Car seats for bigger toddlers too young for booster seat. Help!

[alittlebitshy]

My ds is only 2y3m but is tall and sturdy. My dd who is now 7 was fairly big too (I blame 6ft dh) but we didn't have this issue with her - or perhaps i was more naive .

I was talking to a friend who scared me. She was saying that she had put her ds into a high back booster - he is only 2 months older than my ds. She had gone to the shops intending to buy one of the boosters with a 5 point harness but was told that above a certain weight (18 kilos max) the harness is not safe, as it is not designed to hold in a heavier child, unlike the car's seatbelt. I was very , as i know she has merrily had her ds in a booster on occasion before but have been doing some research and see that it is true and in this country there are very few options for car seats with 5 point harness for children over 18kg.

I have seen this Graco which looks promising assuming it fits ok in our car. Has anyone any experience of this or other similar seats?

I think ds is still just over 2kg away from needing this but I want to gather my information as that will pass in no time.

Thanks.

bumping

I had that problem. When my dd2 grew out of her seat. I took a tape measure and bought the one with the biggest hight in the harness I could find. It was between the duo issofix and the elvolva one two three. I went for the duo as the other one didn't fit where I need it to be able to fit. The harness also only went up to 18kg which is the same as all of them.

The shop wanted me to buy a booster with a back as they said my child would have less than a year in it. she was in it for nearly 2 years what price can you put on safety.

The graco seat you are looking at also only has the harness until 18kg. If you look at the graco website you can look at the instructions.

If you look here you can get a two way elite which I think goes up to 25kg with the harness even if put forward facing. which is what I would look into buying if I was in the same situation now. If you email them they would be able to confirm that.

Thank you! very helpful.

It's the torso height that's the critical bit (i.e. a child with a short torso would harness longer than a child with a long torso). If you sit your DS down against a wall and measure to the top of his shoulder - that will give his seated torso height. You can then use that measurement to check which car seat would give the longest use. The Two Way Elite has a torso height of 18" (IIRC).

My 5yr8mth DS is still harnessed in a Britax Elite. She says it is a very comfortable seat! It'll keep her harnessed until 25kgs. It is easy to install...we all seem to like it!

I think on the rearfacing website there is a link to car seat SE (a swedish site), but I spotted on there a brand new RF seat from graco with a v tall seat shell that stays RF until 25kg :) quite exciting, and possibly worth a look?

Here is a link to that one- it's called the belogic.....looks interesting.... www.carseat.se/store.html