Car seat for 1 year old

[loeylo]

We have a Joie i-anchor in our car, which is ERF and isofix. The only issue is sometimes she "escapes" by pulling her arms out (it is always done up tight and she never wears jackets/padding in the car so not much can be done to prevent this). We just keep an eye on her in the mirror and pull over if she is trying to escape.

The main issue is her spare car seats. She is with my parents and sister a lot, and sometimes with my partners parents. They each have their own spare car seats, which she is now hitting the weight limit for so we need second seats.

We need a group 1 seat. I like the look of the Cosatto ones as they have the anti wiggle harness, but they don't do rear facing beyond their infant carriers. They also don't have many isofix seats.

I don't really want to turn her yet. But I also don't want to have to worry about her escaping. My mum in particular really wants the cosatto seat.

Wwyd? What's the bigger risk here? Is there another option (I wont use chest clips because they aren't safe either)

 

[Rainbow82]

We have the same seat an had a similar issue, we took the massive shoulder strap pads off so we could pull it much much tighter now he can't get his arms out. We had to cut the Pads off at the seams but on the updated version they are Velcro. Mothercare let us try him in their display seat with the straps off to see the difference. Now we use his baby seat strap pads when we remember and no more escaping child lol. We also moved his headrest up so the straps were higher as they had dipped just below his shoulder which makes it much easier for them to escape but I'm sure you've already looked at that.
For us erf was non negotiable due to the number of miles we do and the number of miles at 40/50 mph+.
If you still want erf the maxi cost pearl 2 way looks great. I suppose you have to weigh up how important erf is to you, if you don't do many miles and all at low speeds it may not be as important to you. Cost would be an issue for us too if we needed to buy a second seat.

 

[loeylo]

Our strap pqds are Velcro so we will try that. She's also nearly big enough to remove the next layer of padding (she's around 500g too light!) so I'm hoping that helps.

Maybe I didn't make it clear but we were keeping our car seat, it is just the spare seat which needs replacing. Most of the journeys she does in the spare seat are around 10 minutes, just driving around town.

I'm more worried that by putting her ff in my parents car she will be more difficult to keep erf in ours. And staying rear facing in ours is important!

I would just buy another i-anchor, which fits my parents current car, but they are planning on getting a new car in a few months and I'm worried it won't fit!

 

[MindUtopia]

In my experience, pulling their arms out is a bit of a phase and once it passes, they tend not to do it anymore. I wouldn't go for a seat I was less comfortable with just because of that. I'd personally stay rear facing if that's what you want to do. We have an ERF and our daughter is still rear facing at nearly 4. She's had a few weeks once or twice when she might try to get her arms out, but hasn't been an issue in a long time If cost is an issue, could you share seats? We only have one and we just exchange back and forth as necessary.

 

[loeylo]

Sharing a seat isn't really an option. Swapovers sometimes need to be done quickly (my dad works shifts so sometimes we only have a 30 minute overlap) with ours being a base unit and a seat it is a bit of a faff putting it together.

Cost isn't a major issue, we would rather pay more for a safer seat (I saved on most other areas but car seat safety was my #1 priority)

I think we are going to go with a second Joie but going for the non isofix version. Its still erf to 4.

Gracie has been escaping for around 6 weeks now. She gets out her highchair too. Little Houdini! Hopefully it is just a phase because I'm going to be grey by my birthday at this rate.

 

[loeylo]

Got the joie tilt yesterday in smyths. It should have been £70 but we got it for £50.