Britax advansafix m I size harness height restriction?

[Cornishbelle]

Hi hoping someone can help I am so confused!

My Dd is 4.5 and just over the 102cm height mentioned for using harness in this seat. However is states can use harness to 21kg? She's currently only 15kg!

I would love to keep her in the harness longer but it seems she has to wear 3 point belt now? Hope someone can help explain as I'm really hoping we don't have to change to seat belt already

Thanks

We had the same issue but my DD was well under the 15kg weight limit for the seat belt - she hit 102cm before she was 3.5.

She fitted under the harness comfortably (shoulders in the right place etc) so we just left her in it. She’s now 4.5 and we’ve removed the harness.

I didn’t realise when I bought it that there was a height limit for the harness. Once she got to 4 though I didn’t mind her being on the seatbelt.

Thanks for the reply I'll definitely have a look at it and decide I guess 4.5 is plenty old enough really

We also kept using the 5 point harness after the 102cm. The non i-size one is exactly the same seat just with a different certification, and that has no height limit / 18kg weight limit. I know obviously the manufacturer has set that limit for a reason, but it made no logical sense to me that the seat was limited when it's approved under one regulation but not when it's limited under another. And I've seen several cases of manufacturers basically saying that the height limits on i-size seats are advisory. I was OK with the risk. It's worth knowing that strictly, you're using the seat outside of the legal approval if you continue to use the harness over 102cm. I felt that personally it was a tiny risk and I was more concerned with the safety implications of moving to a seatbelt too early than I was about the implications of going over the height limit, provided that DC still fits properly into the seat with all safety features fitting/working correctly (headrest, harness, etc) and I didn't think it made any sense to spend out on another harnessed seat just for an extra 6/12 months.

I think if you have a child that's over both 102cm AND 18kg, then it might be getting into more risky/untested ground, but luckily that wasn't the case for us as DS outgrew the harness (at approx 107cm) before reaching 18kg.

There are studies from the US saying that just 15kg is quite significantly more risky for using a booster seat than 18kg. Of course their booster seats aren't necessarily the same as ours so it might not be applicable, but it was something that I thought about when deciding whether or not to move DC.

Thanks Bertie that is very useful advice, I am glad it is not just me that finds the rules vs guidance confusing and frustrating! I will certainly look with a commonsense approach and see if dd should be good for a bit longer- as you say a harness seems much better option overall so it seems silly to jump ahead unless absolutely necessary