My 20 month old is still in her Cabriofix. Is this odd?

[Mrsfrumble]

She still fits fine. She weighs about 10kg, her head isn't over the top of the seat, her shoulders aren't squashed. She's petite, but not tiny (between 9th and 25th centile for height and weight). Her legs are quite long but she just puts her feet up against the back of the seat.

My MIL was shocked! She (jokingly, I think) implied that it was cruel. I must admit we've had some funny looks when we've carried her out of the car in it, usually when she's fallen asleep. People have peered under the hood and obviously been surprised to see such a 'grown up' baby, with all her hair and her proper shoes.

We're not endangering her or doing her any harm are we? What's the longest anyone has kept their child in an infant stage seat?

[Ginismyfriend]

Definitely not - DD was in hers until then (we only moved her then because she was too tall) and we moved her from there into an ERF seat which she's still in now at nearly 4. My family think we're insane. But it's about weight rather than age...

[ihaveadirtydog]

Mine was in it until around then too.

And I actually used it in an emergency when she was nearly 3 and she still fit in it safely ( she is titchy though!)

[SecretNutellaFix]

If she still fits in and her head is not poking out the top it's still safest for her.

[runlikeagirl]

My dd would still fit in hers at 22 months. We switched because of how my ds needs to climb into his seat safely. But I've used a baby seat for her when I needed to take a friends child.

[LittleBearPad]

My DD was in hers until 16 months but is on a larger centile for height than yours. If she fits then she's safe. Carry on - such a good seat.

[Mrsfrumble]

Thanks for the reassurance. I see so many threads about needing to move babies up to the next stage seat before their first birthdays that I was wondering if we'd missed some safety guidelines or something. I guess I should count myself lucky that she's quite small so cheaper and more portable!

I think we'll move her soon. Her brother is 3.7 and in a Britax first class, so we'll get a new seat for him and have her RF in the Britax. I'm keen to hang on to the Cabriofix precisely because it's so easy to move her if she falls asleep in it (which she does regularly).

[RandomMess]

Most people are in a rush to move their dc into forward facing as they don't realise they offer far less protection than rear facing and that potential broken legs are nothing to spinal or neck injuries.

[stargirl1701]

Probably but we did it too. DD was in the Maxi Cosi infant seat until 18 months. I got more 'looks' when we chose an ERF seat after that!

[Polyethyl]

I got comments for keeping my DD in her cabriofix until she was 16 months. And she's a big girl, 75th percentile. We've moved on to a rear facing axkid minikid - which is superb.

[Mrsfrumble]

If she stays on the small side I'll be able to keep her rear facing for a long time in the Britax too. We turned DS forward facing when he was about 2. I wanted to keep him rear facing and he was way under the upper weight limit for having the Britax RF, but I caved to family pressure . Not this time!

[AliceMum09]

My DD2 is 26 months old, weighs 10kgs and her head is not yet at the top of her Britax Cosy Tot infant carrier (this is a 9 year old version of the current Britax Baby Safe infant carrier, but it is exactly the same seat).

We don't use it on a day-to-day basis (she has a Britax Multi Tech II ERF seat) but it's handy to have a 'portable' option for taxis.

What's cruel about keeping your child in the most safe seat for their weight? Age and legs dangling over the end have nothing to do with it!

[Thurlow]

Actually I don't think we took DD out of her 'baby' car seat until she was just about to turn 2. And even then she fitted fine, it was just that the straps stopped being long enough.

[MrsKwazii]

If she fits comfily into it, what's the issue? None that Ican see. The minimum weight for our stage 1 car seat is 9kg, but that's the lowest limit, not an absolute instruction IYSWIM.

[Mrsfrumble]

I think MIL was implying it was cruel because DD can't see anything when she's in it. That was how I was persuaded to turn DS forward facing, by my mum telling me he must be bored with looking at the back of the seat!

But DD has only ever been in the Cabriofix so she doesn't know any better. She usually falls asleep on longer journeys anyway, and she has DS next to in the back seat for company. He sings to her and tells us what she's up to.

[AliceMum09]

If you have one rear facing and one forward facing they can actually interact together better than if they were both facing forward. Sometimes we use the two pull-up seats in the boot of our car, and DD2 loves chatting to whoever is back there!