Diono Radian 5 - anyone got one?

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I have a large but young baby who is looking more and more squashed width wise in his infant carrier. He's 98th centile for weight and length so we will need a 25kg ERF seat. I think I've settled on the Diono radian 5 but the only 2 recline options concern me. I don't live near a stockist that I can find to try one out.

Baby is only 4 months old (but is huge) so spends most of the time in the car asleep. I also have bucket seats so the angle will be exaggerated.

I'm wondering whether to buy the Diono radian 5 now and hope the recline is sufficient, or get something cheap and cheerful but safe (maybe a Joie tilt or Joie steadi) up to 18kg for rear facing, with greater recline options, knowing that it won't last as long and will need to be replaced at some point in the future.

Baby is currently 9kg and looking on his weight chart if he continues on the same line, will hit 18kg at about 2-2.5 years old

He's a similar size to my DS who is now 2yrs 3mo and getting closer to 18kg! 😬

Which infant carrier do you have?

And which car do you have?

The Radian 5 is a good choice but obviously if you could use the infant carrier to about 10mo you'd have a lot more options in terms of 25kg seats.

We had a Joie infant carrier and DS went from that into a Minikid at 10mo. Previously we had a Be Safe Izi Go and there's no way DS would have made it to 10mo in that. The Maxi Cosis are also massive.

If you join the Facebook group 'car seat advice uk', you can search your car type with Diono Radian 5 and see if there are posts of the seat fitted in your car type.

He has a cosatto hold infant carrier. He has a good few inches before his head reaches the top of the shell and it goes up to 13kg but he's very broad and is getting more and more squashed (he's gone up to 9-12 month clothes this week). Hes also getting very heavy!

Apparently it does fit, we have various age and model ford focuses between us (would need a seat for each hence not wanting £300+ seats!) it's more the lack of recline options whilst he's so young.