Stage 1 or 0+/1 car seat for a small 2 year old

[willowbilo]

Advice please. My daughter is 25 months old, but is only 80cm tall and weighs 9kg. She is currently in a Maxi cosi cabriofix car seat. I would leave her in it for longer but I am pregnant (due in 3 weeks!) and need to purchase a new car seat for my daughter so the new baby can use the cabriofix. I have been looking at a Tobi (~£150) which height/weight wise my daughter just qualifies, but age wise is definitely ok. As her neck muscles will now be stronger should this be ok; or as she is small should I be looking at rearward facing for longer with e.g. Milofix (£225) or Axissfix (£350)? I could keep her rearward facing for a little longer but probably don't want to for the full 4 years. Note that I have a Qashqai which has a limited number of seats that fit, looking at previous threads the Tobi is the only seat belt option that avoids buckle crunch, otherwise need a more expensive ISOFIX seat.

Why wouldn't you keep her rear facing until she's at least 4? She sounds about the same size/build as my DD2 (who at 3 1/2 weighs 12.5kgs and is 92cm tall) - I have her in a rear facing seat and she'll be in it until she's at least 6. It's much safer.

There are loads of other options for rear facing than just Maxi Cosi. The Joie I-anchor is on offer in Mothercare at the moment. It's isofix and for £175 you get the seat and the base (the base is free, that's the offer, usually it's £100).

Look at the Britax First Class - she could rear face in that til 13kg or forward face til I think 18kg, and they're not very expensive.

Or my youngest is 13kg and rear facing still in a Hauck Varioguard, I think it was about £175. You can either belt the base in and rear face til 13kg, forward til 18kg or isofix the base and it faces either way til 18kg.

I have a non Isofix rear facing seat that rear and forward faces to 25kg so your dd would get many years out of it. Its thw Britax Two Way Elite. I love it, am leaving 4yo dd in hers and buying another for baby ds as I know she will be in it for at least another 18m if not more.

Thank you for your replies, they give me a few more options to look at. There are so many different brands and models to search through that it is difficult to compare which are the best/safest!

Yes, definitely look at the Britax First Class. You can use it rear facing up to 13kgs, as I said earlier my 3 1/2 year old still weighs just under 13kgs so she still uses ours (in my mums car) rear facing. I bet your daughter would get to a similar age before she weighs 13kgs. DD2 has plenty of room in the seat rear facing.

Also, when you turn it to face forward (up to 18kgs) it has two alternative routes for the seatbelt, it has been designed this way to avoid the buckle crunch problem.