Help with car seat for 3.5 year old

[Schoolchoicemission]

DS is 3.5, tall for his age and weighs about 18-19kg. He’s in a rear facing Joie car seat atm (360 i-size).

Unfortunately his little sister (12 months) is tall and has almost grown out of her cabriofix so I need to move her into the joie soon.

What are the best options for DS? I had wanted him to rear face until 4, but he’s not far off now and we rarely use the car (once a fortnight at most) so it doesn’t seem worth the expense to get a new ERF seat now.

Is he too young to get a high backed booster? Any recommendations? Is harness better than a seatbelt?

There are a few ERF to 6y available now if you want to continue rear-facing.

I'm fortunate in that I'm not dealing with this dilemma until a year further down the line as my DD is little and still in her RF to 4 seat and despite being 4.5 years old.

I have a HBB for her as our spare seat but still feel uneasy about that on motorway journeys and insist DD uses the RF seat for those.

3.5 is young to be going to only fastened in by the car's seat belt as these HBB require the child to sit sensibly. If they're leaning over the belt and you happen to have a collision the seat can't do it's job well.

In your position I think I'd look for a seat that RF to 6 years.

@BertieBotts is the resident unofficial MN car seat expert. Hopefully she'll be along to your thread and might have some more helpful info.

My eldest was in an axkid minikid until almost 7. Tall child!

I'd look at the Britax Trifix which has a harness and can later be used as a HHB.

My big (18kg ish)3.5 year old is in a high backed booster. It's a Joie of some kind, isofix. He does lean over the belt at times so that's a consideration but 97% of the time sits sensibly and I feel like it's appropriate for him.

How about an axkid move which is on offer currently in the Black Friday sales. It's fairly universal and would last your eldest a couple of years at least and could then be used by the youngest. 3.5 is really young for a booster as the pelvis isn't fully ossified until later so there is chance of submarining under the seatbelt. Ideally you want to get to at least 4.5 harnessed.

Hi, thanks for the tag :o

Indeed the 25kg ERF seats can be used much longer than age 4, so if you did choose to get one of those it wouldn't be a waste of money. There is no big rush to move to a high back booster at age 4, many people feel that their DC are not ready, and it is still just as safe to rear face past the age of 4, it's just more critical for younger children. You could use the ERF seat for your younger child later as well.

Alternatively many people do move to a HBB at age 3.5. It's not something I'd necessarily recommend, as many children of this age are still quite immature and impulsive at times (particularly if they have tantrums in the car, or nap) and that can affect how well the seatbelt fits them. I'm not sure however that the claims about hip bone development are really true - this seems to be thrown about a lot but actually if you read the studies, they aren't arguing that children need to be harnessed, they are arguing that a 3yo pelvis isn't developed enough for a normal seatbelt, and that's why you need a booster seat. To be perfectly honest I wouldn't advise either way; it's a parental decision.

If you wanted to stay harnessed but move to front facing, I think Lockdownbear is talking about the Britax Advansafix i-size, as the Trifix is just the equivalent of a Group 1 seat up to approx 4 years. The good thing about the Advansafix is that the harness weight limit is up to 21kg rather than 18kg, but on the other hand, if he's close to or at the limit of the Joie harness then he probably won't have much (if any) space to expand in the Advansafix. It's no taller than a standard one. If it will buy you 6 months though it might be worth a go as it does turn into a really well rated booster seat. I'd try and try him in it rather than buying online.

The other option then if you want to stay harnessed but need the height would be Joie Bold, Cozy n Safe Excalibur/Hudson or BabyAuto Dupla, all of which harness up to 25kg front facing (with no height problems) and then turn into a high backed booster seat. These aren't as nice in quality as the Britax seat.

For all of those options you'll need isofix and top tether. There are no forward facing seats which harness past 18kg if you don't have the use of a top tether point. If you don't have one you'll need to choose between
rear facing or high backed booster seat.

We have a Britax Max Way plus seat (rear facing only) for our almost 3.5 year old. She was in a cybex Sirona beforehand but had outgrown it by height. Our options were fairly limited as she’s only 13.5 kg. I love the Britax seat and DD is really comfortable in it.