Car Seat Advice

Just started looking into car seats and am a bit/a lot confused.

First of all how long do kids need to use a car seat for?
Does anyone recommend or have an all in one seat?
Can I get away with a seat that doesn’t come with a booster option?

Ideally I’d like to have a seat that’s good for newborns all the way to when we wont need it anymore.

Basically I have no idea what to get.

I’ve read that kids should use the car seat up to 11. Of course this all depends on the size of your kid. I don’t think they make a newborn to age 11 seat. They make newborn to 2 or 3yrs, a 1 yr to 4 yr, a 1 yr to 11yr and a 4yr to 11 yr. In any case you’re gonna need at least 2 seats. One for the newborn and then one for when he gets a bit older. I ended up getting a newborn to 3. Then switching to a 4-11 year. Don’t buy a used seat. Best of luck.

There are huge number of permeation’s on car seats. I have one of these for my new arrival, http://www.chiccoshop.com/gear/shop-by-retailer/babies-r-us/nextfit-zip-convertible-car-seat—palisade/08079019090070.html having gone through the baby seat/toddler seat/bigger seat routine previously, this one is supposed to be from 5 to 65lbs. The new prices on seats, particularly in Taiwan, are nuts, there’s nothing wrong with buying second hand as long as you have some idea what you are looking at. If you’re buying a baby seat it’s likely to be have used for a very short period of time and you’re likely to also only use it for a short period of time so it makes perfect sense to buy used and sell on.

Spend some time on parent&baby pages looking at others recommendations.

also important to know if your car has the ISOFIX attachment points (called LATCH in the US). If so you can look for ISOFIX car seats. The seats are less likely to shift positions during rapid acceleration/deceleration.

Thanks for the replies this new baby things has got me going a bit nuts.

I’ve looked at a few seats from Graco and Chicco and while I like the brands I think the seats are quite costly. I looked at the Nextfit from Chicco and it goes for about 12-13,000 NTD.

What do you guys think about this one, does any have it or know of anyone with one?

http://www.yipbaby.com.tw/product.aspx?productid=457

I think it looks pretty good and isn’t that expensive about 6-7,000 NTD.

My comment about not buying used car seats is that you may not be able to tell if it was in an accident or not and the safety features may have been compromised. If you know and trust the seller, that’s a different story. Baby stuff is crazy expensive here. I had a friend bring back a car seat for me when he went to Germany on a business trip. I got a Britax isofix for NT$8000 (I think) like 1/4 ~ 1/3 of the price here.

I’m currently looking for one too. My son in growing fast and soon won’t fit in the newborn one we are using for him. I’ve read a lot and there are many options to choose from, as kaikai34 mentioned.
I think it depends on your plans more than anything. How long will you stay in Taiwan? Will you take it with you if you go back or when travelling abroad? Do you plan to have other kids? How big is your car? Do you need space on passenger seat? and so on…

BTW, there will be a Baby & Children Expo on WTC this weekend (July 8th ~11th) and they may have many option for you to evaluate, and many with discount prices.

I’ve been on couple of these events before, and they have stuffs from big brands such as Aprica, Kombi, Chicco, Capella, etc. as well as not so famous ones. Remember that brand is not synonym to quality, so paying a visit to all those booths and looking, touching and “trying” it by yourself may be worth!

Here is their website, if you can read chinese: http://tpe-mommybaby.kje-event.com.tw/

I think I have to disagree with Ricarte. What you’re paying for is saftey and peace of mind. I would never buy a no-name brand car seat. I’d like to know that a reliable company stands behind their product. This is more important with the newborn/very young kids seats.

My point is that famous brand are not necessarily equals to quality products. I was checking some car seats from Chicco and Kombi and I noticed that some models have holes in the bottom part of the plastic structure that you could fell through the cushion. The design was nice, but I think it may not be very comfortable for the baby. In other hand, I saw a model from Nania (a brand I didn’t know about) that didn’t have such problem and was almost half the price.

I believe that your peace of mind can rest upon quality standards, test certificates and user reviews. If you can’t find such info for the model you are looking into, forget about it. I would not blindly trust any brand just because they are well-know, but I also don’t ignore one just because I never heard of it before.