Suggestions for forward facing for large 3 year old, with 5 point harness

[Aspergallus]

Hoping for suggestions for my boisterous and Houdini-like second son, 3 years old, who is 99th centile for height and 18kg. He is currently ERF but has outgrown the seat.

The mismatch between his height, weight and age seems to be giving me problems. Most of the seats I can find for his size are basically high back boosters for the usual seatbelt. He absolutely will not keep a normal seatbelt on -he escapes a 5 point harness without extra straps across the chest.

Our hand me downs for big brother don't work as big bro is 50th centile and managed ERF till 4 years old, so was mature enough for a standard high back booster at the point of going forward facing.

Have had a chat in mothercare and Halfords and staff were unable to help!

Should say, I have found one or two things that look like very short term solutions, so something that will progress to being a high back booster and be in use for a reasonable amount of time is preferred.

There are lots of 25kg rear facing seats available. Far fewer 25kg forward facing and they all need isofix, seatbelt AND too tether. Have a look at In Car Safety Centre.

Thanks, looks like you are right -all the forward facing with 5 point harness state the harness should be removed at 18kg. Looks like another ERF for us then. Up to 25kg and 125cm height should give us a while with it.

Diono radian can be used forward and rear facing until 25kg with 5 point harness. The older style Britax two way elite can also be used both directions until 25kg (newer models only 18kg forward facing).

I’m sure there’s another that can forward face to 25kg but can’t remember name.

Thank you. Found an article on the very problem:

www.madeformums.com/reviews-and-shopping/the-best-group-2-3-car-seats-with-a-5-point-harness/42904.html

Dione radian is in this. Think we are going to go for the joie bolt.

We are thinking about getting the bolt. DS is currently in the 2way pearl but rapidly approaching the weight limit. I wish I'd researched more when I bought the pearl, I didn't know how hard it would be to get a harnessed seat beyond 18kg. Do you think the Bolt is the best one? I would have gone with stages but DH is adamant he wants isofix fitting. (Even though he thinks the harness is unnecessary ). Seems to be the most affordable option I can find.

Lilly The Stages is only harnessed to 18kg as well so no better than your Pearl.

Is he forward facing or RF? If he's forward facing, all the 25kg seats have to be tethered (like the Bold). Not sure if they've all got isofix. If he's RF, none of the 25kg seats (recommend the the Britax TWE or Axkid Minikid) are isofix because isofix has an 18kg limit. Isofix seats are not safer than belted seats - they are just less likely to be installed incorrectly so less room for human error. However, rear facing is always safer than forward facing.

The stages instruction manual says that the harness can be used up to 25kg.

It's my DH that is adamant on the isofix, he doesn't listen to anything I say about car seats. DS is rear facing at the moment, I'm happy to forward face him once he outgrows his current seat. However I do want him harnessed, and it looks like the options are quite limited without spending an awful lot. I think we're going to get the Bold. It seems he most reasonably priced isofix seat I can find.

Apologies tea you are right. I was misreading 'restraint' for 'harness' in one line of the manual
DH will be so pleased...why is it so
Expensive to keep kids safe?! He thinks that both rear facing and harnessed are a 'fad' to make money and that I've been 'sucked in'.

Bolt looks like best option for us. The issue is that my 3 year old is pretty boisterous and has little sense. So though he's gone over the 18kg limit, his age hasn't caught up with his size! We just won't manage to keep him in the seat without the 5 point harness. Seems to be a problem with high centile kids.

Interestingly loads of people tell me the stages would be fine but you can view the instruction manual on line and it definitely says you can only use the 5 point harness to 18kg. I expect what happens is that people with chairs like this don't notice these transitional problems.

We had a dedicated, large ERF that should have taken us from 6m -4y, until a high back booster took us from 4-12...but this only worked with my 50th centile first child. We definitely need an interim measure this time and I think we'll get better value at this point from the bolt than from another ERF with a higher weight limit since he is just so big in every way!

www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductMobileDisplay?catalogId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=335354&productId=890219&storeId=10001

How about this. We used it on dd2. It worked and she couldn't escape

It's a 5 point plus anti escape system just in case the link doesn't work

Wrong stage unfortunately Mrsjellybum -it's up to 4 years, which tends to equate to 18kg. We need a 5 point harness for the next stage.

It's up to 4 years and is just a fabric slip type thing that Velcro's onto the car seat and 5 point harness.
Sorry maybe I miss read