Rear facing, fitted, before you need it
Fit the seat before the due date. A box in the hallway does not restrain a baby, and the trip home is not the moment to learn the manual.
Australian law, as Raising Children states it, says children up to 7 years use a child car seat in a motor vehicle. The right type depends on age and size, and on any extra needs. Safest is the seat that matches their size, even if a birthday says they could move up. Bigger is not a promotion.
From birth, for at least the first 6 months, the legal minimum is a rear-facing seat with an inbuilt harness. That can be a capsule built for those early months, or a convertible seat locked rear facing. Rear facing is the minimum, not a fussy extra.
An extended rear-facing seat is one a child can keep using until about 2 or 3 years. If the seat allows it and they still fit, staying rear facing longer is available to you. Do not flip them forward because their legs look folded.
Look at the limits in the instructions, height and weight, not at a vibe.
Capsules get small fast. Hiring one, organised before the birth, is the suggestion on the page. Buying a seat they outgrow in months is how money disappears.
Either way it has to be fitted properly. If you are not sure, get it checked by someone who does this, rather than trusting a ten minute install you did angry. The page points to further reading on choosing and installing.
Use it. Anchors and belts are not decorative.
From 6 months up to 4 years, the minimum legal requirement is a rear-facing harnessed seat or a forward-facing harnessed seat. Minimum. The forward-facing step is allowed in that window.
It is not a race. Read when your particular seat says they can turn, and follow the stricter of the law and the manufacturer. A convertible seat must actually be configured the way you think it is.
Clicked the wrong way is not a grey area.
Booster seats and adult belts come later, with their own rules, including harnesses if you only have a lap belt. You do not need that paragraph on day one. You need the rear-facing seat in the car this week.
Never leave them sleeping in the seat once the drive is done. That belongs with safe sleep. Out of the car, out of the capsule, onto a firm flat back.
The seat did its job on the road. It is not a cot.
Source: Raising Children Network