DD can't sleep in her Group 2/3 seat - ideas?

[Dysgu]

DD1 (nearly 4 yo and exactly 18kg) has been in her group 2/3 car seat for the past fortnight. It is a Graco Logico LX RallySport Car Seat so sort of a mid-range one.

It is comfortable to sit in and she loves it, especially the two drinks containers!

BUT she still naps in the car (she doesn't tend to nap in the day time generally but, if we are in the car and she is tired, she will fall asleep - for anything up to 2 hours).

The only trouble is that, since moving into this new seat, she wakes up screaming (and she is not usually a screechy child ) after about 20 minutes complaining that her neck hurts. She does seem to fall asleep with her head almost tilted backwards so I guess she is getting a cricked neck.

Normally I would just just leave it, but we have two very long car-trips to make in the next month, both of which involve travelling either in the early morning or at night (booked to coincide with her sleeping!)

So far we have tried:

1. using a seat belt adjuster - which holds the seat belt in a better position so it doesn't rub her neck but no solution to sleep problem.
   
   
2. using a cosysnooze seat-belt pillow - which she loves to cuddle but is positioned too low due to the head-rest of the car seat so she cannot fall asleep on it. We have tried putting the pillow, without the seat belt, on both sides of her head but it doesn't seem to have worked.
   
   
3. using one of those wrap-around neck pillows, which she thinks are for babies as it belongs to DD2, and it does fit nicely round her neck but doesn't stop her head from flopping back/sideways when she falls asleep.
   
   We are travelling this weekend and have several long drives of 4+ hours to get through.
   
   I Don't feel we can safely put her back into her MC Tobi for the journeys due to weight and height now - although that is what I am tempted to do (if I wasn't concerned for safety of course!)
   
   So does anyone have any ideas? Reviews say that other children manage to sleep quite happily in these seats - does anyone know what else I can try? Or can anyone suggest a car seat that supports the head fully? Should I simply get a group 1-2-3 seat as they have the head support for babies, would that work for a 4 year old?
   
   Thanks if you made it this far!

[nicm]

i would use the mc for the long journey if she has only just reached the 18kgs and as long as her eyes are not level/above the back of the tobi she still fits. i was going to suggest a neck pillow but see you've tried that. either that or can someone sit in the back and hold her head when she is sleeping? a pain in the a$%^ i know but better than listening to screaming?

:)

[Dysgu]

Thank you for replying.

Yes, I really think we might put her back in the MC Tobi but I read somewhere that that is the one seat that they say is not safe once any part of the head is above the top - whereas others say about 3 inches can be above the top of the seat and still be safe.

Sitting in the back with her might be an option but is not a comfy one as we only have a small seat (and my bum is too big )

Has anyone else heard about the MC Tobi 'top of head' rule?

I suppose i could swap DD1 and DD2 over so DD1 travels in DD2's Britax chair for a few days when we are travelling. Again, she is at the weight limit but maybe her head would be safer?

Hmm.

[castleonthehill]

The tobi is as soon as the shoulders are above the slots when they are up as far as they can go you are lucky it lasted that long. My dc was out of it just before three had to buy another stage one car seat. We have the britax kid fix which has a good head rest my four and eight year old fall asleep after long days out and on long journey the britax adventure car seat also has the same head rest. I always recline the seat if I think she may fall asleep.

[Ilythia]

When we moved DD1 into her highback group2/3 we got her a wrap around neck pillow and matching seatbelt thing from tesco, nice pink disney princess [boak] but she loves it and it mostly stops the lolling.
She is 4.6 and still naps in the car on occasion so might be worth persuading her into a more long term solution than swapping seats back.

[HuckingFell]

kiddy seats and maxi cosi rodi both recline.

[raindroprhyme]

we have a britax advenyure which my 5 year old loves to sleep in.
he is never comfy in the graco seat his grandma has in her car.
not much help sorry, def think it is to do with the angle of the recline on the graco

[Dysgu]

Thank you for the replies - sorry I have not been back sooner but things are always a bit hectic prior to going away.

I have tried DD1 is DD2's Britax seat and the head rest seems higher and the shoulder straps are just by the top of her shoulders. So I think we will swap the seats and put DD2 in the MC Tobi for the next few days whilst we are away.

I may look into the Britax Adventure seat as a replacement for the Graco once we get back next week. I don't mind buying a new seat as we can always swap DD1 back into the Graco in a couple of years when she will probably not be sleeping in the car so much and then DD2 can have the Britax Adventure when she needs a new seat.

Thank you all.