Stage 3 HBB Recommendations

[UnravellingThreads]

I'm getting so overwhelmed searching online so if someone could help I'd really appreciate it.

DS1 has reached the weight limit for his current car seat so I need to get him a new one.

He's seven years old, weighs 25kg and is 125cm tall.

However, I don't think we have isofix in our car (I can't find any labels and his current car seat is seat-belt fix only because it needed to fit in several different cars when we got it). I also don't think PIL have isofix in their car, which he'd occasionally ride in.

We have a Ford Focus so it's not massive and ideally we'd like to be able to use the middle seat.

Can anyone recommend a stage 3 HBB that doesn't need isofix, is as safe as possible, doesn't cost the earth and isn't massive?

HBB don't use isofix to hold the child, they only hold the seat of the child isn't in it. Most HBBs can be used without isofix, it's just has to be flipped away. Then, if the child isn't in the seat, you just have to make sure that the seat is strapped in with the seatbelt.

Check your manual to see whether you're allowed a car seat in the middle seat of the focus.

The Joie trillo is fairly cheap and one of the most narrow but scores quite well in safety testing. Otherwise look at brands like Cybex. What's your budget?

Yes all the isofix HBBs can have the isofix folded away. However you'll usually pay about £30-50 less for the non-isofix version of the same seat, so if you don't need it I'd look for seats that don't have it.

I agree with Joie Trillo being a generally good suggestion. Other than that, just go to the biggest Mothercare/John Lewis etc and get your DS to try sitting in as many boosters as you can. They often have a fake car set up with seatbelt etc so you can check how the belt fits him and he can let you know how comfy they are.

He sounds of average height so you should be OK with lengthening them as he grows, but it might be worth seeing how tall different models go, because this is an issue I found with DS1 who is tall - he was just too big to extend the headrest any more from about 9 which would be a bit of a pain since your DS is 7 already. Some of the recent Britax ones come apart which they suggest for the in between stage from 135-150cm, where they don't legally need a HBB any more but the seatbelt may not fit them safely without anything. Alternatively the Diono boosters are supposedly usable up to 160cm. I'm not sure how tall the shoulder height goes in practice though.

Bear in mind the HBB backrest should be flat against your vehicle seat - you might need to remove or reverse the (car) headrest to enable this. If your seats are at all moulded/without flat backrest, you might want to try seats in your car.

I think my approach would be this:

1. Go to big store with plenty of car seat brands with DS (and tape measure)

1. Let DS try out as many of the HBBs as you want/have patience for and write down the ones he found comfortable. (Don't look at prices yet). Measure them to see the difference in the max shoulder heights. Bonus: If you know anybody with a 10/11yo who is about 140-145cm, bribe them to come along too to try out the seats to see how they'll work for your DS in a few years. Try a few in your car to see how they work with your seats and how much space in the middle.

1. Come home with list, research brands he liked, discount any with poor safety/reputation, compare different models from the brands which were both liked + have good repution.

1. Make second shortlist, consider going back to try them out again, otherwise/after this, order cheapest or the one you think the price/features works out the best.

But that might be a bit OTT :o

Alternatively a quicker one would just be to go to the shop with DS, try the best ones in your car, choose one, buy it there and then. If you do this I would take note of these poorly rated booster seats from ADAC, so you can avoid them:

Safety 1st (All)
Disney branded R-Way seats (Cars/Frozen) (aka Nania R-Way)
MAXI-COSI Rodi XP Fix (But other Maxi-Cosi boosters are fine)
Britax Adventure (I always thought this was OK - but ADAC rates it not great).
Nania Starter
Cosy n Safe Apache
Graco - Logico L, Junior Maxi
Fisher Price (all)
Chicco (all)
Cuggl (all)

Not all the generic ones are bad, the Befix line is also OK (some Disney ones here too - but I expect your son will be too old to want these anyway). Avoid anything with a harness you take out. You can't go too far wrong with a booster - the vast majority of them are in the "Good" category for ADAC so it's about fit and preference.