Imagine a world where every child car seat fits every car… that’s i-Size!

Ask any parent about child car seats and you'll more than likely be met with a look of despair!  It all starts with buying the right one:  possibly the parental equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest, even with an expert “guiding” you through the process.  You turn up at a store (or type in “child car seat” into Google) and are met with a vast array of seats in every shape, size and colour imaginable.  By the time you've told the store expert the age and weight of your child and which car (or, heaven forbid, cars!) you want to use the seat in, they've brought out a novel-sized list which turns out to be the paper equivalent of “computer says No!” to every seat you quite like the look of.  What seems like hours later, you finally end up with a couple of seats to try in your car.

Here we come to the second issue:  actually fitting them.  The store expert slots it in with perfect ease, then whips it out again and asks you to have a go.  I'm sure they do this deliberately for the look of horror on your face but, quite rightly, they need to be sure you can fit it again; no doubt after removing it to clean all manner of bodily fluids, food, drink, sand and who knows what from it throughout the course of its life.

Child car seats also seem to be the transport equivalent of flat-pack furniture.  You have the nice pictorial instructions, which for some people might as well be written in Martian, and most people get to the end only to think “what’s that bit for then?”  Eternally grateful for the patience of the store expert, in the end (hopefully) you come away with a seat that you and/or your partner can fit. Great! …Until one day you have to change car, or the Grandparents want to take your little one(s) for a day out and you're frantically searching the manufacturer's website for the dreaded “computer says No!” list.

Then there's the final problem:  the right of passage to the next stage seat (before the whole process starts again).  This is an important issue with the change from rearward to forward facing.  In many parental circles it is held in the same regard as the first tooth, the first word and moving on to solid food; taking on the form of a competition.

From six months, everyone's child seems to have “nearly grown out of their seat” because “their feet are dangling off the end”, or “their head is nearly touching the top”.  In actual fact this is almost certainly not the case, and is putting children at greater risk!  Why?  When a child is forward facing and a frontal collision occurs the child is flung forward in the seat, being caught by the harness.  This puts stress on the neck, the spine, and the internal organs.  In a rear facing car seat, the force of impact is distributed along the whole back of the seat so the neck, spine and internal organs are not subjected to the stress of the force and are therefore protected.  Rearward facing for longer is safer!

At present the requirement is to keep children rearward facing until they reach 9kg, even though most seats will hold them until they are 13kg and you can get bigger rearward facing seats that will go up to 18-25kg - but how old is that? And when should they go onto a seat using the normal seatbelt?

Anyone confused yet?

So, imagine a world where every child car seat fits every car… 

…A world where you go to the store with your child, choose from the range of seats suitable for their height and age and fit the seat in your car, and any other car, in one of two ways using clearly labelled points on the vehicle seat.

No, we're not in cloud cuckoo land; but believe it or not the future of child car seats is exactly that, and it's already started!  Today, 9 July 2013, the new ‘i-Size’ standards were introduced to run alongside the existing standards (R44.04).  Eventually i-Size will be the only standard and the parental minefield that is child car seats will be significantly cleared.

But, what is i-Size?  

i-Size utilises existing ISOfix fitting methods and specifies the dimensions of the vehicle's seat and surrounding area to ensure a standardised support leg and top tether can be used.

This means any i-Size seat will fit any i-Size compatible car.

i-Size also requires all children under 15 months to be in rearward facing seats.

Is it really that simple?

The details for all the stages aren't available yet, and some time is going to elapse before all vehicles are i-Size compatible, but it now offers parents a simpler option.

There's a great new website set up that has more information about i-Size and will be kept up to date with new developments, FAQs and further advice.

In the meantime, if you want any further advice or to have your child car seat checked take a look at the Good Egg Safety website where you can find expert advice and details of a checking event near you.