My Girls And Their Kiddy Car Seats

It is now only a matter of weeks until the Mellow household embark on an epic driving trip across Europe and Kiddy car seats will be joining us on our travels. Kiddy have sent both Lara and Holly car seats from their new summer releases to put to the test on our travels.

Lara is now 3 years old and is tall for her age but her weight and age mean that she should still be sitting in a Group 1 car seat like the brand new, top-of-the-range Kiddy Phoenixfix Pro. The Phoenixfix is the next step up from the extremely popular Kiddy Energy Pro but with a few new tweaks, not least the optional Isofix fitting which twang out so that you can fit the seat securely to your car's Isofix mounting points.

As with all Kiddy group 1 car seats, the Kiddy Phoenixfix pro features the iconic impact shield; a new and improved design to give added protection around the core of Lara's body in the event of an accident. The seat of the Phoenixfix has a noticeably wider and more padded seat base than Lara's current Group 1,2,3 car seat - this means that for a smaller child or toddler towards the lower age and weight range of a group 1 seat it offers a lot of support and is super-comfy.

The back of the Phoenixfix pro moves easily up and down to provide support for head and neck at the right height for your child. Lara is just at the very edge of growing too tall for the head supports for the Phoenixfix pro (they are resting on her shoulders) - I don't think it will be long before she needs to move into a Group 2,3 seat (we have our Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro waiting in the sidelines for the day we need it!)

The Phoenixfix Pro is available in a limited set of colours - Lara's is a Rumba red.



Holly is now 10 weeks old and is looking very comfy in her Kiddy Nest group 0+ car seat. It is a very very comfy looking seat and she always seems happy in it.

The Kiddy Nest is the brand new infant carrier by Kiddy and it is at the opposite end of the scale to the Phoenixfix pro - a great quality bargain first car seat for your baby. At less than £50 I think the Kiddy Nest is an awesomely good value car seat.

The Nest has no fancy fixtures or fittings (I have become far too accustomed to my current easy-release Isofix infant carrier... sigh) but it has everything you realistically need of a group 0+ car seat. You fit the seat in a rear-facing direction using the car's 3-point seat belt. I find this a bit tricky compared to my current car seat but maybe I'm just out of practice.

The fabrics of the kiddy Nest feel really good quality, especially on the sun-visor hood which provides really good coverage and protection from sun, wind and rain. It is easily removable too which is handy because it does tend to get in the way of the belt when fitting.

I love the fact that the handle can be used at home for putting the seat into a rocking position or into a very stable sleeping position on the floor. I also love the fact that the straps and buckle are very easy to fit and release. But, my absolute favourite thing about the Kiddy Nest is the weight - it is incredibly light for an infant carrier and this makes it far easier for me to rush too and from with Holly in the seat; I've even managed a supermarket shop while carrying her which I wouldn't have dared attempt in my existing infant carrier.

You can keep up-to-date with new products from Kiddy on their UK facebook page. Stay tuned to Parentwheels over the coming weeks for more detailed product reviews of the Kiddy Nest and Kiddy Phoenixfix Pro.

Disclosure: We were sent the two car seats for the purposes of review and will continue to test them before giving our brutally honest feedback on ParentWheels in a few weeks.

 

Britax Trifix - What's That Top Tether About?

As you probably know, my other persona is Mrs. ParentWheels!  I run a specialist blog over at www.parentwheels.co.uk where I feature and review cars and car seats.  I recently got a chance to find out more about the new Trifix by Britax.

The Trifix is the latest Group 1 car seat (suitable for children from 9-18kg) by Britax. The notable thing about the Trifix is that it is the first UK car seat that I have seen to use the top-tether anchor point for ISOFIX.

You may (or may not) already know the benefits of the traditional ISOFIX mounting points at the base of a car seat. Using ISOFIX in itself doesn't make the seat much safer than any other, but it greatly reduces the likelihood of you fitting it incorrectly. An ISOFIX seat is easier to install because it clicks into place, rather than requiring you to thread a seat belt correctly and tension it appropriately. The two standard ISOFIX mounting points are now found on most new cars and help to reduce the sideways movement of a car seat in the event of impact.

In addition to this, the new Trifix features a v-shaped top-tether at the back of the seat which allows you to attach it to the rear ISOFIX anchor point in your car, if your car provides this. Your rear anchor point will ordinarily be a hook above the rear seats or on the back of the rear seats - get your car manufacturer or a qualified Britax installer to identify these points for you.



The V-tether is a sturdy strap which passes over the headrest of your car and attaches to the rear anchor point. You tighten it into place and this reduces the level of forward movement of the car seat in the event of a front or rear collision. Coupled with a 5-point harness, this greatly reduces the risk of injury to your child.

The Britax Trifix features all of the standard features you would expect of any Britax car seat. High quality, washable fabric covers, a good level of side-impact protection around the head and shoulders, audible and visible indicators to show when the seat is correctly snapped into place and the straps tightened. The base of the Trifix is quite bulky to allow for the ISOFIX fittings but it isn't as heavy as some Group 1 car seats I've seen on the market. The height of the head-restraint is easily adjustable using a single pull-ring at the top of the seat.

The Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro Challenge - how fast can you fit a car seat?

Kiddy challenged us to see how fast we could get a team of people to fit their group 2, 3 Isofix car seat, the Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro. Finding a team of willing volunteers over the festive period who were in any state to fit car seats was a challenge in itself so in the video below Mr. B. shows off his skills solo-style.

The challenge in fitting a car seat is to ensure that you do so safely and correctly. Isofix fitting help a lot with this and certainly speeds up the process compared to a seat that is fitted with a belt. Kiddy provide two bright yellow Isofix guides which are intended to make the process even easier but they don't quite fit in our shiny new car because the leather isn't pliable enough yet! Despite this, our first foray into the world of Isofix has been a great success, I'm really pleased with how much it aids the process of fitting a car seat.

The Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro has retractable Isofix connectors so can be used in cars that don't have Isofix mounting points. As a group 2,3 car seat Lara has not yet tried it out but we are using it for friends and family when they are with us. Actually, Lara is not that far off being ready for a group 2 seat even though she is only 2 and a half. Lara is as tall as many 4-year-olds I know and at 16.6kg she is certainly heavy enough to go into the Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro.

You can read my comprehensive review of the Kiddy Cruiserfix Pro on my sister site, Parentwheels. You can follow Kiddy on facebook and on twitter.

New Term, New Car Seat?

Today was Lara's first day back at nursery after her holiday. We've just got back from a really lovely week in Herefordshire (about which, I promise to blog later in the week). While I love Lara to pieces, and have really really enjoyed spending an entire week with just the three of us together... I can tell you now that after a week with a toddler as cheeky and energetic as Lara, I was secretly looking forward to going back to work.




Lara went back to nursery for a new 'term' in a brand new car seat. It feels like the start of a new school year to me. New clothes, new car (well, its a month old now) and a new car seat. A whole new beginning. The new car seat is the Kiddy Guardian Pro 2 which I shall we reviewing in detail here on the blog, and on parentwheels this month.



Lara was not as eager to get back to nursery as I was to get back to work. There were tears. There was, in fact, a full-on tantrum which involved her refusing to leave the house. Resisting our attempts to strap her in to the car. And a whole lot of screaming.



We had received the Guardian Pro 2 a couple of days before going on holiday but we hadn't felt brave enough to take it with us without getting a little bit of practice in with it first. When we tried the Kiddy Energy Pro over 12 months ago, Lara hasn't much enjoyed being in it and to take a car seat on holiday that she might refuse seemed a bit of a gamble. As it is, since we have been back over the weekend we have used the Guardian Pro 2 a lot and she seems really happy in the new Kiddy seat. I put this down to her size. At 1 year old her arms didn't rest comfortably on the Kiddy impact shield. Now at 2 years old, she can rest her arms much more naturally on the iconic shield.

I'm glad we didn't take the new car seat on holiday... we had 3 vomit incidents while we were away. The old car seat definitely needs to be sidelined for a while. Or, at a minimum, disinfected!

It has taken both myself and Mr. B a couple of days to get used to strapping the Kiddy car seat in to place but now I think we've got the knack and it is taking hardly any time at all to get Lara strapped in. It's dead easy.



At the end of an exhausting first day back at work, we went to pick up Lara from nursery and, just as I had suspected, she was as unwilling to leave nursery as she had been to go in the morning! Typical.

Meet the People Behind Kiddy Car Seats

Meet Bettina Wuerstl, joint owner and International Sales & Marketing Manager of Kiddy, a German company making waves in the world of children's travel products. Tucked away in the picturesque town of Hof in Bavaria, Bettina, her husband Jan-Stefan, and a small team of passionate staff are hard at work trying to take on the might of Maxi-Cosi and Bugaboo.

Kiddy is a family-run business which has grown with the Weurstl family for over 30 years. Kiddy launched in the UK and 2009 and has gone from strength to strength. In it's current guise, Kiddy has evolved into a major player in the European children's car seat and pushchair market and yet, within their home town of Hof, Kiddy remains a central part of the community with the local mums and dads visiting their nursery shop within the Kiddy headquarters for all of their nursery needs, Kiddy are the German distributor of many of the mother and baby brands I know and love. The store is colourful and welcoming and huge – you could easily mistake it for one of the enormous out-of-town nursery retailers anywhere in the UK.

Bettina and Jan-Stefan have found their niche. It has taken some years for the business to evolve into what it is now and, since Jan-Stefan inherited the company from his father, the relationship between the husband and wife team has also evolved. Bettina, is the enthusiastic and passionately outgoing face of Kiddy who is immediately lovable. Jan-Stefan is the more reserved and calculating engineer behind the brand – a clash of characters which, although difficult to manage in the past, has proven to be a recipe for business success . As Kiddy has grown (and they themselves have started a family), they have added to their team with an eclectic group of cheerful and passionate staff, all experts in their field.

Kiddy car seats, as you will know if you have read my review of the Kiddy Energy Pro, don't look like most others on their market. For many years, Kiddy have pioneered the use of their innovative 'impact shield' which they continue to develop and improve on a mission to find their car-seat-safety nirvana. Jan-Stefan, as head of Research and Development, is the one on that mission.

Jan-Stefan Wuerstl is passionate about safety and technological innovation in a way that re-enforces his stereotypically German approach to life (his presentation to us lasted exactly 1 hour. Not a minute more. Not a minute less). Jan-Stefan quite strongly feels that the European laws on child car seat safety are not stringent enough and simply can't comprehend why parents would risk their children's lives with incorrectly fitted car seats or those of a sub-standard quality.

Everyone I met at Kiddy was incredibly passionate and cheerful which is not surprising in such a beautiful part of the country. I am convinced that the relaxed atmosphere and focus on sourcing the very best people in the industry contributes to the creativity and success of Kiddy's products . This success can be seen in a number of recent awards, most notably, the Kiddy guardian pro which was awarded the highest accolade in the Stiftung Warentest (the European equivalent of the Which? tests) and is the only Group 1,2,3 seat to have been given a Which? Best buy award twice in succession.

Kiddy's latest products demonstrate their passion for child safety. The Guardian Pro 2 is a group 1,2,3 car seat with improved side-impact technology which grows with your child through an astonishingly easy-to-use expansion mechanism. The Cruiserfix Pro is Kiddy's new group 2/3 car seat, which I think is one of the best-looking on the market. The Cruiserfix Pro can be used with or without ISOFIX harnesses and uses all of Kiddy's wealth of car safety knowledge. In addition to the car seats, Kiddy have launched a baby carrier and have a wealth of new products launching in the UK over the coming year.

The Sunday Review – Trunki Boostapak Car Seat / Rucksack

When I started ParentWheels, I received lots of requests for more reviews of car seats for older children such as group 3 seats or booster seats. We received the Trunki Boostapak from Jojo Maman Bebe to review and guess what? It's not just a car booster seat but also a fun backpack for your little ones to enjoy.

The Boostapak is made by Trunki who seem to totally understand travel with children. The Boostapak is ideal for taking on holiday because it allows your child to take their own hand luggage and feel very grown up doing so. The contents of their backpack will be protected by the hard shell of the seat into which you place your precious cargo! The backpack has been approved as a size suitable for taking as aeroplane hand luggage. And, as a bonus, when you get to your destination, you can use the booster seat to ensure that your child can travel safely in hire cars, taxis or relative's vehicles.

The Boostapak is made with the same care and quality as Trunki's suitcases. It is bright and bold and appealing to parents and children alike.

As a car seat I found it very easy to fit as the instructions are printed onto the seat itself. The booster seat is a little more advanced than many other booster seats as it has a fold-out fabric flap which you sit up against the main seat of the car (note, the flap has ears which make it look a bit like a little monster sitting in the back of your car!). The flap has a red seat-belt guide that helps you place and locate the car's seat belt correctly to ensure maximum safety.

The cover of the bag/seat is removable so that you can give it a good clean as and when needed.

As a back-pack the Trunki Boostapak is quite heavy because of the firm seat shell inside it. As such, it may not be suitable for some small 4 year olds, even though they are officially old enough to travel in a booster seat.

Despite this, I think the product is a really great idea and I'm surprised I haven't seen or heard more about it before.

I can't wait to take Lara on holiday or to her grandparents in the future with this car seat come backpack from Jojo Maman Bebe.

Images courtesy of Jojo Maman Bebe

The Sunday Review - Renolux Next Confort Group 1 Car Seat

This post was first published in November 2010 on ParentWheels

The Renolux Next Confort car seat is a Group 1 car seat but if you read the instructions carefully you will find that it 'can' be fitted as a group 0 rear-facing seat too although they don't sell it as such.

The seat is enormous. So much so, that I really struggled to get my daughter in through the car door and onto the seat. On the times when I didn't bang her head against the door, I banged my own! The seat sits very high up on it's massive steel base, unlike anything else I have tried.

The Renolux Next Confort seat does have a technical design that I want to love - it is made from a high-resistance steel base with a high-density polyurethane filling making it far more like a normal adult car seat and able of greater impact absorption than traditional plastic bucket seats. It all sounds great, and the kind of safety that you want in your car but the price you have to pay is bulk and weight. It took two people to carry the Renolux Next Confort seat out to our car!

We didn't find the seat easy to fit (although the instructions were surprisingly clear given that they were clearly translated into English). There were large numbers of expletives uttered.

Once fitted, I found the straps disappointing. Although the buckle was easy to fasten and undo, I felt that the straps were floppy, made of poor quality material and were prone to twisting (resulting in yet more expletives).

My first impression of the seat cover is that it was soft and inviting (it had fluffy velvety patches and a very comfy looking head insert for younger children). On closer inspection, I was disappointed with the fabric quality and found many loose threads dangling off it.

It is worth noting that the other mums and dad's who tested with me didn't struggle as much as I did with the Renolux Next Confort.

Image courtesy of amazon

The Sunday Review - Britax Evolva Group 1-2-3 Car Seat Review

This post was first published on www.parentwheels.co.uk in November 2010.

I get a lot of opportunities to review child car seats which is why it is so significant that the Britax Evolva Group 1,2,3 Car Seat is the one that I chose to spend my own money on recently when I bought a car seat for my parent's car (the grandparents).

I chose the Britax Evolva for the following reasons.

1. I am continually impressed by the quality of materials of Britax products


2. It is a brand I know well and trust


3. A Group 1,2,3 car seat lasts from 9 months right up until 12 years. This means it is good value for money as I shan't need to buy a new one for my parent's car, ever.

The Britax Evolva is ever so slightly tricky to install. It requires you to pass your car's 3-point seat belt, folded, through two holes on the back of the base. Our first few attempts at this were quite stressful, partly because the cars we tried it in had short belts that offered little flexibility during installation, but partly because of unfamiliarity. Since then we have taken the seat with us abroad and have had to fit it and remove it from taxis and hire cars so have become quite accomplished at it – it gets easier and, as ever, Britax do offer red guides on the seat base to help you through the installation process.

Once installed, the Britax Evolva car seat is very easy to use. The belts are well padded and release easily. The belts loosen from around the chest and I found the belt fitting and tightening to be intuitive. The headrest is very easy to move up and down and offers great padding around the head.

The fabric of the seat is very high quality and looks really smart. As your child grows older the seat adapts to them. After Group 1, the integral harness is removed and the seat is used with your car's normal seat belt.

The only thing I don't rate on the Britax Evolva is the cup holders on each side of the base. Maybe it is useful for children to have somewhere to stash their drink, but to me it reminds me of people-carriers in the USA with integral cup holders to hold the super-size sugar-laden soda drinks, not really what I am planning for my toddler.

Image courtesy of Britax.

The Sunday Review - Britax King Plus Group 1 Car Seat Review

This post was first published on www.parentwheels.co.uk in October 2010.

We recently tried out the Britax King Plus Group 1 car seat with our 1 year old daughter. As a group 1 car seat it is forward-facing and is suitable from about 9 months to 4 years old.

The Britax King Plus is not the funkiest of car seats – the grey base gives is an every-so-slightly 80's feel about it. It isn't all bells and whistles and is not even the most advanced of Britax's group 1 car seats but it is easy to use and represents the good quality and value for money that we have learned to expect from Britax car seats. All of the materials are of high quality, particularly the hard-wearing seat covers.

The most impressive thing about the King Plus seat is its ease of fitting. The whole seat flips forwards from the base leaving you plenty of room to easily stretch your normal 3-point seat belt over the base and into the very clearly marked red slots which guide you. We managed to fit the seat on our first attempt (this is very unusual!) using just the label on the side of the seat which shows pictorial instructions. We then validated this against the instruction manual.

We found the headrest on the Britax King Plus to be extremely easy to adjust to our daughter. It was a simple mechanism that required little explanation. The headrest offers great padding and impact protection.

The straps on the King Plus threw us to start with as they extend from the middle rather than responding to a tug at the top like our existing car seat. We have found that Britax car seats do seem to have the most comfy-looking, thickly-padded shoulder belts around.

One of the selling points of the Britax King Plus is the 'click' mechanism on the belt which 'clicks' to indicate when the belt is tight enough. I expected this to be a great thing to resolve arguments between myself and my husband on whether the belts were tight enough. Actually, I found it miselading – it seemed to click frequently, and often when I felt that the belt was far too lose. I think I am happier using my own judgement when tightening the harness.

The Britax King Plus has quite a deep recline so that when you are travelling on long journeys, your child can be more relaxed. The recline function doesn't require you to take the seat out of the car so it is possible to recline the seat without even waking your child!

The Britax King Plus car seat retails for around £179.99 but can be found at the major retailers such as Amazon, Halfords, Boots.com and Kiddicare for a little less.

The Sunday Review - Kiddy Energy Pro Group 1 Car Seat

THIS POST WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON www.parentwheels.co.uk IN OCTOBER 2010.

Kiddy car seats are a little different to most on the market. They take some getting used to, but once you've got your head around the way they look and the way they work, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

The Kiddy Energy Pro is a Group 1 car seat for use from approximately 9 months to 4 years. The fascinating thing about the Kiddy Energy Pro is that it has no harness. No straps? That's right. Kiddy car seats work through use of a cushioned 'impact shield'. You place your child into the seat, slot the impact shield in over their legs and then strap the normal 3-point seatbelt in your car over the shield to pull it tight.



I used the Kiddy Energy Pro this summer for my 1 year old and found it refreshingly easy to fit. No faffing about with ratchets. No slotting seatbelts through impossibly small holes. With most other car seats you are encouraged to fit them once and then leave them fitted - It isn't easy to move a traditional car seat between cars. With the Kiddy car seat you effectively fit it each time you use it. It is quick and easy and means it makes a great car seat for use when you will regularly need to swap it between cars.

I felt the Kiddy Energy Pro seat would be great for taking on holiday as it is more-or-less universal and because it is astonishingly light. The seat and shield are made from a light, shock-absorbing honeycomb foam.

I did notice that when in the Kiddy Energy Pro my daughter got very stressed and would winge a lot. She looked comfortable but her arms didn't really know what to do with themselves as they were raised up above her body and over the impact shield. To aid comfort, the car seat has a reclined position for long journeys whish is very easy to use. The movement of the head-rest to provide maximum side impact protection is also incredibly easy to adjust.

I have read some concerns from parents whose children slip underneath the impact shield. This suggests that the seatbelt hasn't been pulled tight enough. I just can't see how my daughter could ever have slipped through. For smaller children there is a small seat insert to raise them ever so slightly towards the shield to ensure that it fits tightly, yet comfortably.



The Kiddy impact shield system has been proven in stringent European tests to be even safer than the normal 5 point harness (even when fitted ISOFIX). The idea of the impact shield is that in the event of a collision, the force of the impact is distributed across a wider area of the body around the tummy. Where traditional harnesses hold the shoulders and body back during an impact, they allow the neck to loll vulnerably. The impact shield is designed to allow the upper body to tilt naturally through the spine, neck and head and to reduce the force through the neck.

Despite knowing all of these reassuring things, it is a big mind shift to accept that a harness-free car seat is as safe as others. For the first week I kept looking back at my daughter to make sure she was OK! Once I had settled into the idea of the impact shield, I began to see the great qualities that the Kiddy Energy Pro has to offer.

What Qualities Do You Look For In A Family Car?

I have just launched a new blog over at parentwheels.co.uk and I am looking for some direction and inspiration from you, my lovely readers.

When I test-drove the Kia at the weekend, it dawned on me that the things I now look for in a car are VERY different to the qualities I looked for about 3 years ago in my pre-baby life. I found myself putting the car through some very vigourous tests!

What I am interested in finding out is the qualities that YOU look for in a family vehicle. Let me start the ball rolling...

• Generally, I'm looking for 5-doors for easy access to the back seat


• A boot big enough to fit my buggy in to it


• A CD player or ipod dock that offers easy controls for me as a driver and good sound quality in the back for my children.


• Plenty leg-room for the littlies in the car seats


• long rear seat belts for fitting car seats


• I'd like to at least know how much it costs to fit ISOFIX if it doesn't come as standard


• Easy-to-clean fabrics

If you have any qualities that you would like to add, please add them in the comments below. Hoepfully, it will lead to some fascinating, honest reviews.

parentwheels.co.uk is still very much as work-in-progress (as you will see if you come and visit) but I will be working on it over the coming days and weeks and recruiting guest bloggers, reviewers and feature-writers. If you'd like to get involved, please let me know.

Please come and visit me, follow me, join me, contribute for me etc. at parentwheels.co.uk - it could be something amazing!