Narrow HBB

[Chocoholic26]

So I’m currently pregnant with DC3. We have a BMW 320 and am looking for a narrow high backed booster that will allow an adult (me or DH) to sit in between it and a Joie Bold. We will put baby in front with air bag off. Really can’t afford to buy a new car just now as our car is less than a year old. Can I put the high backed booster in the middle so that the adult can sit on the outside? Our eldest will be 6.5 and is far too young to sit without any car seat. Please help

You need to check your car manual to see if it allows car seats in the middle as not all do. The britax adventure is one of the slimmest but most of the newer isize ones are quite slim also. Important things to check are belt fit and retraction.

Not a popular choice on here but Ive got a Nania racer sp which is narrow and shallow. Had to be a small car seat because it had to fit in the front bench seat of a van sided defender.

Do you know how wide the gap is? Britax Adventure is one of the more narrow ones, or Besafe izi Flex Fix has much better safety ratings. Maxi Cosi Kore is narrow as well. If these won't fit, you could use Bubble Bum but it's backless. I think if you have an adult on the outside, a normal HBB should fit fine. It will be a case of checking whether you can reach the seatbelt with the Bold next to it - you might want to put the Bold on the side the middle seatbelt doesn't do up. OTOH it can sometimes be the case that the side seats in a car aren't exactly the same width, it's worth checking with a tape measure if the isofix points are an equal distance from the middle seat for example.

Joie Bold is also monstrously wide. If you need the 25kg harness for a middle child, you could look at replacing with Cozy n Safe Hudson (although I don't think it's as good quality) or even a rear facing 25kg seat like Britax Max Way. If using Bold as a booster seat, consider replacing with a slimmer one, which wouldn't need to be the slimmest seat ever to be a bit less space hungry than the Bold! You could then put it away in case you need it for the youngest later when the older ones are out of seats or in smaller seats.

Although Nania seats get a bad rep the Racer isn't actually bad as a booster, it gets an OK crash test/rated "good" by ADAC. These seats are sold under multiple names so the crash test is under "Hema Junior" and Asda sell it as Cuggl Swallow or Sandpiper, without the straps in, without/with isofix. Just be aware it doesn't go very tall so you will need to replace it at some point or move to a backless booster.

Thank you, this is all really helpful. I’ve had a wee look at then britax adventure and can’t really find anything else that is narrower. Can the flex fix and kore be used without isofix? We don’t have isofix in the middle seat so would be handier if it was seatbelt only. Yea, we use the harness on the bold but our middle dc will nearly be 5 when baby arrives so I’m thinking they would maybe be okay in a hbb booster by then. Unsure though. Now I’m thinking maybe I should put the hbb in the front and the maxi cosi pebble in the back as it would be narrower? It’s so confusing and don’t want to buy something new and then it not being right x

Yes you can use all HBB seats without the isofix.

You could swap them if you need the space, but it would be safer to have the rear facing child in the front with airbag off.