Is a booster seat suitable for a large (almost) 3 year old?

[LidlMermaid]

My DD is very big for her age. She's 2.9 and 104cm and 21kg. We're going on holiday when she'll be 2 weeks off her 3rd birthday. We will be using a hire car and I was considering buying a Trunki Boostapak or similar booster seat instead of hiring a seat from the car hire company. Most indicate that they're suitable from 4 years of age...so will one be ok for an almost 3 year old who is the size of a 4 year old?

Yes that will be fine

She is heavier than my DC, who uses a trunki occasionally.

I would say height and weight wise you are well within guidelines, but can you trust her to sit sensibly? Not wriggle out of the seatbelt or unstrap it mid journey etc? There is a lot more freedom of movement than in just a high back booster. You might want to sit in the back with her. Is she likely to fall asleep in the car and slump sideways? - that might be another consideration.

Obviously a seat with head support is safer, but you have to make a judgement call sometimes.

No see this link for an explanation.

m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.414443542032834.1073741882.282362311907625&type=1

"One vital bit of information is missing from the car seat weight group system, and that is skeletal maturity. Children are all different. Some will be 15kg at just 18 months old, while others won't reach that weight until they're four or five. But regardless of how big or small a child is, their bones mature at roughly the same rate. So if your two year-old weighs 15kg he may be legally heavy enough for a booster seat, but his bones are not old enough yet for the adult seat belt to keep him safe.

The lap belt holds an adult in place by fitting low down on the hips, below the pelvis. Our pelvis has pointy bits that stick out at the sides. These pointy bits are called the iliac crest. Newborn babies have a very narrow iliac crest, an adult's is much wider. The iliac crest is what holds the lap belt in place, and stops us from sliding under it in a crash. A child has to sit on a booster to position the lap belt low enough on the hips. But their pelvis is not wide enough to keep them safely positioned in a lap belt until they are at least four and a half years old. So in a crash they will submarine under the lap belt. The belt then ends up in their soft abdomen where it can do all sorts of damage to the internal organs and the spine. These injuries are collectively known as 'seat belt syndrome' and they are life-changing if not fatal...
So please don't put your two year-old on a booster, no matter how big or heavy they are, it is NOT safe! The only safe solution for a child who reaches the 18kg harness limit before the age of four and a half, is a rear facing seat up to 25kg. Even the heaviest of children (on the 100th percentile) will be four and a half when they reach 25kg."

Your two buying choices are a britax advansafix or a britax two way elite. Both around £200.

Sorry that this isnt what you wanted to hear. Unfortunately if you are using a harness right now and its not one of those seats (or a 25kg extended rear facing seat) then your seat isn't tested last 18kg and may not contain her in an accident.

Thank you sockmatcher. That's exactly the sort of information I was looking for but googling wasn't turning anything up for me. We have a Britax TWE in our car...I was hoping to avoid having to take it on holiday with us as it's so big . I'll check out what the hire options are in Spain.

Just to to this thread britax maxway also goes up to 25kg.

(But is no smaller op so no help to you)

We always just take our own seats - check with your airline but most will allow you to check in a car seat for free as oversized luggage. We just put it in a big plastic bag and tie it with a cable tie.

Are you sure she is 21kg? That sounds massively obese, even for a 4 year old. Maybe double check her weight.

For peace of mind, i think we'll take our own seat. From experience, the car hire company only supplies very basic models so i doubt they'll be able to provide anything suitable. I can find a local company who supplies baby equipment to hire (great idea!) but their range of seats doesn't include anything that meets our requirements either. Thank you all for your help.

Glad you found it helpful and glad she's in a TWE :-)

She was weighed by the HV about 6 weeks ago who checked the charts and said she was more the size of an average 2 year old. She is not obese at all. Her weight is in proportion to her height. She has been consistently above the 99.6th centile since she was about 4 months old. It's not unexpected, DP's family are all very tall.

*average 4 year old.

We have used the TWE on an airline (easyjet). It secures with a lap belt so can be used forward facing.

Email your airline and ask the width of the seats and their policies on seats, it just seemed safer to me than having ours in the hold.

Thanks, story. We're flying with Jet2 so I'll check out their policy but I don't really mind it going in the hold if it has to.

Are you sure the HV got the weight right, especially if she said it was in proportion to her height? My 5.3 year old DD is 105cm and weighs 16.5kg. Her weight is on a higher percentile line than her height as it is; if she weighed 21kg she'd be very overweight.

She's the average height of a 4yo but much heavier (my 4 year old is taller but about 5kg lighter). 21kg would be way off the chart for a 2yo and make her very overweight which is why I would question if that weight is accurate if she isn't visibly obese.

Not safe for her to use a booster. She is slightly shorter than my four year old but weighs about 6-7kg more. My dd is still in a car seat with five point harness, although she is getting too tall. I am trying to keep her in it as long as possible, her eyes aren't level with the back yet so a bit more growing room.

Her weight is way off the top of the chart. Her height is above average but not in proportion to her weight. She is still young though and they often slim out at age three.

My dd has got taller and slimmer in the last year, as her brothers did at that age.

Sounds like taking your own carseats is the best bet, bit of a pain, I would make sure it was covered insurance wise etc.

She does appear to be shooting up faster than she's gaining weight. I'd say her height has increased a lot in the last couple of months judging by the fact that I've had to shell out for new shoes today (size 9) and I'm having to buy age 5 trousers as anything else is flapping above her ankles. At this rate she'll be taller than me by the time she's about 7!

Good call on the insurance. I'll check that out. On the plus side, taking our own seat is cheaper than hiring one.

All the madthings were chunky at that age and shot up and slimmed out. She has big feet as well as my dd is a size 9.

I assume airlines have their own insurance but I would check they cover the value of the seat etc and maybe check your own holiday insurance. Our carseats were stolen once, car insurance didn't cover them as they classed them as a 'removable valuable'... Clearly you are meant to take your carseats out once you reach your destination and carry it about with you... Nobbers!

I would seriously look at taking your own car seat to Spain, last time we travelled there we took our dd's seat as she was 6 months old but we hired one for our 2.5year old and it was appalling.

Lots of airlines allow you to check car seats in separately, so not part of your luggage allowance. We bought some clear plastic and gaffer taped ours when we got to the airport, some airports you can pay for wrapping. I stuck fragile tape all over it and put our name, address & phone number on a bit of paper on the inside in case it got lost.

It came out fine the other side (we went to France with RyanAir).

I'd definitely take your own rather than risk an awful seat from the hire company. I also wouldn't put a child as young as yours on a booster only especially on unfamiliar roads, in an unfamiliar car. DD is 5.5yo and in a high backed booster all the time (this is what we took to France on the aeroplane).

Just for info, if anyone is going to Majorca this summer and is concerned about taxi transfers and hiring/taking car seats this company have brand new (purchased this year) child seats and also have ones available that stay rear facing until 18kgs.

We've used them many times in the past, requesting forward facing seats for our toddlers (before we knew any better!). Last time DD2 was 13 months, so she had a Britax First Class type combination seat rear facing. I emailed them to check the weight limit of those seats as DD2 is 3 now but only weighs 11.5kgs so I was hoping they had a 13kgs limit (as opposed to the 10kgs limit of the cheapy Nania etc ones) and that was when they told me they had all-new seats and ones with an 18kgs limit.