Harness/seatbelt query

[Kcoffecakebubs]

Hi, might be a stupid question, but the car seats my parents and in laws have for the rare occasions that DS is in the car with them I have just realised are harness to 18kg, then seatbelt. Son is just shy of 19kg- but he is only 2.5yo and there is no way I could trust him to stay in a seat belt.

So my question is- do you have to remove the harness to start using the belt? Or could I in theory put th harness on him to keep him still and in place, and th b put the seatbelt on as well for safety at his weight limit? They both don't have the manuals and I'm trying to Google them but need to find the model numbers. Unfortunately new car seats are out of the question for financial reasons.

Thanks in advance.

*bump

Hiya, sorry for the late reply. Unfortunately you must not do this, as it doesn't provide any extra protection (the harness won't do anything as it needs to be attached to the car) and it isn't how the car seat has been tested so it's not a legally approved solution. The harness is often attached somehow to the headrest, so in not taking it out you'll restrict how far you can move it up which will mean the seatbelt doesn't adjust correctly, and the harness might also get in the way of the belt routing properly over the child's hips or thighs which is really important as that is the main job of the booster seat. So instead of improving safety you may find that the safety is reduced.

If you have a picture of the seats I can probably find the manuals for you.

I appreciate it's expensive, but the only realistic option is to use the seatbelt only (I wouldn't be happy with this at 2.5yo) or purchase a seat with a 25kg limit. Cozy n Safe Hudson tends to be the cheapest and costs around £100 - you do need a car with top tether points to be able to use it safely.

Presumably the seat you have in your car is an 18kg limit too, so you would need to replace that? Or do you already have a 25kg seat yourself? Perhaps you can get one seat and swap between cars.

Thank you. I was more thinking along the lines of keeping him in place than safety, but didn't realise it might effect the seatbelt position.

The seat my parents have is the brittax romer evolva (?), But we got it before we realised how much of a giant he was going to be 🤦🏻‍♀️. My mother in laws is a Joie (I think it's a stages or every stage, but not sure as it was bought for their other grandson). My parents car has a top tether, but I don't believe they have one as they have a van not a car, so the seats are all removable etc so there's no back bench to a boot if that makes sense.

We have a 25kg seat, Joie bold. So we're fine. But it's not really an option for us to keep taking that in and out of the car as we have nowhere to store it between etc.

In theory could we use the seats with the belt only. If he sits ok? Or is it just completely mad to do so at his age? He is tall too, so he's the size of a 4/5 year old.

Thank you for the reply

Legally you could, as there is no minimum age. It is what people would have done before 25kg harness seats were available, although bear in mind that this was a time that you could buy a non-harness seat from around 1 year old, and even they used to come with a belt clip to lock the seatbelt for children under 3. At that time (and until recently) 3 was always given as the guideline minimum age to move to a booster seat with free flowing belt. In 2008 those seats were made illegal to produce as it was recognised children under 3 really need to be in a 5 point harness.

The trend/advice these days is changing to keep children in a harness longer, more like 4 years than 3. Very few manufacturers suggest age 3 as a minimum for boosters any more, most recommend 3.5 or 4, so 2.5 is really really little. Their height is not really a factor, as their bone development is going to be congruent with other children their age rather than congruent with other children their size.

The Joie every stage I think has a little hook between the legs to help keep the lap belt in place which is better than nothing. The Britax doesn't have that but it sounds like they could use a top tether seat in their car.

I was thinking maybe you could move the Bold to their car each time just temporarily until he is 3 (or better 3.5) not forever. If he is only rarely with them then maybe it wouldn't be too annoying? Depends what the least worst option would be, between potentially overloading the safety harness, using a booster too young, moving a seat a few times or spending £100 on a new one.

Considering it's winter and therefore more likely to crash due to weather conditions, I personally would want to stick with a more protective option for the next 3-4 months aside from any other argument.

This is the Britax manual and a video about the conversion process, I can't load the Joie site as I'm abroad and it always defaults to the local site, but you can go on their website and search evergy stage and get the manual there. If it doesn't look quite right they might have the Stages. The headrest and harness are linked (in terms of restricting upward movement when used in booster mode) for the Britax but not the Joie, but I still wouldn't use both together.

www.britax-romer.co.uk/car-seats/toddler/evolva-1-2-3-plus/1360.html

Thank you, that's all really helpful.

It's a nuisance but I'd just use your bold in their car.

At 2.5 I would still want to be rear facing as it's much safer. Harness forward facing are a last resort and a seat belt is much better if the child is old enough to sit sensibly which at 2.5 is unlikely.

He's been FF for a while now, I know RF is safer, and we tried for as long as we could. But he was sick EVERY time we went anywhere, even 10 minutes when he was RF, and he hasn't been sick once since FF.

I think we will try and change seats over, or look at getting a cozy n safe and maybe sell one seat we have

In the van it's worth getting them to check them manual as they might have tether anchors eg on the backs of the seats or in the floor where the seats slot in or sometimes even on the roof. But it's important to use a child seat rated anchor, not just any solid point in the car.

@BertieBotts thank you