Car seats crash tested by American standards: http://carseatblog.com/carseatblogcoms-rec...nded-car-seats/
Car seats crash tested by European standards: http://www.which.co.uk/baby-and-child/baby...hild-car-seats/ (but must pay GBP1 for one year's access)

LATCH and isofix are pretty much the same thing. LATCH is the American name and isofix is the European name. The important info is that some isofix/latch systems have a weight limit. Check your car manual for the weight limit, if any. If there is a weight limit, then you'd have to find out the weight of the car seat + the weight of your child and make sure that the total is not more than your car's isofix weight limit. After your child has caused the carseat + child weight limit to be too much, you'd have to install with seatbelt.

Boulevard is recommended by CarSeatBlog.com, but apparently can be difficult to use the lockoff with seatbelt in some cars and rather large. Make sure your car can fit it before you buy and that if your car has isofix weight limits that you can install with seatbelt tightly too.

Britax Roundabout is the cheaper, smaller option, if you're a fan of Britax.

Ok folks. The best carseat is the carseat that fits YOUR car. If you wanna make recommendations, how about recommending it WITH details about your car and WHERE in your car you have installed it? Middle, behind driver, behind front passenger, etc. Did you install with seatbelt or isofix? THAT would be more helpful because what would fit YOUR car (whatever it is) perfectly may not fit someone else's!

Example: it's really easy to use the Myvi middle position lapbelt to install the Diono Radian RXT, but I lose about 2" ability to push back my front passenger seat. That's still plenty of room to push back, unless you really need super amounts of leg room. If I put the Radian behind either front seat, the front seat has to be pushed all the way forward. Very uncomfortable for anyone sitting in front. The lockoff that has to be used with a shoulder/lap belt is fiddly and a PAIN. The isofix works great! I also install in the Proton Suprima. No problem at ALL except that the middle seat is a shoulder/lap belt so if I want in the middle position, have to deal with the fiddly lockoff, because no isofix in the middle.


I've never looked at the Boulevard in real life, nor have I been in either car. I did a search on carseat.org's forum and found someone who mentions he uses a Britax Boulevard in his mazda cx-5 http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=257477 but that he wouldn't be able to fit a second boulevard in.

My tip if your car is NOT exactly the mazda cx-5 is to read this article: http://carseatblog.com/22818/the-ultimate-...w-size-matters/ then borrow a rear-facing carseat from a friend/neighbour to try installing in your car. Preferably one of the seats mentioned in the article. Then, you can compare with the measurements of the Boulevard and Pavillion (which according to this article are the same length for rear-facing).

This post has been edited by hanishoney: Aug 20 2014, 06:51 PM

First Years's company announced leaving the car seat business this year, so that's why their carseats are really affordable now, because there will be no more support for them. If you don't mind the lack of any support, True Fit is highly recommended IF you're not using a compact car. For example, it doesn't fit a Kelisa rear-facing. I've never tried it in my Myvi, so I'm not sure if it would fit a Myvi.

I've never touched a Chicco NextFit, but it is also on http://carseatblog.com/carseatblogcoms-rec...nded-car-seats/. According to that website though, you cannot use ISOFIX with the carseat anymore once your child is more than 18kg, so if you go with it, make sure that you know how to install it with seatbelt also.

Smaller car or not, if baby less than 1 year old MUST be rear facing ONLY. If carseat cannot rear face in your car, then do NOT buy the carseat! Or at least, don't drive the baby in the smaller car. NEVER NEVER NEVER put baby <1yo in front-facing seat, please.

And rear facing is always safer than front facing, so you should rear face for as long as possible. Some kids find rear facing even more comfortable than front facing because when front facing their legs dangle, but rear facing they can put their legs on the back of the car. http://carseatblog.com/5168/why-rear-facin...-rf-link-guide/ Scroll down to the videos if you don't want to read the links.

And whether can use isofix or not depends on instructions of the carseat and your car itself. Different carseat got different instructions. Different car also got different ability. Before you buy any carseat, 1. read your car manual, to make sure you know what limits they put for carseats if any; 2. TEST INSTALLING THE CAR SEAT. At least on the demo chair at the shop, if they don't let you test in your own car.

REMEMBER THAT A WRONGLY INSTALLED CAR SEAT CAN BE MORE DANGEROUS THAN NO CAR SEAT AT ALL.

I am not using first year true fit. It was a friend who was using it in her kenari, that's why I know it cannot rear-face in kenari. But she also has a Proton Inspira, so she was rear-facing her baby in the bigger car and only put front facing in the kenari after her baby was heavy enough to be front facing.

For me, I started with a combi coccoro. It's small and fits easily in the myvi. Can install with both isofix or with seatbelt well, no moving where it's installed, using rolled up towels. My son was able to rear face in the coccoro until 2 years old, no problem. I turned it front-facing when there was only 1 inch left above his head (he was still nowhere near the 18kg limit, but height is also a limit). After that I looked for a front-facing seat that had harness and could become booster later. I paid a fortune for Britax Pinnacle because it had the easiest install I've ever seen in my entire life. LoL but unfortunately I had a car accident just one week later. By the way, my son slept through the car accident! Since I had to buy another carseat anyway, I decided to go back to rear facing, and I bought a Diono Radian, which is what my son is in now.

This post has been edited by hanishoney: Oct 24 2014, 03:27 AM

Last weekend, I installed my son's Diono Radian in my mum's old Mercedes. 2006 C-Class, I think. Can't remember.

I installed the seat in the middle back seat, using the lap and shoulder belt. Pretty easy, no problem. Until it was time for my mum and I to sit at the back. We discovered that we could buckle the seatbelt behind the driver's seat, but we couldn't buckle the seatbelt behind the front passenger seat, because the middle seat's seatbelt, holding my son's Diono Radian, blocked the buckle access.

Remember, when anybody is unbuckled in your car, in an accident, that person can fly and injure the child in your carseat and your child's carseat can also injure the flying person. EVERYBODY has to be able to buckle up in your car.

So make sure when you're testing the fit of a carseat in your car, that you also test whether other people can still buckle up the other seats of your car.

Middle back seat is furthest from side impact, therefore safest from a car ramming you from the side. However, there are other issues to consider before assuming that middle back seat is the best choice in your car.

As I said before, your baby is safest in a carseat that is installed CORRECTLY. Middle seat often does not have LATCH or isofix. Some middle seats don't even have a seatbelt, or has only a lap belt, no shoulder belt.

If there is no shoulder belt, then it is NOT safe for even an adult to use the middle seat. If there is no belt at all, there is no way you can install a carseat there!

Let's say your middle seat has only a lapbelt, like my Myvi. If your carseat allows an installation with lapbelt only, then IF you can get a tight install with the lapbelt, then your carseat can gain the added advantage of being furthest from a side impact. Because my old Combi Coccoro enabled me to use lapbelt only, I could install in the middle seat. My Combi manual even instructed that if the Coccoro was installed on a side seat, no one should seat in the middle seat next to the Coccoro! So by installing my Coccoro in the middle, not only did I give extra protection from side impact to my baby, I was able to have two shoulder-belt seats for adults to seat safely beside my baby (admittedly it was a squeeze for them).

More links to choosing position of your carseat:
http://thecarseatlady.blogspot.com/2010/06...-be-riding.html
http://carseatanswers.com/which-seat-is-sa...babys-car-seat/
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qi...30102652AAN0z9m
Installing in center seat with LATCH

To ascertain how secure your carseat is, compare how you've installed it to what the carseat manual says. Then try to move it where it is secured. It should NOT move more than an inch, up down sideways any way, at the area where it is secured by isofix belt or seatbelt.

What car or cars have you installed it into? Extended rear-facing carseats tend to be extra long and so can be hard to fit into smaller cars like a Myvi or a Fiesta, so telling what cars you have successfully installed your britax max fix in would give other parents some idea of its suitability to their own cars.

Also, have you tried installing with both isofix and seatbelt? Or just isofix or seatbelt? Which car positions have you tried installing the Max Fix? Middle back seat, behind driver or behind front passenger seat?

Installed into your car yet? What car and which position did you install into your car? Was it difficult to install? Is the manual easy to read/understand?

Actually, most important is that it is installed CORRECTLY in your car. That's why, when recommending a car seat, I strongly recommend mentioning your car and which position you install it in: behind driver, behind passenger or middle.

How do you know if your carseat is installed correctly? You shouldn't be able to move it more than an inch in ANY direction around the area secured with isofix/seatbelt after installing. If it can move more than an inch, it will move A LOOOOT more in an actual car accident. A carseat can actually be MORE dangerous than no carseat IF installed wrongly.

This post has been edited by hanishoney: Oct 24 2014, 03:09 AM

Found some old posts of mine at https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1718086?author=hanishoney and thought I'd share here too.

Getting your kid used to being in the car seat

The best way to train your kid not to cry in the car seat is to start short and sweet. EVERY day, strap your baby in the carseat according to instructions and drive at MOST 10 minutes away, to a fun place the kid will like, e.g. nearby playground, nearest mall, candy/toy shop, swimming pool, whatever la. This way, even if your kid cries, he/she is only crying for 10 minutes, and he/she will learn that after getting strapped in carseat, he/she gets to a fun place! Make sure to also strap in properly on the way home!

Once your kid stops crying for the 10 minute daily ride in the car seat, you go to a different place 20 minutes away, just as fun and exciting. Then if kid is ok with 20 minutes away, go 30 minutes away! Work your way up slowly until kid can go 2 hours. But please don't go for more than 2 hours unless asleep, ya. Sitting still for more than 2 hours when not asleep is not good for your health (see my long-distance traveling section below). Always take frequent journey breaks. That's why our highways have lots of rest stops. When you have kids, your lifestyle has to change and your driving style also has to change, but at least when your kids are properly strapped in, you can drive at normal speeds, not slowly (which is not safe either), so the stops shouldn't affect the final time of arrival.

This method best works if you ALWAYS strap your kid in. If your kid thinks that as long as he cries long/hard enough he'll get out of being strapped in, then he will cry the whole way. If he knows that you WILL let him cry himself sick rather than let him be out of the carseat, he will give up eventually.

For more tips and tricks on keeping kids happy in their carseat, I love http://thecarseatlady.com/keeping-your-kids-happy/.


Sitting in the car beside your child

Anyone sitting BESIDE a carseat should be strapped in as tightly as the baby in the carseat. Let me tell you, I know of one mother who died in a car accident because her head smashed into her child's carseat.

Car safety is designed to work assuming that everyone is following all the rules. Airbags work safely IF you're strapped in but can kill you if you're not wearing your seatbelt. Same thing with carseats. They can kill you if you're not wearing your seatbelt. And by wearing your seatbelt, I mean wearing it properly with your shoulder belt on. WHEN SITTING NEXT TO A CHILD'S CAR SEAT, ALWAYS USE SHOULDER RESTRAINT AND SIT UP STRAIGHT AGAINST THE BACK OF YOUR SEAT. Also try to always put the seatbelt over bone, because that's the strongest part of your body. Lap belt over your hip bones, and shoulder belt over shoulder bone.

More info on how to buckle up adults properly and safely: http://www.800bucklup.org/bucklingup/teens-and-adults.asp

If the seat beside your child's carseat only has a lap belt, DO NOT USE IT.


Long distance traveling

It's recommended to stop the car every 2 hours, and have everybody get out and stretch/move their body for 15-20 minutes, then only get back into car and continue journey. It's better for everyone's health. Even sitting at work, in the office, you should get up and walk around every 2 hours. Sitting too long actually shortens your lifespan.

Waze app for smart phones is a genius thing. When you select your destination, it tells you how long your journey will probably take, taking into account current traffic. And it even updates on the spot if there's an accident ahead on your journey, or whatever. Waze will also direct you through routes that are faster than the jam area, if any.

So whenever I see on waze that my journey will take more than 2 hours due to terrible traffic, I immediately cancel the destination and pick a nearer destination, somewhere that is less than 2 hours, so I can stop and take my child out to play sekejap. Then we get back into the car and I set waze for my actual destination.

After all, if my trip is going to take more than 2 hours, what's just another 15 minutes?

If you don't have a smart phone, google maps is incorporating waze technology now. Don't know how much is in yet, but the current traffic part seems up already. You can check your computer for how long the journey will take just before you put your baby into your car.

This post has been edited by hanishoney: May 20 2015, 05:50 PM

Found this detailed article on selling and buying used car seats

http://thecarseatlady.wordpress.com/tipsheets/used/

Make sure to read it before you buy or sell any used car seats, for the sake of all children out there.

We discussed this on page 4, from post #64 onwards.

For convenience, if not feeling up to reading the whole discussion, I just quote back myself:

I don't know much about products not offered in US or UK, because I don't understand the language. That is the number one concern when installing a carseat; you must make sure you can read the manual so that you can install the carseat correctly. A wrongly installed carseat can KILL. Might be safer to just fly out the window!

If you can see the carseat in person, and confirm that the manual is in a language that you understand, then you can consider the carseat. Japanese carseats follow European carseat standards, as far as I know.

Make sure to read this article: http://thecarseatlady.wordpress.com/tipsheets/used/ before selling or buying preloved carseats.

Let me tell you, I have a car seat in my living room that was in a car accident only ONE WEEK AFTER I bought it. It looks brand new. But it HAS been in a car accident and it is NO LONGER safe to use. If I were the lying kind who don't care about other children's safety, I could sell it and get at least some of my money back, because it cost me RM1.3k. But I'm honest, and I refuse to sell it. But how do you know if everyone selling their old carseats are as honest? You cannot know for sure if a car seat has been in an accident or not unless you know the car seat owners, you're the neighbour watching that car seat go in and out of the house every day and you know that car has never gotten into an accident!

Remember, a car seat CAN KILL if it is no longer working correctly. Why even pay RM50 for something that can harm your child instead of save your child? Might as well have no carseat and risk harm for free.

This post has been edited by hanishoney: Jan 12 2015, 12:05 PM

Maxi Cosi's convertible seats (that can last until 4yo) are NOT under RM500.

For carseats under RM500, you can look for an Aldo or a Halford, but make sure to get the versions that are certified ECE R44 (European crash standard). The cheaper ones are cheap because they are not made up to standard and may not be safe to your child in a car accident. I've never used either brand, however, so I don't know if they're easy to install. If you find under RM500, certified ECE R44, do share with us your review!
Aldo under RM400 at Fabulous Mom

Oh Fisher Price Safe Voyage is also under RM500 now on lazada.com.my. My FIL bought his at Aeon 1Utama children's dept, though I don't know if that's still in stock or selling under RM500 there. I can say that it is a PAIN to install rear-facing, and very easy to get the installation wrong.

This post has been edited by hanishoney: Jan 12 2015, 10:25 AM

As I mentioned earlier, while the back seat is ideal, if for some reason the back seat doesn't work, the front seat IF it doesn't have an airbag, is safer than not using a car seat at all. Some cars allow you to TURN OFF the airbag.

Safety Relativeness of Carseat Positions
Rear-facing with airbag WILL KILL. DO NOT DO.
No carseat. Safer than rear-facing in a seat with airbag.
Front-facing in front seat, with or without airbag. Safer than no carseat. (Unless no head control, then the baby can die just from being unable to breathe. Babies without head control cannot use front-facing seat at all.)
Front-facing in back seat. Safer than front-facing in front seat.
Rear-facing carseat in front seat, no airbag or airbag turned off. Safer than front-facing! Yes, even front-facing in back seat, ESPECIALLY for babies under 1yo. NEVER front-face babies under 1yo. In the USA, the new rule is NEVER front-face under 2yo.
Rear-facing carseat in back seat. SAFEST.

HOWEVER, rear-facing carseat is NOT safe, if your child has outgrown the weight limit, or has less than 1 inch of carseat over his head. DO NOT USE REAR-FACING CAR SEAT IF YOUR CHILD IS TOO HEAVY/TALL FOR IT.

So, if you're driving around 4 kids, where 3 of them are too big for rear-facing car-seat, you should actually put your rear-facing baby in the front seat, airbag OFF, because your rear-facing carseat is the safest of everyone in the car, and your front-facing kids will need the extra protection of being in the back seat. BUT if middle seat is a LAP BELT, then put your front-facing carseat with 5-point harness or your rear-facing carseat there instead, because lap belt can injure the person wearing it. Lap belt should only be used to install a carseat. Everyone big enough not to need a carseat should use shoulder belts.

By the way, airbags can also kill people not wearing their shoulder belts. So always wear your shoulder belts in front of an airbag.

This post has been edited by hanishoney: Feb 23 2015, 09:57 AM

Just remember to confirm the ECE R44 standard before you buy. If you walk into a shop selling car seats, you can find the ECE R44 sticker on the back of the car seat. I just went into Tesco Extra Mutiara Damansara last weekend, and only 2 out of the 10 car seats had the sticker, but both were just over RM400.

Click here for what ECE R44 sticker can look like

I've seen this new brand in nearly all the Malaysian online baby shops, but so far, none of the online baby shops actually claim that they are ECE R44 certified. Don't rely on word of mouth. Either have it in black and white, where the webpage describing the carseat says ECE R44 CERTIFIED, or see the ECE R44 sticker for yourself. At least then, if it turns out to be a lie, you have black-and-white proof that they claimed the certification when they didn't have it, and you can make a police report for cheating and take them to small claims court.

Verifying the ECE R44 certification involves first looking at the sticker, because the sticker gives the initial info about the certification. It's in a code though. For basic info about the sticker, can start with this: http://www.bebeconfort.com/car-seat-safety...4-04-label.aspx. You especially need to figure out the country code that the certification comes from. Then you have to determine who is the car seat regulator of that country and contact that regulator for verification.

Personally, this is why I prefer buying American crash tested car seats. Centralized authority, lots of online info with specifically listed brands, so harder to fake. But obviously, they're more expensive, because the cheap seats don't get exported.

This post has been edited by hanishoney: Jan 16 2015, 09:29 PM

First and foremost, let me remind everyone again, that all car seats are only safe IF installed and used in your car correctly. No matter how crash tested it is, if you use your creativity to install it instead of following the instructions, or if your kid's harness is threaded through the wrong slot, or if you didn't tighten the harness enough around your kid, your car seat can hurt people instead of saving them.

InfaSecure Luxi Caprice is Australian. Australia have their own standards, which is still better than Malaysian standards, because Malaysia has NO standards.

I downloaded the InfaSecure Luxi Caprice manual from their website: http://infasecure.com.au/wp-content/upload...S-ISSUE-B_1.pdf

And on page 7, under WARNINGS, the last point says:
So, for this carseat to be safe, depends on whether your car has a child restraint anchorage point. If you have a car that you bought in Australia, then you can call the Australian dealer you bought your car from and ask about installing the anchorage point (if it's not already installed). The manual even has more phone numbers you can call in Australia.

If your car is not from Australia, read your car manual. Does your car have isofix? If your car has isofix/latch, then your car will have a child restraint anchorage point (or two or three), which would be known as top tether or top anchorage point.

But if you have isofix in your car, if you haven't already bought this carseat, you might as well buy a carseat with isofix installation, because it'd be easier to install correctly. The Luxi Caprice manual looks complicated and confusing to understand. If you don't believe me, download it and read it for yourself because I provided the link.

If your car doesn't have the top tether of an isofix and your car manual does NOT mention any type of child restraint anchorage point in addition to using the seatbelt, then this carseat will NOT be safe to use in your car.

It is always best to read your car manual AND the carseat manual before you buy any carseat, to find installation incompatibilities like this.

This post has been edited by hanishoney: Jan 19 2015, 11:43 AM