New seat for 5 year old or baby?

[Lou573]

My small 5 year old has the joie stages (still rear facing) in my mum’s car. 9kg baby is still in the infant carrier but will obviously need to move up at some point soon. 5 year old is a growth spurt away from 18kg so I understand my options are:

1. New seat for the 5 year old and pass the joie stages onto the baby. 5 year old has expensive extended rear facing seat to 25kg in our car but we can’t really justify that kind of money again for mum’s car which they use to go round the corner to the park once a week so I think it will have to be a forward facing one. Plus it needs to be relatively easy for them to take in and out which none of the extended rear facing seats appear to be.

1. Turn the joie Stages around to forward facing for the 5 year old and buy the baby a new seat for mum’s car.

Which would be better and any recommendations for a new seat in either scenario? We ended up with the joie Stages as mum’s old car wasn’t isofix at the time but that is no longer an issue.

I'd get your 5 year old a HBB and put the baby in the stages as long as you think he'd sit sensibly with the seatbelt.

You've done really well to still have him rear facing at 5. Some of the HBB's have crotch straps and seatbelt guides too, like the Britax Romer Kidfix range.

I’d keep your 5 year old rear facing as long as possible, especially if they are still on the smaller side. Have you had a look at the Rear Facing Car Seats for Toddlers Facebook page?

Thanks both. I absolutely agree that rear facing is safer, we have the axkid mini kid for our car. But I could never expect my parents to get that in and out of their car every week, I got it fitted and daren’t even remove it from ours with all the tethers etc!! Plus their journeys with the kids are much more limited so I’m a bit more comfortable with the 5 year old turning around in their car only. Are there extended rear facing seats available that aren’t quite so complicated to fit?

Do your parents need to take it out of the car when it’s not being used?

My understanding is that all ERF seats are belt fitted as isofix will not be compatible with the increase weight of the seat and child.

@FamilyAreEverything, yes they do. The joie stages is belt fitted so not a problem to do that, but our ERF seat has complicated tethers which they wouldn’t manage

I would do stages RF for baby and get something for 5yo.

What sort of budget do you have OP?

All 25kg erf seats fit similar to the MK, aside from the Diono radian or two way elite. They must both brace against the front seat though.

If front facing, I would consider a high back booster and get the safest in your budget. As PP has said, the Britax Kidfix range (aside from the Kidfix SL) has SecureGuard, which holds the lap belt on their hips. This prevents them submarining under the belt, and reduces abdominal loading by 35%.

Budget is not so much of an issue, but just have to bear in mind it’s used to run round the corner once a week! Is a high backed booster for the 5 year old safer than turning the stages round for her and getting something else for the baby? I’ve just looked up the britax kid fix and it’s £130ish at the moment so that’s certainly affordable.

The stages would be ok, but wouldn’t last long term as only goes to 25kg as a booster - so you’d then end up buying for baby, and buying a booster anyway when eldest has outgrown it (unless it’s the Everystage you have?).

The stages/Everystage is a pita to use as a booster anyway IMO (love it RF though!)

If you’re going to booster, it would make more sense (to me anyway!) to have your existing RF seat for baby that’s very easy to fit and use, and a good quality booster like the Kidfix which will take your eldest through to no longer needing a seat 🙂

@flappityflippers1 thanks, that’s really useful.

Yep, I'd get a high backed booster for the 5yo.

To make an ERF seat easier to fit you can get a second set of tethers and leave them permanently in their car, then all they have to do is click them in and tighten them. But the HBB makes sense to me. She is 5 after all. And continue RF in your main car.

I don't like the Stages as a booster so it would be better served as a RF seat for your baby.

Thanks all, you’ve helped me make the decision. Is the Britax the best HBB?

I think so - the Kidfix 3 S is the safest as it has the secureguard, Xp belt pad and extra side protection (I’m sure it’s on offer atm too)

A similar seat is the BeSafe flex fix - similar to britax but also reclines. As it’s short journeys though I doubt that’s useful, and it’s much dearer.

Axkid Bigkid is also decent imo, and I quite like the maxi Cosi Kore simply for ease of use as it’s next to impossible to use it incorrectly (although doesn’t have a lap belt holder)

Britax, Cybex (s-fix or z-fix, they have loads) Besafe or Axkid are the best performing ones on the market at the moment.

If you're on a tighter budget, Joie seats are just under or level with some of these for safety rating but much cheaper.