Advise on large baby and car seat please

[MrsSnaplegs]

Hi we have a 21 week old baby who currently weighs 9.3kg/20lb 7 and is only about 1 inch short of his head being at the top of his current group 0 seat (61cm long when measured 8 weeks ago). He can sit pretty much unaided, just the odd topple over if he leans too far in one direction, his head and neck support are good and have been for a while. He is clearly going to have grown out of this car seat within the next 4 weeks or so at the rate he is growing.

We have a Group 1 we used for his older sister which from a weight perspective he is suitable for however I am concerned as he is so young as to whether we can use this or not. I am aware of the group 0+ seats but not sure whether we need one or if the Group 1 will be ok.

Can anyone advise?

Rear facing is the safest way to travel for children under the age of 4 years (as per the BMJ see here) so as your baby is only 21 weeks a rear facing car seat would be the only one I would recommend.

Sitting up abilities and head control are not very good indicators of forward facing capability (contrary to what a lot of baby shops/magazines promote) as it is mainly about the proportion of head to body (babies what ever their size have a proportionally heavier head than an adult) and the ossification of the vertebrae (the vertebrae aren't fused until 3-6 years and are more vulnerable to damage before they are fused).

You get a rear facing car seat from Volvo which goes from 9-25kg rear facing, you can use it forward facing up to 18kg or you can use it as a high backed booster to 25kg. It is a Britax seat but re-branded as Volvo and sells for around £130 from a Volvo dealership.

HTH

£130 is definitely above my current budget I will have to look for something less expensive if we have to get another seat.

The 0+ seats all look the same size dimension wise as he is currently in

The 0+1 combination seats look no different to the group 1 seat we have

If we are able to fit this other seat rear facing it would work but I don't see how we can!

Sorry should have linked to the seat. It's also know as the Britax Multi-tech and you can see it here here. It's not a group 0+/1 seat as that's 0-13kg rf and 9-18kg ff, it's group 1-2 seat 9-25kg rf, 9-18kg ff and 15-25kg as a high back booster.

There is a gallery of rfing pictures here and there is a picture of two older toddlers/children rfing in the MT on the 3rd slide so you have some idea of what they look like in use. There is also an installation video here.

Unfortunately this seat (as Volvo) is the cheapest rearfacing seat on the market but it would take your son to around age 6 so would work out at £2 a month for 5 months to 6 years.

A lot of the cheaper combination seats (e.g. Nania) are not 0+/1 but 0/1 which would be pointless for your DS as that is a 10kg max rfing.

Britax First Class, Concorde Ultimax, Maxi Cosi Opal, etc are 0+/1 but are are similar price point to the Volvo seat if not far more expensive.

It will not last as long as some of the seets recomended here, and I have no personal experence of it, but this is the cheapest 0+/1 seat I have seen. It will rearface to 13kg so may be an option www.kiddisave.co.uk/store/product/6917/Graco-Junior-Mini-Car-Seat-2011/

Thank you all think I will have to save some pennies for next month!!