Child safety is at the heart of everything we do at Joie – it’s what drives us to keep creating the most innovative and rigorously tested products on the market. But when it comes to buying a car seat for your child, we know that it can be a little on the confusing side, especially when it comes to know the difference between the different safety standards. As we enter Road Safety Week, we thought we’d help you get to the bottom of what you really need to know when buying a car seat for your child.
At what age can my child stop using a car seat?
All children must use a child car seat until they are 12 or 135cm tall – although we would always recommend going by height, simply because all children grow at such different rates. There are occasionally exceptions to the rule – a child over the age of three can travel in the back of a taxi without a car seat, wearing an adult seatbelt. All the rules for travelling in a car seat apply for cars and vans as well.
What type of seat is right for my child?
There is so much choice out there that it can be a difficult decision. But, as long as you choose one that is appropriate for the height and weight of your child, you really can’t go wrong – largely it is down to personal preference. The style of your vehicle may have an impact – if you have a 4x4 style you might want to consider a spinning seat for ease of access, or the lateral facing calmiTM car cot – if you want to be able to lift little one in and out of the car in the car seat, then a light weight infant carrier is what you are looking for.
Should I choose a car seat based on my child’s weight or height?
This can be confusing for parents as there are currently two sets of regulations running alongside each other. The most recent regulation, known as R129 or i-Size, states that car seats should be fitted by height whereas the older regulation R44 fits car seats by weight. While using the old method of weight is still safe and legal to use, the i-size method of using height will eventually become the normal standard.
What’s i-Size, is it the same as ISOFIX?
No, they aren’t the same – ISOFIX is the name given to the attachment mechanism built into the car seat. It clips on to the metal anchor points that are set into the seats of your car and makes the fitting of a seat easier and therefore safer.
i-Size refers to the European safety regulation (iSize/R129) brought in by the EU in 2013 to make child car seats easier to fit and ensure they provide better protection as well as keeping children rear facing for as long as possible. iSize uses the child’s height rather than their age and weight. It is a safer approach as not all children of the same age will weigh the same and parents are more likely to know their child’s height based on the size clothing they buy.
What’s the safest seat for my child?
At Joie, we are happy to say that all of our car seats rate highly for safety, but our i-Spin Safe has received the highest ever safety rating for a rotating seat from ADAC. German company, ADAC is well known for being one of the most important and rigorous testers of child car seats in Europe. Their tests use extreme speed and loads that exceed European Standards so you can be sure that if your seat has scored well with ADAC, it’s one of the safest seats you can buy.
About Joie
Joie is a global baby gear brand founded in 2011 and its products are designed with families at its heart. All Joie products are rigorously tested to the highest European standards.
Joie works hard to educate consumers about the importance of car seat safety and the benefits of using rear facing car seats and the European i-Size standard.
Joie cares deeply about the wellbeing of children - but it’s more than that – we treasure the importance of families and work hard to champion their values, their welfare and their futures. This means that profits take the backseat, and instead Joie’s focus centres not only on our customers’ families, but on our employees’ families, our community’s families, and the earth that we all enjoy.
Joie is a global baby gear brand founded in 2011 and its products are designed with families at its heart. All Joie products are rigorously tested to the highest European standards.
Joie works hard to educate consumers about the importance of car seat safety and the benefits of using rear facing car seats and the European i-Size standard.
Joie cares deeply about the wellbeing of children - but it’s more than that – we treasure the importance of families and work hard to champion their values, their welfare and their futures. This means that profits take the backseat, and instead Joie’s focus centres not only on our customers’ families, but on our employees’ families, our community’s families, and the earth that we all enjoy.
Joie is the United Nations Global Partner for Road Safety through their UNITAR program (United Nations Institute of Training and Research.)
- Joie products are designed to grow up with users from birth onwards and are feature rich with every necessity and special upgrades
- Each product features superior quality aluminum and steel; high-grade, pure and undiluted metals; top-of-the-line plastics; and tough durable strength fabrics
- Every piece of every product goes through extreme testing at each stage of the development and manufacturing process
- During development, stroller and buggy canopies, reclines, brakes, fold mechanism and push bar adjustments are tested over 3,000 times.
- In 2011 Joie set up its Energy Management Task Force to proactively achieve environmentally sustainable goals and make improvements to the energy saving management system
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- Twitter: twitter.com/Joie_Baby
