Car seat help!

[Casperroonie]

Help please! I realise I might incredibly thick about this but I've read all sorts and still can't quite work this out...
My beautiful DD is very petite for her age, she's just 8 and 20 kg. She is using a full car seat, just not with the harness as obviously she's too big for that. I know others her age are just using the booster part of the seat rather than the whole thing, but I'm convinced she still needs the full seat at her weight. Her seat is just a normal seat, no isofix etc but a Joie stage 2/3.

Advice please!!!! 🙂

My dd is similar to yours and is in a full seat as well. How tall is she? Legally she can go in a backless booster at 125cm but safer to stay in the full seat.

I think they would have to be 125cm and weigh at least 22kg before they can use a backless booster seat. They would be safer in a high back booster still.

it's parental choice once they meet the minimum requirement, but my nearly 8 year old is still in a high back booster and they will stay there until they don't fit the booster anymore. If money isn't a problem your dd might feel better in one of the high back boosters rather than the joie stages which is an up to age 7 (ish) seat

Can you go into somewhere like Smyths and get some advice? We got ours from there and they were super helpful x

So she’s currently using a high backed booster? My DD is 7 and most of her friends are still in high backed boosters so I don’t think she’ll stand out if using one at 8YO. You haven’t said how tall she is but if she’s 125cm then she can also swap to backless booster cushion. Yes they’re less safe as no side impact protection but there’s a balance and the backless seats are good for when they feel a bit self conscious that a lot of their friends are tall enough to go without a seat but they aren’t yet. But that probably isn’t at aged 8, since the vast majority will still be in HBBs, probably more like age 10+ if she still isn’t 135cm and/or can’t get a good belt fit by then.

Thank you, she's 130cm.

Full high back is correct :)

A lot of people want to switch them to a backless booster as soon as possible but it's safer to have them in a full high back, as long as it's fitted correctly (shoulder belt guide in the right place etc).

Actually, if she's 130cm and in the Joie Stages then I would check whether the headrest/shoulder belt guide is correct, as she is likely to be near if not over the position of the top headrest with her height. It's rated for up to 25kg which means it is designed for a top height of approx 125cm (bearing in mind some children are all legs and some have longer bodies!) You will get to a point where you can't adjust it up any higher so it won't be suitable for her any more. At that point you could replace with a full size high back booster which will take her up to the 140-150cm where they don't need to use a car seat at all any more. (The law says minimum 135cm, but most children don't get a good fit without a booster seat at this height.)

As others have said if you did want to swap to a backless booster when she outgrows the Stages, she needs to be at least 22kg minimum.

My child is 9.5, 30kg, 143cm and still in a high back booster, she absolutely should be in one and what’s the advice you’re looking for? She’s in the right seat for her age and size.