Confused By Car Seats?

Confused by car seats?  Mark Bennett, car seat safety expert from BRITAX explains the new regulation called ‘i-Size’ that all parents should know about.

To put simply, i-Size is a new regulation for child car seats that will make it easier for parents to choose and install the right seat, making travelling safer for children.

One of the most significant changes parents need to be aware of, is how long a child should remain in a rearward facing car seat.  Under existing laws, parents could switch their baby from their rearward facing Group 0/0+ seat into a forward facing Group 1 seat when they reached 9kg or approximately nine months.

The new i-Size regulation means parents will have to keep their baby rearward facing until they are at least 15 months old and the move will be based on the size and age of the child rather than weight.  The new length and age classification will help make it easier for parents to check that their child is ready to be moved to the next stage car seat.

The new regulation is also about the reinforcement of ISOFIX seats use, which are easier to fit correctly and safely than those secured with the car seat belt.  Only a third of belted seats are fitted correctly which can have serious implications in the event of a crash*.   Side impact collisions are one of the most severe types of collisions on the roads** and for car seats to adhere to the new regulations they must pass the newly introduced side impact safety standards.

Why is this regulation coming into force?

Well there are a number of reasons, but in a nutshell, parents are too keen to move their babies forward facing on the premise they believe their child will be happier facing forwards rather than waiting until they have actually outgrown the seat.  Parents are also unaware babies are much safer rearward facing in the event of a collision.

Below 13kg a baby’s neck is not yet that strong and keeping your baby rearward facing for as long as possible (up to at least 15 months) will help protect their vulnerable neck in a frontal crash situation.

So much research evidence has built up on this from crash testing that the EU has introduced this new regulation to keep babies rearward facing until 15 months. BRITAX has accompanied and strongly supported the development of i-Size right from the very beginning.

So how does it affect you? 

As soon as i-Size approved car seats are on the market parents will be able to choose between a seat that abides by the older ECE R44/04 regulation or i-Size. The current ECE R44/04 regulation is not replaced by i-Size, and instead will continue in tandem until 2018. The introduction of i-Size simply means that consumers now have an extra option when buying a car seat for their baby/toddler.

When should you change to forward facing?

Here are some guidelines on switching:

Don't do it just because your baby's feet are pushed against the car's back seat.

Wait until your baby is closer to, or ideally at, the maximum age (15 months) for her rearward facing seat than the minimum weight (9kg) for the front facing seat.

BUT do move them if their head is protruding over the top of the Group 0/0+ seat. If they outgrow the seat in height but have not reached the minimum weight for a Group 1 seat, you should then invest in a combination Group 0+ & 1 seat. That is simply the safest option.

You can already consider purchasing a combination Group 0+ & 1 seat as your baby’s first car seat from birth. DUALFIX and MAX-FIX from BRITAX will allow your child to travel rearward facing until they reach 18kg.

What is the current law when it comes to car seat safety?

The law requires all children to travel in an appropriate child restraint until they reach 135 cm tall or their 12th birthday (UK, NL, DEN) or 150 cm tall or their 12th birthday (GER, AU, CH, IT, CZ) – whichever comes first. It is the driver's responsibility to ensure this is the case.

Under the existing laws, parents could switch their baby from their rearward facing Group 0&0+ seat into a forward facing one when they reach 9kg (around nine months old).

Now the new regulations, called ‘i-Size’, have come into force mid-July 2013, parents that purchase a child car seat approved under i-Size will have to keep their baby in a rearward facing seat until they are 15 months.

There will be no change to the overall law about child seats being compulsory to the age of 12 or 135 cm/150 cm tall.

*Farid Bendjellal, 6^th International Conference on Protection of Children in Cars – Munich 2008

**Casimir “Child Car Passenger Fatalities – European Figures and In-Depth Study”; Alan Kirk; Loughborough University, UK; Conference:  Protection of children in cars, Muncih, 2011

Disclaimer: I have been able to bring you this information as a Britax Mumbassador. It is part of my role to share exciting brand news with you all, and I have not received payment for doing so.

This Sunny Weekend We...

Summer has finally descended upon us. 

I write this post with a lovely shade of red upon my shoulders. The lobster look that tells me I probably shouldn't have started pulling weeds from the garden this weekend.

Leo has spent each day in and out of the paddling pool, watering the garden with his watering can and eating ice lolly after ice lolly (or Oio Oio Oio as he has been calling them).

He has been known to peep through the hole in the fence to spy on the neighbours kids as they have played out in the garden. Leo has stood and listened to every word they have said and then in typical parrot style, repeated word for word back to them. 

We accidentally discovered how fast the slide can be when you are soaking wet, and enjoyed it so much that we just had to do it all again! 

We have bought our first pair of sun glasses and actually enjoyed wearing them. 

We have had our first little cat scratch that required Leo's very first ever plaster to be applied just so that it didn't rub against his sandals.

We have ridden on our balance bike and taken in the glorious sunshine... and then of course retreated back to the paddling pool!

This weekend we even ventured to the Forest of Dean with Leo's Granddad for a whole new adventure. We hired bikes and a child cart and took off into the great un-known. All be it with a less than happy 2 year old who was not sold on the whole cart aspect, but less than 5 minutes in the crying was replaced with giggles from the bumpety bumps. With that said...I could have done with sitting in the cart on the way back...

Today on the hottest day of the year, I had the only child in the world who still wanted to snuggled up with his blankie. Leo was sweltered and even when he fell asleep in the car and I took blankie off of him, the little terror awoke and pulled it back over him! 

I can think of no worse comforter at this time of year then a cot duvet...

This entire weekend has been dedicated to the great outdoors. We have marveled at the sun as it has been a rather long time since we last saw one another. 

Sunshine, please stick around.

We have much more planned for you yet!

Mortgage affordability, is it something young parents should think about?

I know this is a subject that have I have given a lot of thought even before becoming a parent, being able to put a roof over my families head and provide that same kind of financial stability that I have always had. 

Lets face it, in this economic climate many of us don't have the odd £20,000 hidden down the sides of the sofa (unless they will accept payment in cheerios, we have lots of those down there thanks to the toddler) which of course immediately puts a big hurdle in your path on the deposit front. 

We have sought out advice from every corner, we have learnt so much about the different mortgages available to us and explored every avenue in our quest to get on the property ladder. I have to say that the advice we have been given has explained exactly what is involved with a mortgage, which for me was in-valuable as before I didn't have a clue between fixed rate and variable.

Luke and I spent a lot of time gathering mortgage quotes and in order to get the ball rolling we needed to find £20,000 to put down on the table. To us this is a lot of money, money that we quite simply don't have. I am sure I am one of many people in this day and age who can quite simply say they cannot afford to buy, and realistically renting is our only option right now. 

The mortgage we qualified for back when we were enquiring was in the region of £130,000, which in our area wouldn't actually buy us much. We would be looking at a 2 bedroom house with not a whole lot of room in any which way about it. 

It is really easy to get an idea of a ball park figure you may be looking at on a mortgage. I have found the Halifax mortgage calculator is really useful to get an idea into how much you may be looking in terms of repayments each month. You can input certain details that will tell you how much they may be able to lend you.

There is so much information available to call upon and guide you through the process of being first time buyers, but until you have the deposit money firmly in your pocket actually getting a mortgage behind you can seem like a million miles away.

I think this is a subject that all first time buyers do give a lot of thought, and I certainly think it is something that we should all be thinking about to some extent. Dreams for the future and making dreams a reality, carving the way for our little ones and making a family home that is ours are all things that I want for my family.

So for now we are renting, but one day we will have our very own home.

Success is not a destination, it's a journey

On July 25th 2013 I will have been back at work an entire year.

This year has seen me grown in un-expected ways, it has highlighted dreams I didn't know I had and made me realise that I don't want to stay in my current place of work.

There are so many reasons that have brought me to this frame of mind...

Office Trolls..

Change..

Growing up....

The realisation that I couldn't just wander back into my working shoes after a maternity leave of 13 months. 

How I was actually disposable and wasn't in as such high demand as I had once thought... My oh my how I came tumbling down off that pedestal I had placed myself upon.

Working life as I knew it was far behind me. Changed forever.

So you can imagine my surprise when I head into the office after a long weekend to find that I need to fill out an internal company profile. A profile similar to LinkedIn that can be viewed by the entire organisation worldwide. 

A profile that wants me to share my hopes for the future, my aspirations for the next couple of years...

Of course I sat there stumped.

Stumped because I have so much that I want to achieve in the next two years. Stumped because I could never write it down on my internal work profile....Stumped because it would mean telling them that I want to leave. How I want to leave sooner rather than later. 

I want to make big changes in my life and carve a career that I can be proud of. 

I don't want to stay put in my 'comfortable rut' just because it is the easy option.  

In the next 2 years I want to have resigned, gathered up enough work experience to re-write my entire CV, and I want to be in a new job pushing myself forward so that I can succeed. I want to have to have taken the chance on that fork in the road and see where that yellow brick road will carry me. 

After all if I don't put myself out there now, I never will.

Success is not a destination, it's a journey and I am more than ready to grab life with both hands.

The a B. Creative You Hue Review

Leo and I are John Crane Ambassadors for the Summer of 2013.

We have been un-able to contain our excitement after last months review of the Tidlo Animal Sorting Cube and the build up to this months...

This month Leo and I are inviting you to come and take a seat with us, as Leo demonstrates his arty skills on his You Hue. The You Hue is essentially a miniature children's desk that comes equipped with 10 chunky marker pens that are perfect for little hands!

The You Hue provides your toddler a flat space to work on while he picks from an array of marker pen colours, and even has a storage compartment under the work space. I have found it a great hideaway to store paper for Leo so that we can get a new piece out as soon as he has coloured the entirety of the previous piece. This storage space is also a great place to store past works of art before they make it onto the fridge.

Leo has been spending a lot of his time at this desk, either rolling his toy cars along it or with his pens in hand as he draws up his next wonderful creation. The desk is the perfect height for a toddler to sit or kneel on the floor, and has 6 pen holders along the back of the table. These pens are easily accessed by the budding young artist during his creative moments, and it is really great to see him so involved in what he is doing.

I have to admit that when I saw the marker pens I was a little bit wary, after all my little man has been known to get creative everywhere but on the paper before now...But I am pleased to report that we have had no 'instances', but that could be down to my watchful eye. It was only the other week that Leo took my liquid eyeliner and un-twisted the lid so that he could flick the contents of the bottle all over my bedroom walls...That was one creative moment that I couldn't quite wipe off the walls quickly enough!

On either side of the desk you will find more storage space, space that I have been using to hide marker pens in so that Leo can't sneak over and create another master piece on my walls... This may be over cautious but I like to air on the possibility! The marker pens included in this lovely set our non-toxic and washable (off people, I wouldn't like to say how they would fair on the play room walls...You will have to try this for yourself!). I have had no problems getting any pen marks off Leo's hands, and it is nothing a good soak in the bath won't sort out. 

The You Hue is suitable from the age of 2 (Leo turned 2 a week ago) and I think this is a fair guideline. The only thing is Leo can be a little rough with the markers and I am worried that he will damage the tips of the pens, so I have been very thoughtful and been handing him the colours he want's to work with, taking the lid off and keeping it safe until he has finished with it, and then I pop the lid back on and hand him the next colour.

As you can see from some of these photos, Leo's kitten is also very keen on the You Hue. In fact I could have saved lot's of money on kitten toys as Tigger actually likes all of Leo's toys! In these photos our curious little kitty is chasing Leo's hand as he draws his latest piece.

I think the You Hue is really great and it has given Leo a little space of his own to create something of his own, something that he really enjoys. I love watching him beam his big beautiful smile as he shows me his latest drawing, just as much as he loves my reaction when I exclaim just how amazing it is.

You can purchase the a B. Creative You Hue at Amazon for £24.99 at the point of writing this review. If your little one loves drawing and wants a little space to sit and do just that with a set of really great markers, I highly recommend the You Hue.

Disclaimer: I was sent the You Hue for the purpose of this review as a John Crane Ambassador 2013. All views and opinions expressed are completely honest and my own.

Be green and cut costs by upcycling this summer

Be green and cut costs by upcycling this summer

If you’re an environmentally conscious individual then you’ll probably already be making an effort to be green around your home. For some people this might mean keeping the thermostat at a reasonable level to cut energy usage or even going as far as taking out boiler cover to ensure the central heating remains functioning effectively.

Such changes can of course also help you to save cash and if that’s important to you then upcycling is well worth considering. This can be easily achieved by assessing whether items you have lying around your home are only suitable for the bin or could still serve a purpose in some way. If you’re a creative type then it can also help you to have a home crammed with pieces that are both stylish and unique.  Here are a few ideas we think you might like to try yourself.

VHS box wall mount

It’s probably fair to say that most people have upgraded from VHS to DVD or Blu-ray in more recent years. So while your old videos may no longer have much purpose that’s not to say you couldn’t still find a use for the cases they came in. Removing the paper insert provides you with a blank space to fill with a favourite image of your own, printed to fit the box. You could then screw the packaging in to the wall for an unusual photo frame that also serves as a handy storage space for small items.

Give old clothes a fresh look

If your wardrobe is in need of being freshened up then don’t despair, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to hit splash out excessive amounts on the high street. It might be a better idea to firstly take stock of what you own already in order to find out if any items can be given a new lease of life. A pair of jeans that have seen better days could be cropped to make some stylish vintage shorts that are right on trend for festival season, while old t-shirts can be livened up too by cutting off sleeves and – if you’re feeling creative – sewing on new ones for an interesting contrast look. There are a number of tutorials online offering tips about how to change clothes.

Give drinks bottles a new purpose

If you enjoy a tipple then why not consider ways in which you could continue to get use from the bottle long after the contents have been consumed? Wine bottles in particular can make an interesting vase and covering them with anything from fabric to paper can further improve their appearance.

And why stop there? Decorative bottles can also make a great alternative to traditional photo frames - simply slip a snap of your choice inside along with some shells, coloured stones or beads for a unique way of showing off a favourite picture.

Save up your jars

Jars can be recycled easily enough but you might also find they have a number of other uses around the home before you do so. Why not turn mason jars in to unique drinking glasses? These could be the ideal choice for a dinner party and seem to be increasingly popular with bars for serving cocktails in. You could also turn them in to attractive soap dispensers by drilling a hole in the lid and inserting the pump. Alternatively, they may be ideal for storing candles and giving them the shelter they need to keep burning outdoors long in to the evening. This is a great way to avoid having to use additional energy and could help to keep your energy bills low during summer.

Disclaimer: This is a Sponsored Post

The Pink Lining Black Cabs Wheelie Suitcase Review

Pink Lining are a brand that I can often be found lusting over, they have an entire range of beautiful bags from extremely practical changing bags to wheelie suitcases, and as you would expect they all come in the most stylish of designs and include the coveted pink lining!

I am the very proud owner of the Yummy Mummy Blue Bouquet bag that I have been using since last October and it is still serving me well now. So when the chance came around to add the Black Cab Wheelie Suitcase to my Pink Lining shrine, I was very quick to take the opportunity by both hands.

I was sent the suitcase a few months ago on the run up to Brit Mums Live so that I could take it along as my weekend bag. It was the perfect choice as it allowed me to take a great variety of clothing and fit in absolutely everything I needed for the weekend. 

The suitcase is absolutely beautiful, it is made out of cotton canvas and laminated in EVA coating so that it is easy to wipe clean. I love the black taxi cab design and think it looks really great, I have certainly had many compliments from friends, family and passers by on just how super my suitcase is. I have to say that I am more than inclined to agree with them.

The wheelie case has a metal frame and casing in order to create extra luggage capacity, it is incredibly easy to pull along and even when full is easily transported. The bag boasts a large outside pocket which I have found incredibly valuable for storing my mobile phone and other items such as my Brit Mums Live ticket! It would be just as handy for travel documents and essentials you may need direct access too sooner rather than later.

On the Inside of the bag you will find the traditional Pink Linking along with a zipped pocket for any other valuables that you want to store away. There is a padded strap that you can add onto the bag so that you can carry it on your shoulder easily without it becoming to un-comfortable. If you are traveling light then this strap is perfect, especially if you cannot pull it along for any particular reason. This bag is described as being perfect for fitting in an airplanes overhead lockers, I haven't got poof of this yet but I am travelling to Cyprus in August and plan on using this bag as my hand luggage so I can confirm this then.

The handles and shoulder strap are thick and pad out the strap perfectly and the entire look of the bag tells me that it is built to last a long time. 

Brit Mums was not the first time I used this bag as I used it back in May to go away for a week in Devon. I managed to pack everything I would need for an entire week and that is including my own clothes as well as Leo's, I did pack light and the suitcase was full to the brim but I managed to comfortably pack absolutely everything in there. 

Bag Dimensions:

51cm in length by 21.5cm in height, by 29cm in width

I travelled with the suitcase on the train and then hopped into a taxi on my journey to Brit Mums. I was really thankful for the suitcase as it was so simple to navigate the hustle and bustle of London with it just wheeling along behind me looking pretty. I knew that on the way back this suitcase may be a little heavier what with all of my Brit Mums goodies, so I had deliberately packed light to leave enough room to pack a number of the goodies away for the journey home. 

I really love this bag and I would highly recommend it for weekends away, or even a week away. I found the size perfect for my personal needs and think that it will be the perfect solution to my hand luggage in August, god knows I need to pack a lot to keep my little man entertained on a....4 hour flight!

The Black Cab Wheelie Suitcase retails at £105.00 but at the point of writing this review it is on a special sale offer at £52.50. If you are swooning over this suitcase then NOW is the time to get it on order, as this bag is absolutely beautiful and sure to turn a few heads on it's travels. Not forgetting that this bag is completely practical and going to last you a long time.

Disclaimer: I was sent the Pink Lining Black Cab Wheelie Suitcase for the purpose of this review however all views and opinions expressed are completely honest and my own.