Kiddy Evo-Lunafix 0+ Infant Car Seat review

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Shortly after LM was born, we were asked if we would like to review the new and innovative car seat from German brand Kiddy. The Kiddy Evo-Lunafix car seat is a 0+ car seat meaning it is suitable from birth – 13kg (approx. 15 mths). It is innovative because it has patented Kiddy Lie Flat Technology and is the first car seat that can be moved into an ergonomic lie-flat position which is best for baby’s spine.

The general rule is that newborn babies should not be in a car seat for more than 30 minutes, and older babies no more than 2 hours, as it is not good for their little backs and because the position of their legs can press on their stomach and lungs, potentially leading to breathing difficulties. With the Evo-Lunafix there is no such time limit as baby can be laying flat, in the car or on the pushchair.

I was really intrigued and excited to take a look at this fantastic new car seat!

image courtesy of kiddy.de

The seat works in conjunction with the Kiddy Isofixbase2 which makes the seat easy to click and lift in and out of the car. We previously had the Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix and isofix base and we love being able to click the car seat in without faffing about with straps. (It is worth noting that the Evo-Lunafix cannot be used in a car without the isofix base. A list of cars compatible with the Isofix base can be found here. The Kiddy Evolution Pro 2 can be used without isofix, I haven’t reviewed it but I understand that while it won’t recline in the car, it can be reclined on the pushchair or flat, i.e once you get home.)

If anything, the Kiddy seat clicks in easier than our Maxi-Cosi seat and is a little lighter. It is fantastic to be able to just click the seat in and go. It is quite long however and in our car (an 08 Honda Civic) it is a bit snug and in order for it to fit in the lie-flat position the front seat has to be pulled quite far forward, which isn’t great for Hub’s long legs! I guess it depends on exact dimensions in the car and the angles of the seats, a smaller car than ours may have more room in the back. With the handle in the recline position the length from handle to the foot of the seat is 76cm, if that helps anyone!

The lie-flat function of the seat is linked with the handle, so by pushing the handle back, the position of the seat changes so that baby is lying flat. There is a great animation of this on the Kiddy website. This is a fantastic feature if you are going on a long journey with your little one as they can happily lie in the back of the car without you having to worry about the effect it has on their back or their breathing. It is also great if, like most babies, your little one tends to fall asleep in the car seat. Often when out for a walk or in the car LM has fallen asleep and when you get home there is the usual dilemma. Do I move her and risk waking her? Or leave her be? How long should I leave her in the car seat for? With the Kiddy Evo-Lunafix there is no dilemma. Because you can have baby in the lie flat position, there is no rush to move her.

LM comfily dozing in the lie-flat position after a trip out

The only downside to the movement being linked to the handle is potentially having to change baby’s position when moving the seat from the car to the buggy – I guess it depends how light a sleeper your baby is, although you can move the seat without using the handle, but it is certainly trickier!

The Kiddy Evo-Lunafix can be used as a travel system, as with many car seats these days. You can get connectors which fit on to a lot of pushchairs. Unfortunately it isn’t compatible with the Phil & Teds Pushchair we have so Kiddy kindly sent us their City’nMove pushchair for the purpose of the review ( separate review on that to follow). It attaches pretty easily and again means that if you are out and about, baby can lie flat in the car seat and be moved indoors still in the flat position. You can find a list of compatible pushchairs on the Kiddy website (if you scroll almost to the bottom, below the video you will see the full list). The buttons to detach the car seat from the travel system adaptor are in a slightly awkward position for lifting the seat off the pushchair, but it is easily do-able.

out and about

The car seat comes in some gorgeous colours and we opted for the lovely teal option, Hawaii. It has a fantastic sunshade which I love as it extends a long way, giving a lot of protection from the sun which can sometimes be very harsh on a little baby staring up at the sky! It also has a slatted design which prevents baby’s back from getting to sweaty. With Monkey being a summer baby I found that he very quickly became uncomfortable sitting in a hot car seat so this definitely appeals to me.

protected from the sun by the fab sunshade

Because the seat is in the 0+ group it adapts as your baby grows. There is a newborn insert, which honestly we never needed for LM, and you can also get an insert for tiny or premature babies too. The height adjust is actually one of my favourite things on this car seat (saddo I know) because it is so easy to do. I admit to dreading changing the height setting on some of our previous car seats as they are just a rigmarole, whereas adjusting the height on this one took seconds.

I do have a couple of slight niggles about the straps on this seat though. The button to lengthen the straps is under the fabric and is in the perfect position with the handle is up, but when the seat is in a lie-flat position it is tricky to locate in order to lengthen the straps if you want to strap baby in once they are in that position. Also, our Maxi-Cosi seat has a some handy places to tuck in the straps while you put the baby in the seat. Without these the straps do have the tendency to fall back and end up under baby. Not a huge issue and certainly not a deal breaker, but being used to having a seat with places to tuck the straps we noticed their absence.

In summary:

Pros

There is no doubt that the Lie-Flat function is fantastic and a huge plus point – giving you peace of mind when baby is in the car seat for extended periods of time.
The maxi sunshade is brilliant and gives a lot of protection from the sun
The slatted back prevents baby’s back from getting too hot and sweaty
It has the easiest height adjust I have seen on an infant car seat
Super easy to click in and out of the car on the Isofix2 base
Compatible with a wide variety of pushchairs
Lovely vibrant colours and designs

Cons

With the lie-flat function attached to the handle, it is tricky to move the seat when in the lie-flat position.
No tie backs for the straps and the button to lengthen the straps is tricky to locate in the lie-back position.
The buttons to detach from the travel system adaptor are in a slightly awkward place when lifting the seat
It is quite long when in the lie-flat position (76cm) so may be snug in smaller cars.

So yes, in order to provide a balanced review there are a couple of things that niggle me a little with the Kiddy Evo-Lunafixcar seat – but I don’t think any car seat is ever going to be perfect and I think the lie-flat function outweighs any cons I have found. None of them inhibit the use of the seat and I found you just got used to them and worked around them after a while.

This car seat really is the first of its’ kind with this ability to recline the seat and make it safer for our babies. It is a lovely style and so easy to use as it clicks so simply in and out of the Isofixbase2. LM is super comfy in it and it has lots of lovely features, such as the slatted back, and the longer than average sunshade, which make it even comfier for her. It really is a great car seat with a great solution to the problem of how long to keep a baby in a car seat.

We received the Kiddy Evo-Lunafix Car Seat or the purpose of this review however all thoughts, opinions and photographs are my own.

Car seats for tall babies and children

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Monkey is not quite 2 1/2 yet, but at over 3ft he is seriously tall for his age and his current car seat has been feeling really small for him. Trying to look for the best car seat for your child can be so difficult as they all vary and are based on age and weight. Please note this post contains some amazon affiliate links, for further information please click here.

Car Seat groups:

Group	Child’s weight	approx. age of child
0	birth up to 10kg/22lb	birth up to 6-9 months
0+	birth up to 13kg/29lb	birth up to 12-15 months
0+ & 1	birth up to 18kg/40lb	birth to up to about 4 years
1	9-18kg/20-40lb	about 9 months to 4 years
1 & 2	9-25kg/20-55lb	about 9 months to 6 years
2	15-25kg/33-55lb	about 4 to 6 years
1, 2, 3	9-36kg/20-79lb	about 9 months to 12 years
2 & 3	15-36kg/33-79lb	about 4-12 years

Looks confusing doesn’t it? When Monkey was a newborn we started off with a Maxi Cosi Cabriofix car seat (Group 0+), with Easyfix base, for ease of getting it in and out of the car mainly. We loved it, it was such a handy car seat and we hoped it would last quite a while Unfortunately though because Monkey was on the 98th percentile of the growth chart he outgrew this seat pretty early. To move onto the next group of car seat they need to be around 9kg, which is estimated at being at about 9 months of age. Our tall baby was already 9 1/2 kg by 5 1/2 months and just far too long to be comfortable in this seat much longer.

Because of his size, as soon as he was able to sit by himself (around 5 1/2 – 6 mths) we moved on to a group 1 car seat. We chose the Maxi Cosi Axiss because we liked the handy swivel of the seat. My car (an 08 Honda Civic) has really wide back doors, which means that in tight parking spaces it is impossible to open them very far. Having a seat the swivelled when you put the little one in made life so much easier for us. We have loved this seat and it has grown really well with Monkey… until now. (In the below pictures he is in the Axiss at 8mths old and 21 mths old )

For a group 2 seat, they usually say the child should be around age 4, or over 15kg. A group 2 seat is also what is known as a booster seat. With a group 2 seat there is no harness and instead the child is strapped in with the car’s 3 point seatbelt, whilst sat on a seat. They vary in terms of support but it can vary from a very simple, basic little booster seat (the kind I remember sitting on as a kid) to something more resembling a car seat.

As I said at the beginning of the post, Monkey is not quite 2 1/2, but he is just growing too big for his group 1 seat. The highest level for the straps is actually below his shoulders, which means they come up and over his shoulders before going down over his chest and he just wasn’t comfortable in it any more. Plus his head was higher than the headrest, making it ever so slightly pointless. He has also just reached the 15kg mark.

But a group 2 seat, with just a normal seatbelt? Felt a bit scary to me. My friend has just moved her 3 1/2 year old onto a car seat with the normal 3 point seat belt and has mentioned how she can now pull the seat belt and wriggle around more. At a year younger than her I didn’t feel Monkey was ready for this at all. He certainly isn’t ready to just sit on a booster seat as I think he would slide off it!

I didn’t know what to do, but luckily there are seats which bridge the different groups. We popped to our local Kiddicare on Saturday morning and the young lad we spoke to there was just so so helpful. We talked about the different options and the fact that although 2 1/2 feels far too young to be in a bigger seat, that it really is weight, and in our case height, that is the most important thing for meeting the safety requirements.

In his big Boy Car Seat, the Kiddicare I seat

We tried out one of the Kiddicare Opus SP Group 1/2/3 car seats which definitely bridge the gap from a group 1 to a group 2 seat. It can be used as a group 2 car seat, using the cars 3 point seat belt restraint, but it also has a 3 point harness which you can remove as the child grows. The key factor for us was that this harness has more height levels, at and it’s highest level it is comfortably above Monkey’s shoulders, which is where it should be rather than part way down his back! It was also incredibly good value and a lot less than we had thought we would probably spend on a car seat, at just £39.99. There aren’t many seats on the market (that I have found anyway) that bridge the different group boundaries and the sales assistant showed us one other more expensive brand, though we couldn’t see anything about it that made it seem worth the extra money. There didn’t seem to be any extra padding or safety features etc.

We were really happy with this and about ready to buy when the sales assistant recommended we have a demonstration in the car. We weren’t fussed but said yes and thank goodness we did as sadly the seat didn’t fit in my car! The angle just wasn’t right and there was a big gap between the back of the seat and the car. Thankfully they had the same design seat with a few variations for just £10 more. The Kiddicare I seat (sadly I can’t find this available on their website but it was in stock in the Peterborough store). It has moveable arm-rests (not a big selling point) but also wedges on the bottom of the seat which you can lift to change the angle of the seat. With these lifted the seat fit perfectly into my car, phew!

Monkey loves his new big boy car seat and we are relieved to know he is safe and comfortable in a bigger seat. Do you have tall children? How did you get on choosing car seats? Did they fit into the ‘average’ age bracket?

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Car seats

Kiddy Evo-Lunafix 0+ Infant Car Seat review

Car seats for tall babies and children

Car Seat groups: