Car seats in the Netherlands.

canadiangie

New member
Anyone have any info for me on what families who live in the Netherlands do with regards to seats? For example ages and stages, common brands, where to shop, etc.

TIA.
 
ADS

newyorkDOC

New member
Do you mean from a statistical POV or in terms of regulatory requirements? Regulatory requirements are the same across all of Europe with some additional specifications per country:
http://www.childcarseats.org.uk/standards/r4403.htm
You can look up the Netherlands in the country list on the left.

As for common brands, I think that's more European than dutch per se, mainly bc all the seats sold in Europe are approved across Europe so manufacturers may as well hit up as many countries as makes marketing sense. Britax is called roemer here (but in Sweden it's britax). Other brands include inglesina, cybex, Jane, maxi cosi, chicco, combi/cam, bebe confort, kiddie...).

I bought my maxi cosi cabriofix off a german website just bc it had the best price. I bought my TWE from AD bc he had the best price online (and I had a friend in Sweden price check at a B&M store there too). I'll probably buy a replacement cover for my cabriofix off amazon.co.uk just bc they seem to have the best price (plus amazon prime extends across Europe).
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
My friend from the Netherlands says for many families in the cities, it's possible only to use bikes/trikes and public transport, though she does see buckets and carrycots (more often on strollers than in cars.)
 

Neatfreak

New member
My friend from the Netherlands says for many families in the cities, it's possible only to use bikes/trikes and public transport, though she does see buckets and carrycots (more often on strollers than in cars.)

My friends from Holland have also said that. When they lived there, they'd bike everywhere, or take public transportation. We're not in a bike or public-transport-friendly city right now (living overseas), and 4 out of the 5 Dutch families I know have brought Maxi Cosi seats with them for their infants/toddlers.
 

canadiangie

New member
Biking is very common, but the family I'd be helping does in fact drive a car. Their son just turned 3 and he needs a new seat, I think.

A good percentage of dh's family still lives in Holland and to my knowledge they all own automobiles. :)

I understand that infant car seats are commonly referred to as "Maxi Cosi's" almost as a slang term like how we say "bucket". I also understand that most people use Maxi Cosi seats, sort of like how a really everyday common brand here is Graco.

I'm very very excited to experience their car seat culture. 18 days to go...

Thanks for all the tidbits of info.
 

newyorkDOC

New member
I am fairly certain the most common bucket is the cabriofix. When DD was born in 2009, it was the highest rated across the board. Since then britax came out with the b-safe bucket which is, AFAIK, the only 5-pt harness bucket in Europe. Maxi cosi then released the pebble but it still rates lower than the cabriofix.

You will see A LOT of bugaboos. I honestly don't think I've seen another brand there while out and about. And there's a really cool seat that revelo makes that you can add to the toddler board so you see lots of frogs + chameleons with that set up.

You'll also see lots of kids sitting in this huge wagon type thing that is attached to the front of bikes. I don't think it'd be particularly safe in a car accident but bikes have the right of way in Amsterdam and they're actually more dangerous than the cars IMO. They definitely out number cars!
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
My friend doesn't know brands, but looking at strollers available commonly in the Netherlands, Maxi-Cosi is the most common one to sell adaptors for strollers, so that may be a huge factor in why they are the most commonly seen.
 

FrauDrA

New member
I can't speak to the Netherlands, but Maxi-Cosi is a huge brand in Germany. When we showed up with our Graco bucket, my SIL said "I've never seen this kind of Maxi-Cosi!", which made me think the brand name is synonymous with the product.

The carseat we bought and left for visits is Storchenmühle; Recaro offers the same seat as we have, but in different (ie more expensive) fabrics.
 

beckyjenner

New member
I lived in the NEtherlands for several year. To be honest, in comparison to Canada, there carseat laws are pretty lax. That being said, even though the people at the store will tell you your baby can forward face at 8-10 months, please keep baby rear facing as long as possible.

As for seats, there are many places to buy. I especially liked BabyPlanet

http://www.babyplanet.nl/autostoelen.html

The Maxicosi and Recaro Seats are by far the most popular infant seat. They both measure up, but I like the Recaro seat better as it seems more comfortable for baby.

The next step of carseat is the 9-18kg seat. I wouldn't recomend any of these seats as they grow out of them too fast and for the price of seats in Europe you might as well get a combination seat. However, if you are resrticted by vehicle size for rear facing, I would get the Romer King (this is Britax seat). It is the lighter seat. However, I have the Maxicosi Tobi and I could very easily get a rock hard install in it. However, at the time it did not rear face at all (not sure about now as my Dutch reading skils are a bit rusty).

If you are not limited by rear facing space in your car I would go for a combination seat for stage 2 up. This seat will get your child from 9kg-36kg. Most rearface up to 14kg so that is nice. I would recomend the Recaro Youngsport. Recaro is notorious for making great seats and this one gets some really awesome reviews. Also keep in mind Recaro also makes high end seat for actual racing cars...so garantueed these seats are tested to their utmost limits.

There are also a few other places you can get seats (the service at the Assen BabyPlanet was by far the best I found though). Another couple examples or were to get seats is at the ANWB and a store called Prenatal.

Hope this helps!
 

ketchupqueen

CPST and ketchup snob
Staff member
The YoungSport rear-faces? I didn't think it did...

There are seats legal in Europe that rear-face to 25 kg. While I know they're not as popular in the Netherlands, that's what I'd be using, not forward-facing anywhere between 9 and 18 kg. :) (www.carseat.se for more info on that and ordering online.)
 

newyorkDOC

New member
ketchupqueen said:
The YoungSport rear-faces? I didn't think it did...

There are seats legal in Europe that rear-face to 25 kg. While I know they're not as popular in the Netherlands, that's what I'd be using, not forward-facing anywhere between 9 and 18 kg. :) (www.carseat.se for more info on that and ordering online.)

Yeah that. AFAIK none of the roemer seats RF past 13lg. And while roemer is britax, the seats are NOT the same as the Swedish britax. And I do not think maxi cosi sells their Swedish seats outside sweden. Bc the price of seats is high in general in Europe (avg 200 euros and up for a convertible), one may as well just get a Swedish seat.
 

_juune

New member
I am fairly certain the most common bucket is the cabriofix. When DD was born in 2009, it was the highest rated across the board. Since then britax came out with the b-safe bucket which is, AFAIK, the only 5-pt harness bucket in Europe. Maxi cosi then released the pebble but it still rates lower than the cabriofix.
Arhg, I really thought 3-point was pretty much a Maxi-Cosi only "feature" nowadays, then I looked it up and now I'm really surprised that indeed, there are others. Anyway, there are several Euro buckets with 5-point, too: Britax, two of Besafe [have to admit, I fancy this seat, in case I get somebody tiny to ride in one], Graco, Kiddy, Peg, Recaro, Emmaljunga, we had a Jane Strata with 5-point for our daughter, etc.

I heard from somebody on my local family boards that when they wanted to buy an erf seat quickly the most easily available in Netherlands was BeSafe iziCombi.
 

newyorkDOC

New member
The reason is bc the European 3-pt harnesses much higher up than the American 3-pt. There's no way baby can get their arms out bc it harnesses at belly/diaphragm level. I think the absorption points are different in a crash bc baby is at a 45-degree angle so it's not so much of a safety issue.
 

_juune

New member
The reason is bc the European 3-pt harnesses much higher up than the American 3-pt. There's no way baby can get their arms out bc it harnesses at belly/diaphragm level. I think the absorption points are different in a crash bc baby is at a 45-degree angle so it's not so much of a safety issue.
Yeah, it's probably not a safety issue. Likely easier to place baby in the bucket, too. I just really hadn't noticed that so many buckets had harness like that, I thought most were 5-point.
 

DutchMommy

New member
Most people here do have cars. Although the percentage is probably lower in Amsterdam and other very big cities as it would be in NYC. Maxi-Cosi is a very populair brand of carseats here. I think the largest and Romer(Britax) is probably second. Maxi-Cosi is also the general name for all bucket baby seats. I think all of our bucket seat are 3 points but are safe and I have never heard of a baby escaping as long as the straps were tight enough. Most kids sit in the bucket until about 1 although it is recommended as long as possible . Then most turn FF in a car seat and then at about 3.5 – 4 they go into a booster generally. The categories are 0+ which is 0-13kg or till about 12 months, 1 9- 18kg 9 months to 3.5 years, 2/315-36kg 3.5 to 12 years, there are also a lot of combi seats for 1/2/3 so from 9-36kg. Unfortunately ERF seats are hard to come by here. Although the consumer organizations say that it is safer and they want more people to do it. The tests continue to rate RF seats lower because they are hard to install or have too little leg room, or they are combi seats that they only test FF. Britax/Romer’s dutch website says that they now sell the Multi-tech 2 and the maxway here although you would have to call to find out if they are actually available anywhere. Maxi-Cosi has a RF seat in Sweeden (the Mobi) but it is not really sold here. I did read recently that there was 1 store here that did have it.
The most widely sold ERF seats are the ones by BeSafe. I have heard that they are really big though. Here are 2 websites that sell ERF seats in the Netherlands: https://www.kindveiligvooruit.nl/index.php?page=alle-autozitjes , http://shop.babyplezier.nl/stoelen/autostoeltjes/achterwaartse-autostoeltjes.html
I would recommend checking out this site for seats though: http://www.carseat.se/store.html
They are cheaper than the seats available in the Netherlands usally even after shipping and all European approved seats are fine for use in the Netherlands. For 0+ seats or FFing group 1-3 seats you could check out www.baby-dump.nl, www.babypark.nl or websites like that. The Prenatal is a baby store that sells everything for young children, store is great website doesn’t work well though. Hope this helps.
 

lenats31

New member
Biking is very common, but the family I'd be helping does in fact drive a car. Their son just turned 3 and he needs a new seat, I think.

A good percentage of dh's family still lives in Holland and to my knowledge they all own automobiles. :)

I understand that infant car seats are commonly referred to as "Maxi Cosi's" almost as a slang term like how we say "bucket". I also understand that most people use Maxi Cosi seats, sort of like how a really everyday common brand here is Graco.

I'm very very excited to experience their car seat culture. 18 days to go...

Thanks for all the tidbits of info.

Römer, Britax, Maxi Cosi, BeSafe, Recaro and Graco are all fairly wellknown brands in car seats all over Europe. Most parents in Holland may use Maxi Cosi tough (Dutch brand).;)

Most parents place their chidlren forward facing from age 6 months - 1 year. Rear facing to 4 years is strongly recommended.

Håkan who has a profile here owns an online store that sells the rear facing seats. Many of them go to 55 lbs in weight for rear facing and making it to age 5 or 6 is realistic in most of these.

www.carseat.se

Lena
 

lenats31

New member
The entire "User-friendliness" part of the test is based on personal openions by people who have very little to no experience at all with the rear facing seats. They also loose big time in "Installation". They can´t meassure those things. Furthermore, they are also crash tested without support by the front seat or dash board. Those of us who know this type of seat know that this is beneficial in terms of safety. you can actually do something to improve bad crash test results in those tests. luckily this is a rare event.the overall crash test results are the results of forward facing crash testing if the seat can be used forward facing (worst case sceneario)

The good news is that if you know them and know how to use them, how to install them correctly, don´t think they need too much room front to back etc. then you can disregard those test results completely. ONLY YOU can make this kind of decision - not anybody else. The rear facing seats are very different. cars are different too, and so are the families that use car seats for children.

Space requirements is a funny thing in these consumer tests. The forward facing ones allways get a good score here and the rear facing ones get a bad score. We all know that forward facing seats need less room front to back, but this is only when you are NOT invovled in an accident. In an accident, forward facing children will travel forward and way out of the confines of the seat. THIS has NOT been counted for.
 

msg221

Well-known member
I have lots of cousins in Holland who have toddlers/small children and I do recall Maxi Cosi being one of the most poplular brands. I recall one of my cousins bringing a Maxi-Cosi bucket for her then 6 month-old when she came to visit me.
 

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