Canadian Isofix/UAS seats

We are currently living in South Africa, but are planning to move to Canada in about 3 months. Our baby girl is currently 13 months old and about 10kgs. She is still travelling in her chelino rear-facing baby seat which is mounted on an Isofix base. This car seat is for up to 13kgs, but she is starting to get a bit tall for it and I want to switch her to a front-facing group 1 seat. I would like an Isofix seat again and was looking at the chicco, maxicosi and britex seats. Britex isn't available in SA as far as I've seen, but the other two offer Isofix seats.
But now it seems that canada requires seats used in canada to have their sticker (maple leaf) on to be a legal form of transport? But I don't know if these Isofix/UAS seats are available in canada.
Should I buy a seat here for her or wait until that side?

Moved to the Canadian/International forum.

It's up to 500% safer to rear face well past one year. I know you haven't got many, if any, options for that in SA. So I would continue to use the infant seat provided she hasn't gotten too tall for it (check your manual as for what counts as too tall), and then get a rear facing seat in Canada.

Wendy

You are correct that you need to get a Canadian seat in Canada. European seats are significantly different from Canadian seats and most notably don't have a top tether system which is required by law with a front facing child restraint.

All seats available for sale in Canada will have UAS - similar to Isofix, but the connectors are almost always on a flexible webbing that you tighten once having attached the connectors. Passenger vehicles made starting Sept 1, 2002 were required to be fitted with UAS/LATCH/Isofix at the factory, so most likely the vehicle you get will have UAS.

If your daughter still fits the seat she's in then your best bet is to keep her in it until you move to Canada. Otherwise you will need to purchase the correct seat while you're in South Africa, and then replace it when you move to Canada. If you know what vehicle you will be using once you get here, you can probably make arrangements for whoever is picking you up at the airport to bring your new seat with them to the airport. Chances are someone here will have an idea of compatibility between the seats you like and the vehicle you will have once you move here. :thumbsup:

As Wendy mentioned, it is preferable to keep children rf'ing beyond the minimums. 10kg (22lbs) is the minimum for most child restraints to be used ff'ing, but infant/child seats rear-face to a range of anywhere from 30 to 45lbs depending on the model you choose and most of those seats are able to get a child to at least age 2 rear-facing.

Good luck with your move and please ask if you have any further questions.

On a side note - car seats in Canada are broken in to the following groups:

Infant - rear-facing only seat
Infant/child - a seat that can be used rear-facing or forward-facing depending on the height and weight of the child.
Child/booster - A forward facing seat that can be converted to a booster (which mode you are able to use is again dependent on the height and weight of the child.)
Infant/child/booster - like the name suggests, rear-facing, forward-facing, and booster - stage selected depends on the height, weight, and development of the child.
Booster - pretty self explanatory, but including it in the list just so that the list is complete.

I know that Europe breaks things in to Group O, Group 1, etc - so I thought you might find the definition of the different seats helpful.

:yeahthat: Hope you have a successful move.