Car seat belt advice.

[KidCaneGoat]

I have a Joie car seat which can be used with the five point integrated seat belt and the normal one. My DC is tall enough now that the five point seat belt shoulder straps are below the height of his shoulders. The instructions say that they should be at or slightly above his shoulders. They can be raised and higher. He’s not at the weight limit for them tho. Should he now be using the adult seatbelt with the seat? I’ve emailed Joie but they didn’t reply. And it’s not clear on the instruction what to do if they get too tall before they get too heavy for the 5 point straps.

Sorry that should say they can’t be raised any higher.

Anyone know?

You should follow the advice of the instruction manual. Usually there's some sort of table at the front for multi-stage car seats which gives the min/max weights for each stage.

First of all, do you need to remove the seat from the car to adjust the harness straps? Just want to be sure you're definitely at the maximum height. Check your manual as some car seats do need you to do this.

It is important the harness straps fit correctly. My kids are long in the body so sometimes they went up a stage based on the straps/head restraint height when they met the minimum weight requirement for the next stage of our car seat (even if they weren't at the maximum weight for the previous stage).

Basically, you must follow the information in your car seat manual. Everything should be there.

Is he above the minimum weight for the adult seatbelt configuration?

If you don't want to move your child to an adult seat belt but they are no longer correctly harnessed as per your car seat manual, then you will need to buy another car seat that fits your child better. Some are better suited to taller children and I'm sure starting a thread on here might get you some seats to look at.

As mentioned above, my kids are long in the body and we did have to buy an interim car seat from stage 0-0+/1 when DD outgrew the newborn carrier car seat.

Thank you everyone. I’ve taken it out and checked the straps don’t go any higher. It’s definitely at maximum. I hadn’t thought about checking for minimum weight for using the adult seatbelt so I’ll check that, thanks. He’s quite a skinny boy so that’s why he’s not at the weight limit yet of 18kg but has outgrown the straps. He just still seems so young/little to be using the adult belt. I’ll see what it’s like and then maybe have a look at a different type if needed. He’s probably only about 15.5kg so has a while to go before he reaches the 18kg limit for five point harness. Thanks again

This is why there's a weight range from 15-18kg for changeover- many children will outgrow sizewise before weightwise.

If he's under 4yo, you could chose to get a harnessed seat up to 25kg to get a bigger seat frame

He’s 4 already. I think I’m just going to have to change it over. I didn’t realise it was common for them to outgrow size before weight. I thought maybe I’d missed something obvious.

Yes, he's too big for the straps now. They are outgrown either by the weight limit or when the child is too tall according to the manual, whichever happens first. Are you definitely sure the headrest can't go any higher? On the Joie seats that turn into high back booster seats the harness is unusually tall for a group 1 seat so I'm surprised he would outgrow it so far below the weight limit. BTW, is it a seat which can go rear and forward facing, or just forward? With rear facing seats you can usually keep using them once the child is a little over the harness. How old is he? And is he still in nappies?

You can buy seats which harness up to 25kg which tend to have a larger harness in them so they don't outgrow it.

Even if he's over 4 you could always buy a new seat if you would prefer him in a harness. The Joie bold is £135 at argos and John Lewis. However you need top tether and isofix in your car.

I remember the anxiety the first time DS went to the adult seat belt. He was just over 3.5yo (as mentioned above, tall and his weight was in proportion). He was at the minimum weight required for the move and the harness was on the limit. He did seem little but he wasn't safe staying with an outgrown harness.

We did need to train DS not to touch the seat belt though. I was worried he would want to wriggle out or unclip it but we laid on the 'big, grown-up boy' routine and he was fine. He's been in it now a year and he's very well behaved.

@BertieBotts it can go rear facing too but won’t fit behind the drivers seat then as my DH is tall. And the other rear facing one has to go behind the passenger seat.

The car seat belt can be used from 15kg normally

Ah I see, I've seen people have this same issue on one of the car seat groups recently. It's a shame as it's a very small booster. You might need to get another booster fairly soon as well in that case as I don't think the headrest goes up any further without the straps in - in some 123 seats it does.

Usually car seats if they are designed well will be meant to be outgrown by physical size before you get anywhere near the weight limit, because that reduces the risk of a parent using the seat (or a part of the seat, such as the integral harness) past the limit it's designed and safety tested for. The standards they use to design them look at an average height and take the 95th centile weight for that height and that's essentially how it works. You might have had even less time in a different Group 1 seat since they are usually built to about 105cm whereas the Joie Stages is about 115cm - but if your son has his height in his torso rather than his legs he might be a bit shorter than this.

Yes, they are OK from 15kg/1 metre/about age 3 in the adult belt (with high backed booster of course). But obviously some people prefer to keep them in a harness longer due to behaviour or developmental concerns and this is also fine. Personally I do not see a problem with it. DS1 was in one at 3 and was OK. When he went through a phase of wanting to unclip, we just told him he could do it if he waited until we said it was OK and that worked for him (and he has ADHD so you would expect him to be more impulsive).

We had the same issue with this seat, although it was great when we had it. Ds was too tall for it, with the adult seatbelt, by the time he was 5. It just doesn't go up high enough for taller children (weight was fine, he only just 25kg now at 7).

@BertieBotts that makes so much sense now you explain it about the size and weight. Otherwise they’d be too heavy for the straps and you might think they were still fine in it. He’s 50th centile for height but only 25th for weight. I don’t think he’ll try to unclip the adult belt or anything, so I’ll just swap him over. The seat apparently goes up to age 7 (25kg I think) but maybe he’ll outgrow it before then like @WreckTangled But that’s fine coz my younger DC can go into it then. You’ve all been so helpful