Florida...what to do?

[carseatconfusionx]

We will be travelling to Florida in the summer and DD will be 3. She's really big for her age so is already around 18kg.

We were planning to hire car seats but have now found out that the hire company only do harnessed seats up to 18kg which obviously won't be suitable as she's above that weight. According to the law there, she can't go into a booster seat until age 4.

We then thought about getting a taxi from the airport and buying a car seat over there, but we would obviously need a car seat for the taxi journey. It seems from research that we can't take a UK seat with us as they aren't approved for use in the US.

So now we are left wondering what to do...

Are there any car seats which can be bought in the UK which are federally approved for use in the US? Or should we pay for a car seat from the US to be shipped over here and take with us? Or our final option would be to maybe get an Uber with a car seat which seems to be an option and then buy a car seat there.

Any help or advice would be appreciated! Thanks.

We took DD when she was 2 and go again in may and she'll be 4.

We took a high back booster seat with us.
Although to be honest we didn't look into what was legal to use in Florida. And we plan on taking the same seat....

As a tourist, advice is generally to bring your own car seat from the UK to use in the US because installing an unfamiliar seat is a bigger risk than using a seat which isn't officially approved. If you were moving there, you'd have to get a locally approved seat. While you technically should use a US certified seat even as a visitor, the chances of a law enforcement official recognising that the seat is not US specified are practically nil, insurance claims tend to simply ask whether the child was in (any) car seat, and this is what CPSTs (US qualification in child seat installation/use) recommend (so if you were questioned about it, you could explain this). US cars have isofix (it's called LATCH) and top tether anchor points, but support legs are unusual on their seats and may not be accommodated in cars, so this must be borne in mind when deciding to take a seat from home.

What you could get is the Diono Radian 5. It's an American seat slightly modified for use in the UK. It doesn't meet US regulations but it's close enough and a US brand that it ought to work with their cars and it's recognisable over there. You can fit it forward facing with harness up to 25kg or rear facing up to 25kg with lower tethers (I believe not in US cars - but forward facing it would be OK.) It's also TUV approved for airline use, although if you're flying with a European airline, you may have a battle to get a 3yo to be allowed to use a car seat on the plane. This would be worth it though as you'd have peace of mind it wasn't damaged in the hold. You can also buy the US version here, directly shipped from Amazon - Diono Radian RXT I believe. If you decide to import a seat before travel, make sure you check customs and import charges.

Other EU seats which can harness up to 25kg without support leg are Cozy n Safe Excalibur, Joie Bold, Cozy n Safe Hudson, (All forward facing.) You cannot use an EU rear facing seat up to 25kg as all require a support leg or bracing and this is not allowed in US cars.

You could buy a US seat over there. One parent stays at the airport with DD and the other may take an Uber. Or request a booster seat just for that trip to Target and say she's 4? Recommended seats for travel here: csftl.org/car-seats-travel/ (Click through to see more details for each for example height/weight limits for harness use) HOWEVER - have you ever seen a US car seat manual? The fitting pages tend not to be for the faint-hearted. You should also familiarise yourself with the US system of seatbelt lock-off for child car seat fitting, the way their LATCH works (usually with a tether you pull to tighten, not solid metal bars as we have here) and understand the weight limits of a LATCH/isofix system - generally latch + tether is not sufficient over 40lbs/18kg and seatbelt must be used.

If you're on Facebook, try searching for a group called CSFTL UK/EU (Car seats for the littles) - they have this as a frequently asked question so you could search previous responses to see what people have been advised.

Thanks for replies.

Our car seat in the UK is an ERF with support leg so I don't think it's an option to take with us, as I don't actually think it would fit into the vehicle we are hiring anyway. Plus I'd worry about damage on the plane as well.

It's looking like the only option is really for us to get an Uber with a car seat for the first journey while the rest go in the hire car and then go to a shop once there and buy one. @BertieBotts I know, fitting them does seem difficult compared to ours, but I'm hoping that whichever one we choose will have maybe a YouTube tutorial so we can use that as well as the fitting guide to help us. I was just really hoping we would be able to hire one with the car like we did last time but the company are saying they definitely don't have car seats above 18kg, only boosters.

That's annoying. I suppose if you're somewhere like Target they will probably have wifi to watch the youtube vid at least. Or if you go somewhere like Buy Buy Baby they may have staff to demo fitting.

The problem might be that if the hire company don't have car seats you'll struggle to find an Uber with one?

@BertieBotts I've checked Uber and it says that their seats go up to 48lbs so those would be ok. I'm just not sure how long a wait we will have at the airport for an Uber with a car seat!

I wonder if it's a terminology difference and they have a seat like one of these with a harness? www.gracobaby.com/en-US/Car-Seats/harnessed-booster#facet:&productBeginIndex:0&orderBy:5&pageView:grid&minPrice:&maxPrice:&pageSize:&

Unfortunately not, they've said specifically that the two models of seat are one with a harness for up to 40lbs and then one that is a booster using the seatbelt that goes from 30-100lbs which would be fine except Florida law says that a 3 year old must be in a car seat and boosters can be used until age 4. I wish it was just based on weight as then we would be fine to use the booster!

*cant be used until age 4

We took something like this for DD

www.argos.co.uk/product/5586749

It's a booster but had its own harness. Would that not be ok?

If not, maybe go on an Orlando group on Facebook and see if anyone else is buying one before/after you go that you could "share" maybe.

No, the harness in those seats only goes up to 18kg so that won't be suitable. I'm just surprised because US seats which harness later are much more common whereas they've only recently started to be available here.

But if they only have two models of seat that makes sense anyway.