Infant seat help and advice please.

[Paul]

Infant seats....

Has anyone had an infant that needs a rear facing seat in their MINI? Did you use the MINI seat, or one supplied by another company? In the front, in the back?

I need some help and advice as I've been asked to find out about the options for a new born baby sitting in a MINI.

I know there are a few other threads on this, but they seem to all focus (eventually) on the child seats, I would appreciate some advice on infant seats, as I need to hold up my reputation as a MINI guru!



Thanks in advance.

[LEECE]

well as you know baby infant seats shouldnt be placed in the front of the mini cause of the air bags, ive had my sisters baby in the back of my car (with a non-mini chair) get the store to fit the child seat into your car before buying as chairs are different in size and width... ive had trouble with seat belts in certain cars not going fully around the child seat in the correct way...cannot really give you anymore info apart from get the shop to fit the chair and test if it fits.... hope this helps a little

any more info let me know, not to much help on the mini chairs but i did used to work for early learning so i know a lot about baby chairs

[AidenL]

Have you got an announcement to make Paul?

[Kinster]

I just used a standard GRACO.... Why don't you try this sites search facilty. There are plenty of infant seat threads on here

[Paul]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kinster
I just used a standard GRACO.... Why don't you try this sites search facilty. There are plenty of infant seat threads on here

Cheeky git, I did.

Couldn't find anything much on rearward facing seats for babies, let alone ISOFIX rearward facing seats for babies.

Any tips?

[Minty]

paul, would you like me to call you from work tomorrow...i can have the info infront of me then....or shall i pop the BMW child/baby seat info in the post to you??

S

[OZChris]

Hi

My wife and I use a seat that is both backward facing for infants and forward facing for toddlers.

In Australia, such seats are very popular, and simply anchor in by seat belt and restraint strap. We have one for the Cooper (made by Aunger and trimmed to match) and one (made by Babylove) for the family bus.

See my gallery for picture of Aunger baby seat.

[Kinster]

Yes, these are called "rear & forward facing seats". These are available in such places like Mothercare

We tried a few of these, but some failed to fit the 'bucket' seats of the MINI

[bobnobski]

we had all sorts of bother getting our rear facing seat to fit in Our BMW 3 series. BMW seat belts where too short!! Problem is they take up double the room as a forward seat!.

We put off getting a MINI until the babe was old enough to go forward facing & also until she could walk therefor not having to worry about pushchair!! coz they dont fit in the boot either!

I would definately use the BMW rear facing seat. If its designed for the car! after all if it saves the kiddies life in an accident surely it's worth the extra bucks!!

Although now we are forward facing with our little one we have gone for Britax reniesance.

Only order ISOFIX if you plan to use BMW seat as no other seat is approved to use MINI ISOFIX and invalidates insurance.

[bigbaddaboom]

Quote:

Originally posted by bobnobski
Only order ISOFIX if you plan to use BMW seat as no other seat is approved to use MINI ISOFIX and invalidates insurance.

Surely the point of having ISOFIX is because it's a standard? So why would insurance be invalidated if you used a non-manufacturers seat, if they're all standard fittings then surely they all fit?

[bobnobski]

Yes thats right! - but other companies like britax, mothercare, bebconfort, graco etc who have the ISOFIX cant get BMW to approve there seat!!! its upto the car manufacturer to approve seats!!! the lady at britax told me they have no doubt that there ISOFIX seat would fit great in the MINI, but until BMW approve it they're not allowed to put it on there list!. The shortfall is, that if you have an accident the insrance company will check to make sure you have an approved seat in the car?

BMW wont approve other makes as they want to sell there own product!

[Rainey]

Paul,
I used the Graco when my son was a newborn. There was a base that went with it, but I did not use it - we used it in the other car. It fit well for the baby, but the passenger in front was a tad uncomfortable. Remember all newborns must face the rear and sit in the back seat until they are 1 year old.

Now he is seven months old I have him in the Cosco - Alpha Omega Car seat. This is a much larger car seat. Still rear facing, and since it is at an angle the passenger is even more uncomfortable than before.

As I mentioned earlier there was a base that came with my Graco, well a base also came with the Cosco. I found this base too large to use in the MINI. Others may disagree, but I was able to sucessfully install this car seat securely. It does not budge with the ISOFIX LATCH system.

Apart from that I can still fit a passenger behind me, and the baby holds on for dear life when I am behind the wheel

I hope this is the kind of information you are looking for. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Rainey