a lot more difficult for little hands to open than say a big red button like other models.
• The Chelino also has a padded inset for little ones, which can be removed later. The extra padding is under the bum for comfort and to make sure they don't slide side to side and then there are head flaps as well so when your child, inevitably, falls asleep in the car they head doesn’t flop around too much.
• Their Atlantis Top Line model comes in wipable leatherette which seems like a nice feature. I have also been told that you can contact the company to buy a replacement cover for number two if number one ruins the seat.
• The one thing I really liked about the Maxi Cosi Tobi which the Chelino does not have is multiple recline positions. The Chelino says it has four positions but only the one I tried only seemed to have two positions, upright and reclined whereas the Maxi Cosi has 7. However your child is less safe in the recline position than they are sitting up if you are in an accident so I am no longer phased by having only two seat positions.

Safeway Imola

The one difference I noticed that was not just whistles and bells, is that the side impact on the base of the seat of the Maxi Cosi seems to be much deeper than it is on the Chelino and the Safeway.

The Safeway Imola has very similar features to the Chelino Atlantis and is in the same price bracket.

The one great sales tactic I feel I must punch a hole in is the idea of having a large weight range so the chair can grow with your child. Some chairs even go up to 36 kgs or more, an average 12 yr old. At first I was taken in by this thinking it would be best to buy a chair that will last the longest. However there are two very important factors working against these types of chairs. Here I must give credit to my husband who pointed these issues out and opened my eyes to what is a blatant sales tactic. 1. If you are planning two kids what happens when number two needs a seat and number one still fits in the seat, you are going to end up buying a new seat anyway so why bother with one that will last until your child is 12. 2 How many 12 year olds do you know who are willing to sit in a completely uncool booster car seat, I mean at 12 you're either begging to sit in the front seat or asking your mom to drop you outside the school gates so there is no way you're still prepared to sit in the kiddy seat you've been occupying since you were 9mnths old.

At this point I feel I must say that we did also look at the Bambino and Graco seats for this weight range. I did not like either brand and so have not gone into any details about them here. However if you like these brands please feel free to look at their features and write us a comment about them below.

I started this post in November last year and, yes, it has taken this long to complete. During this time we have eventually made a decision and bought the Cheline Atlantis Top Line. We went this because we had vouchers for Babies R Us and they don’t stock Safeway. I would have chosen either of these as I felt they were both the best value for money.  So far we are quite happy with our choice but I will keep you updated.