angelman

My wife is going to the Uk today and our baby is growing like crazy. She is taking our us car seat for immediate use when she arrives (not for the plane). Whilst in the UK she will probably need to buy a larger full size car seat for him. Can we use that in the US? We are not using the LATCH syst em just the seatbelt. I cant see any reason why not. I just wondered though if a cop woudl stop us and exclaim that this car seat is not for use in the US and fine us some crazy amount. I can't see that this would happen else tourists with babies would never be able to come here.

Rete

Can't see why that would be. Car rental companies do have child carseats for rent.

I just purchased a car seat for my grandson (19 mos) and it can be used without and with the LATCH system. Usage depends on the height and weight of the child.

Yorkieabroad

To be honest, I doubt a cop on a routine traffic stop is going to be able to tell whether its a US model or a UK model, but I read somewhere that it may affect your insurance. Can't honestly remember if that was using a UK seat in the US or vice versa....but if the worst came to the worst and you were in an accident, maybe the insurance company could get awkward...

Dan725

We've taken our car seat to the UK both times. Second time round, the UK hire car had the latch system in it - so I'd have thought any seat you can buy nowadays in the UK will be the same spec as you get in the US, i.e. can be used with or without latch. Not sure about the legalities, however, I can't see how a seat bought from an international vendor would be different.

kins

I don't know the legal position but I didn't want to bring out UK carseats to the US just in case. We left our UK carseats with grandparents in the UK - they'll be useful for when we visit.

Bought new carseats in the US when we moved here, just to make sure. We wanted Latch system anyway. They are pretty expensive in the US but if you shop around you can find good deals.

Ash UK/US

Interesting... on our next trip we need 2 car seats 1 on the plane for my youngest and 2 to use in a car over there... I thought about taking 1 US one and buying 1 UK one... comparing apples for apples and taking into account the exchange rate I found them cheaper to buy in the US. We are buying one here leaving it boxed and checking through, saves carrying 2 through all the airports.

Ash

Yorkieabroad

Exactly what we did this time. Now means we've got 2 over there permanently to use, so next time we're gonna be travelling a lot lighter -phew!

Ash UK/US

I think that is what I will do too... saves messing with them carrying them back and forth.

Ash

Patrick Hasler

What the F**k does it matter ? ...... They are all made in China anyway

commoner

In 2006 my then 8-month-old daughter and I were flying back to the US for a visit.

Right about that time our child was big enough to use a forward facing seat, so I did some research on what kind of seat would fit easily on the plane. I called Britax, and the woman on the phone mentioned a particular model (which we later purchased), and then specifically told me that British Britax model carseat wouldn't be accepted by an American insurance company if we're in a car accident.

Rete

Car seats for toddlers can be used either/or. I know the one I bought in July for my grandson could be used with or without the latch system. The use depends on the height and weight of the child.

He is 19 months old and is approx 39 inches and 31 lbs. I had it hooked up with the latch. Felt safer for him to me.

Dan725

I'm also a big fan of latch - if you have a vehicle with the system, it makes no sense at all not to use it.

The first time we hired a car in UK, it did not have latch - the seat didn't feel anywhere near as secure just using the seatbelt.

Yorkieabroad

I agree, as long as the childs weight doesn't exceed the latch weight rating for either the seat or the car which may be different to the seat.

AmerLisa

I wonder why.....

Yorkieabroad

We had the same thing a couple of years ago from the Britax helpline - I was trying to find where a particular UK model was sold in the US. I was looking for the model that came top of the Which safety ratings - at the time Consumer reports ratings didn't have any safety ratings, just ease of use, comfort etc. So I called the Britax helpline to see if it was sold under a different name here - they advised us to buy a US model to ensure that we were covered by our US insurance as they (Britax) thought we would not be. The US standards for car seats are different to the UK ones - according to Britax, not better, not worse, just different.