Isofix vs belts

peterwalkley · 6 Sep 2013 at 08:26

260 quid is taking the 'p' and they grow out of these things before you know it.

Practise fitting the carrier without the little one in, you'll find its easier without the stress of baby in there. Use a brick or a couple of bags of flour to simulate the weight.

wonder_lander · 6 Sep 2013 at 08:39

MOOGLEYS said:
There was a program on not too long ago showing that iso fix seats actually did more damage than good. When they did the testing they found seats fitted with an inertia belt resulted in less injuries as there was a certain amount of the impact absorbed by the stretching and tensioning of the seatbelt. They said that as ISO fix seats are a rigid fit there is no give and a sudden impact can be jarring.

I will try and find the video if I can.

Was this front facing or rear facing seats?

wonder_lander · 6 Sep 2013 at 08:40

peterwalkley said:
260 quid is taking the 'p' and they grow out of these things before you know it.

Practise fitting the carrier without the little one in, you'll find its easier without the stress of baby in there. Use a brick or a couple of bags of flour to simulate the weight.

I'd say it's a small price to pay for the convenience it provides. It obviously they have decent residuals if your sell it when you baby moves up to the next seat!

Blue160 · 6 Sep 2013 at 14:24

When our first one was little we had one car with isofix and one without. I don't know if Skoda Fabias are particularly awkward to get baby seats into but I always found it an incredible faff. By contrast my wife's Citroen C2 with isofix points was a doddle despite being a much smaller 3 door car.

Squink · 6 Sep 2013 at 14:36

Another vote here for Isofix. You can't beat the convenience of unlocking the seat from its base and then putting the car seat onto the wheels of the pram, particularly for short trips where you don't want to get the baby out of the car seat and into the carry cot.

If you have another baby in the future, you'll get use out of it then as well.

Malt_Vinegar · 6 Sep 2013 at 14:57

Yup, Isofix is perfect!

My OH does not have an Isofix fitting in her car, and it is more of a faff getting the seat in, but the recaro range are one of the easier ones to use with belts!

We went for the Recaro range, advised through the family. Very happy with them. Both seats below work with the belts and isofix base.

First Seat: http://www.recaro-seats.co.uk/child-seats/young-profi-plus.php
Second seat: http://www.recaro-seats.co.uk/child-seats/young-expert-plus.php

Isofix Bass: http://www.recaro-seats.co.uk/child-seats/isofix-base.php

The first one should see you up to 9months to a year on most children and the second one should take you right through to 4.5 years.

The great thing about the base (other than the safety and ease of use) is that it lifts the child higher in the car, so they can see more of the world go by

Additionally, some interesting pics of the side impact (Isofox vs belts) in this thread:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/...nmt=ADR/Australia lags behind in Child Safety...

BIGWEB · 6 Sep 2013 at 15:33

We have a Maxi Cosi Family fix base to use with our seat and we mostly dont use it as we swap cars a lot. In fact you can buy it if you want!

Hawk Tuah · 6 Sep 2013 at 19:35

Did anyone watch Prince William put the baby into the back of the Range Rover and hope he was going to have to **** around with the seatbelts?

IsoFix all the way. But I didn't want to spend hundreds, so I just use the belts. Our seats aren't regularly taken out of the car though.

Scuzi · 6 Sep 2013 at 19:39

I'm a big fan of ISOFIX. Belted seats are prone to rotation if the belt isn't fitted perfectly.

Also, I know it's not the done thing in the UK but I'd recommend reading up on extended rear facing. It's massively safer.
http://www.rearfacing.co.uk/facts.php

My lad is currently in a Cybex Sirona and will be until he's too big, at which point we'll be putting him in another rear facing seat.

johnny6 · 6 Sep 2013 at 19:55

Isofix for its convenience if you are taking the seat in and out constantly.

Our son is in the second seat so we currently have the britax trifix which uses all three isofix points.

MrMoonX · 6 Sep 2013 at 20:05

We have the maxi cosi family fix base he's 2 now it's done his baby seat and his toddler seat, when he was little it's a life saver when swapping to pram, seat belts are such a PITA with car seats

Haggisman · 6 Sep 2013 at 20:41

Had 2 car seats across 4 cars, none with isofix (Mitsubishi legnum, volvo v40, nissan primera, astra g estate) never had any problems or safety concerns with belt fitting. Sure isofix might save you 30 seconds here & there, but I guess the question to ask is how much time is £260 worth to you?

Scuzi · 6 Sep 2013 at 21:18

Haggisman said:
Had 2 car seats across 4 cars, none with isofix (Mitsubishi legnum, volvo v40, nissan primera, astra g estate) never had any problems or safety concerns with belt fitting. Sure isofix might save you 30 seconds here & there, but I guess the question to ask is how much time is £260 worth to you?

How many times did you crash to be able to conclude that there were no safety concerns? ISOFIX saves a lot more than 30 seconds.

One thing that amazes me from discussions with other dads is the amount of times a sum of money under £100 is considered more important than proven safety advances. One of the guys in my friends NCT group has his 18 month old in an inflatable forward facing car seat..... in a £40k Audi A6.

johnny6 · 6 Sep 2013 at 23:19

Haggisman said:
Had 2 car seats across 4 cars, none with isofix (Mitsubishi legnum, volvo v40, nissan primera, astra g estate) never had any problems or safety concerns with belt fitting. Sure isofix might save you 30 seconds here & there, but I guess the question to ask is how much time is £260 worth to you?

Surely it's about the safety and comfort of your kids though.

My wife's sister has a cheap car seat (less than £100) and the thing just looks damn uncomfortable to be honest.

I think our car seat cost something like 320 quid and I'd quite happily spend twice or three times as much for a seat which offered significant improvement in safety and comfort over our current car seat.

I'd much rather that than be in a god awful situation of being in an accident which seriously injured my son which I later found out could have been avoided by not cheaping out on his car seat.

TripleT · 7 Sep 2013 at 04:24

I have a 6week old so some of my findings.

The car seat pretty much stays in the car. Firstly as you're not supposed to keep newborns in them for very long, they're to be kept flat as much as possible so to be honest it makes me cringe when people use the seat on the pram system constantly. We've done it once think.

So as said the seat stays in the car so no problem getting it in or out. We're waiting until he's 6months plus and then getting a proper fully fitted seat etc.

P.S - guess why I'm up at this time

robjf · 7 Sep 2013 at 04:34

My fiancé is due in about 3 weeks, so reading with interest! Our car doesn't have isofix, should this be a concern or should we be ok with traditional belt fitted seats...

SB118 · 7 Sep 2013 at 09:20

Scuzi said:
How many times did you crash to be able to conclude that there were no safety concerns? ISOFIX saves a lot more than 30 seconds.

One thing that amazes me from discussions with other dads is the amount of times a sum of money under £100 is considered more important than proven safety advances. One of the guys in my friends NCT group has his 18 month old in an inflatable forward facing car seat..... in a £40k Audi A6.

Asda we flogging a car seat with a zero star rating for £25, idiots were buying them and being surprised when their kids are badly hurt in accidents.

People will spend hundreds on their pram system because it's shiney and they can show it off to their friends. Nobody gets to see the carseat so they cheap out and buy any old piece of tat.

Scuzi said:
I'm a big fan of ISOFIX. Belted seats are prone to rotation if the belt isn't fitted perfectly.

Also, I know it's not the done thing in the UK but I'd recommend reading up on extended rear facing. It's massively safer.
http://www.rearfacing.co.uk/facts.php

My lad is currently in a Cybex Sirona and will be until he's too big, at which point we'll be putting him in another rear facing seat.

Win. Rear facing is the only way to go.

We've just licked up a new seat that should last our boy until he's four.

TripleT said:
P.S - guess why I'm up at this time

Get used to it

Haggisman · 7 Sep 2013 at 10:23

Scuzi said:
How many times did you crash to be able to conclude that there were no safety concerns? ISOFIX saves a lot more than 30 seconds.

johnny6 said:
Surely it's about the safety and comfort of your kids though.

I researched before, and couldn't find any conclusive evidence that either method is safer. Isofix is there to make it easier and quicker to fit the seat properly. As long as you're capable of following the instructions to fit the belt properly there's no difference. For the record we didn't scrimp on the seat, and got him a high end maxi cosi, but didn't see the sense in spending several thousand on a new car with isofix to save maybe 30 mins over the space of a year.

Dogbreath · 7 Sep 2013 at 10:26

Haggisman said:
I researched before, and couldn't find any conclusive evidence that either method is safer. Isofix is there to make it easier and quicker to fit the seat properly. As long as you're capable of following the instructions to fit the belt properly there's no difference. For the record we didn't scrimp on the seat, and got him a high end maxi cosi, but didn't see the sense in spending several thousand on a new car with isofix to save maybe 30 mins over the space of a year.

That is a refreshingly sensible attitude.

wonder_lander · 7 Sep 2013 at 11:08

TripleT said:
I have a 6week old so some of my findings.

The car seat pretty much stays in the car.

Whilst this may be true for a baby born in the summer our son was born in November so buckling him up in the warm inside and not leaving the seat in the car overnight to get damp and cold were important considerations.