Recommendations for isofix car seat for 4 year old

[2020times]

He's rear facing in a maxi cosi Pearl now (and I'm forward planning partly as he's not 4 til December)

Can anyone suggest the best car seat for when he outgrows this one? Isofix please because I'm dyspraxic and don't trust myself with a seatbelt one

[BertieBotts]

Are you thinking of moving him into a seatbelt (highback booster) or would you like him to still be in a harness? And if so, rear facing or forward facing?

He can stay in the Pearl until he's 18.5kg or 105cm tall, whichever comes first, regardless of age :) But you would need to move him out of it if he reached the limits before his birthday.

[starterfor11]

I have just bought the kiddy cruiser fix 3 for my daughter, it has very good review on Which, specially for safety, although it does take up a lot of room in the car.

[teaandlotusbiscoff]

If you want one with isofix that means it’ll likely have to be forward facing. If you want one with a harness, options are:
Maxi Cosi Beryl
Cosy n Safe Excalibur (requires top tether)
Joie Bold
Infasafe Event FX
Baby auto dupla

There is another car seat that can RF and FF up to 25KG in harness, the Diono radian 5. However that is seatbelt fitted and requires a top tether for FF.

There are many 25KG RF car seats, most are seatbelt fitted. There is one that isn’t—Axkid one but it’s expensive at £700.

If you want a booster isofix isn’t actually necessary in terms of safety—it holds the seat in place so you don’t have to buckle it back in once DC is out of it. Also stops the seat going over the belt buckle, which we find handy.

Just stick with well known brands—maxi Cosi, Britax, cybex, joie, BeSafe, nuna etc

[2020times]

Thanks everyone, he's 25th percentile so I guess we might get a little longer out of it.

Honestly, I've no idea what I want - I've no clue what comes after this stage. I'm overly cautious/anxious so rear facing is tempting but he's getting to age that he's aware of and questions what his friends do and I know they're all forward facing.

We spilt childcare between me, DH and my mum so it also needs to be either very easy to transfer between cars or relatively cheap so we can buy 3

[teaandlotusbiscoff]

We have a joie bold and found it bloody hard for moving between cars although it did have a tight good fit (bought for longer harnessing as didn’t feel safe with DC in a HBB). We didn’t move it often and did find it did actually get stuck a few times which was a total PITA. (Isofix refusing to budge, seatbelt got stuck when belting in at the back although this was in a sports car!).

We also have a Britax KidFix III S which we bought as it is similar to a harness what with the securaguard and XP-pad. Absolutely love it although with lockdown we haven’t had to move it to a different car.

As for a cheap one the Britax adventure or Discovery SL could be good ones to look at. They’re similar to the Britax Evolva in booster mode (which we have) and it is VERY lightweight, has good padding and we haven’t had any problems with it.

Also have a look at the joie Trillo as normally you can get it for approx £40 so good if you want one for each car

[2020times]

Goodness, I hadn't realised I could be looking at high back boosters! It feels strange, he's still a baby to me and they seem like such grown up seats!

Thank you again, all suggestions are welcome and I'll look into them all

[BertieBotts]

I wouldn't worry about it yet then if he's got a while in the seat he's in :) the age is just a guide, it's the height and weight that matters.

If you want to keep him in a harness but not for much longer than the seat you have, you could look at the Britax Advansafix if all the cars you want to use it in have top tether. That's harnessed to 18kg as well, but the harness goes a bit taller and there isn't a height limit on it (don't get the i-size one). Then it turns into a really nice high backed booster. Without top tether, Britax Evolva is similar, although that's seatbelt fitted.

You could definitely look at a rear facing seat up to 25kg. They are all seatbelt fitted though and use lower tethers so a bit more of a pain to move between cars. Plus heavier of course due to having to support a heavier child. It's also the most expensive option at this stage although something like the britax two way elite or max way is about the same price as Joie Bold. It is safer, and you'd potentially get another 4 or so years out of the seat (and would have better leg room etc if you switch now). Maybe have a look at the fitting videos to see if it's too complicated? I wouldn't worry about his friends having different seats. Just tell him his seat is an astronaut one if he asks. On the other hand if you're anxious about forward facing now would it make it better to know you'd done it for as long as possible or worse when you finally have to turn him?

I'm thinking since you'll have a while in the current seat you could look into 25kg rear facing seat/top tether 123 seat in the main car and then cheaper HBB seat(s) or Evolva seats for the other cars. That might be a compromise? The cheap ones I'd be happy using are britax adventure, Joie trillo, maxi cosi rodi and diono cambria 2.

It's best to check the fit of the child in the seat if you can before you buy. But I'd defo get him on the scales and under a tape measure to see if you can estimate how long his current seat will be alright for :)