Does this car seat sound too small? Should I say something about it?

[Maamekin]

Our new neighbours have a child who looks about 2 years old.

The other day I saw them carrying her into the building in an infant carrier car seat (one of the small, rear facing ones).

She was asleep so maybe her head was lolling back more, but she looked way too big for it, the top of her head was well above the back of the seat. Her knees were hanging over the edge of the seat too, (although I know that doesn't necessarily matter)

I thought it might have been a one off, but I saw them again this morning taking her and the seat to a car. It even looked like they might have been strapping it in facing forwards, but I could well have been mistaken.

Does it sound like the seat is too small? Ought I to mention it to them? I haven't really spoken to them before, I don't speak the language and would find it really hard/impossible to put my point across to them, but if it was me I think I would like to be told if what I was doing was dangerous. Quite aside from the possibility that they might be putting the seat in the wrong way round - or is it possible that the seat is suitable to face both ways? It would be easier for me to write a note to them about it - I'm better at writing than speaking as I get more time, and is no issue with my appalling accent, but I'm worried that comes across worse than having a friendly word.

I'm not in the UK, I'm in Germany - I don't know about car seat laws here, as we don't have a car, but I'm worried about the little girl.

I'm sure those car seats only go up to 1 years old or a certain weight. Not sure what I'd do about it though sorry.

That's what I thought!

I suppose she could still be within the weight limit, but surely you can't have your head over the top, or it wouldn't be protected in an accident.

I'm debating if I should suggest to DH to talk to them as his language skills are better than mine - but I don't want to appear as the busybody interfering foreign family when they've only just moved in.

It's weight limit and head over top. Age and legs irrelevant.

The only thing you could do is find an illustration on Internet and post it through door.

yes, it does sound too small. i wonder if they're going on the weight and she hasn 't reached the limit, and they don't know that you should take them out if their head is over the top?

i wonder if you could find a leaflet about correct seats and drop it through their door?

I like the leaflet in the letterbox idea...no idea where I would find one though

i would just google "car seat law" or something and see what you come up with, there might be something you can print off

i just tried myself, but failing to find anything non-english due to google's "oh so clever" auto-detect location

I have found some stuff on the Britax website about when to move up to the next size seat which DH is going to print out at work.

Still a bit worried it seems rather passive aggressive and they're going to be annoyed .

Do you know where they've moved from? Perhaps it's a temporary solution until they can get a seat which fits?

Don't suppose you happen to have a spare group 1 seat lying around?

Perhaps see if you can find any offers on car seats nearby and then take a leaflet round to them with some cake or something to welcome them to their new home and then say you saw this leaflet and picked it up as you noticed they had a young child who was looking a bit squashed but you couldn't believe the prices (or something)?

Well, they won;t know it was you. and if they genuinely didn't realise then they will probably be thankful. i hope

I don't know anything about them - haven't spoken to them apart from hello and smile if we pass on the stairs. No clue where they're from. They seem to be out all day during the week, and not home until after DH and I are in bed (we often hear the child coming upstairs), we've only really seen them around at the weekend. They moved in about a month ago.

I don't have a spare seat or I would offer it - we don't have a car at all.

BertieBotts you overestimate my language skills, no way would I be able to say something like that!

I do think posting a leaflet and running is probably my best bet.

My family are German and I can assure you that the car seat laws are as stringent as the UK (in fact more so)! The norm is to forward face the child at about 1 year or so (like here). They do have a lot of the new style seats with impact cushions, but essentially, its all the same as here.

Sounds like the car seat isn't suitable, but I'm not sure what you can do about it.

Are they actually German or have they also moved from abroad?

I don't know if they are actually German - no reason to assume not, but they might not be, I suppose.

DH has printed some stuff out, but we haven't posted it yet - he wants to see if we can see them using the seat again, and then that will be an opening to try and speak to them.

Haven't actually seen them or heard them since the beginning of the week when I first posted.