High backed booster over 135cm - TALL CHILD ADVICE!

[DevonLulu]

My 7 year old is now over 135cm tall and no longer fits in his high backed booster. He can't get his shoulders in under the head rest and it will not go any higher.

I am aware that he legally no longer needs to be in a car seat, but for safety I would like to keep him in one.

In Ireland and Europe the advice is 150cm tall, so there must be high backed boosters that go to this height.

Does anyone have any recommendations of high backed boosters that go taller than 135cm, either isofix or not?

Many thanks in advance.

Axkid Big Kid and the new Britax Kidfix i-size are the ones I would be looking at buying in your position OP.

Sorry that lacked detail. They both go to 150cm though. Here are links www.britax-romer.co.uk/car-seats/highback-boosters/kidfix-i-size/9007.html and axkid.com/uk/product/bigkid-2-premium/

www.britax-romer.co.uk/car-seats/highback-boosters/kidfix-iii-s/9018.html

We have the Britax kidfix iiis - it has a wider seat which is more comfortable for larger children and the back support expands as you raise the head rest to allow for growing children. It's a very good seat. DS isn't quite as tall as yours but we chose it for the same reason.

Diono Radian XT ( I think that's what it's called anyway) is great for taller kids. Likewise pretty much any Britax one.

We had one from Halfords that DD couldn't fit in beyond about 125cm tall. Ridiculous!

Now she's 135cm and still fits easily in the Diono and Britax for longer or motorway journeys. I've started to allow a backless booster for local journeys as she's gutted not to be ditching the seat entirely - at nearly 11 years old none of her friends are still using a seat.

They should be though! The belt fit on DD and her friends is appallingly bad without a booster.

Thanks everyone, they are great suggestions. My son is not only very tall but has a long torso.

Does anyone know how these compare with the besafe ixi up x3?

Thanks again

bumping for evening traffic

The Besafe seat you have was never very popular in the UK so I think you'll find it hard to find measurements of it. The best thing to do would be to first of all check the headrest definitely can't extend up any higher, and if it really is at the highest point get a tape measure and check the distance between seat to shoulder belt guide. Then go into a shop selling different high backed boosters, ideally take your son with you, but at least the tape measure, and ask to try the HBB seats out - they will normally have a mocked up "car seat" you can stick it on and he can sit in it and try the booster seats out.

If none of them go any higher then he could use a backless booster which would at least correct the lap belt position which is the most important part anyway, although of course they don't offer any side impact protection. At 135cm he is likely close but not quite big enough to fit an adult seatbelt well without anything at all. Sometimes it can vary from car to car.

And yes Britax, Diono, Cybex are all good ones to try as well as the older Maxi Cosi models, but for some reason not their newer models. Joie seats tend to go quite high up as well.

15cm of total height is about 5-7cm torso height, so you only need about this much more space, not 15cm more.

Thanks BertieBotts, again very helpful advice

Just out of interest, why was the besafe not very popular in the UK? I have used their chairs in the past and always been very happy with them. The step up to i-size chairs is a big hike financially, so was just looking at alternatives.

I live rurally sadly, and there are very few stockists locally to go brandishing a tape measure - but you are right, this is really the sensible thing to do. May have to make a trip of it!

Will look at the Britax ones

Now that we are using i-size with height measurements, it seems ludicrous that we ever did anything else - weight is so useless!

My quest continues. Thanks

Besafe is a great brand, really high quality. Not sure why they are not popular here - perhaps they just didn't put as much money into marketing in the UK as other brands have? They are really popular in Germany and the Nordic countries. You don't often see them in the chain stores like Mothercare/Halfords so I think people just don't know they exist unlike Britax, Maxi Cosi etc.

I noticed your other thread - is the Besafe a seat you have already or are you looking at buying it from someone? At a total guess I would say it's likely to be taller than some of the older UK brands/models but I can't say for sure.

Britax Adventure is a very budget friendly option which goes up really high.