What seat for small 3 year old, Joie stages fx?

[MariaDingbat]

My quite small 3 year old is in a Joie ispin 360 and content but her little sister had outgrown her ilevel and needs a new seat. We are thinking of putting the 1 year old in the 360 and getting a new seat for the 3 year old but can't figure out what one would work. She is forward facing as she gets badly car sick so don't need that facing options. I'm finding it hard to find one that is really safe, had a harness and is isofix. Any ideas?

Britax Advansafix? One of the safest FF harnessed seats you can get, then it converts to a booster, with the extra abdominal thingy and xpad shoulder thing so again great on safety, and will last until they’re tall enough to go without.

I wouldn't get the Stages to use FF.

Do you have top tether points in your car?

I'd say the best options on the market currently (safety wise + black Friday deals) are Britax-Romer Evolvafix, and Maxi Cosi Titan i-Size. They're both £150 on amazon at the moment.

Titan Plus i-size or Advansafix Pro are the slightly more pricey options (£200-ish) with marginally better safety. Silver Cross Balance is also around this price but I'd say the price difference in this seat is the higher quality covers, not the safety features.

If you don't have top tether anchors, this one is good:

https://www.kiddies-kingdom.com/9m-11yrs/52981-recaro-tian-pro-group-123-car-seat-very-berry.html

Thanks everyone, I hadn't even heard of those mussels. And thanks for the detail @BertieBotts, I just checked and we do have a tether in the car. Didn't even realise that was a thing!

*models not mussels!

Yes I think this is a slight issue when all car seat info is rear facing focused. The Joie Stages is great for rear facing on a budget, but a lot of the RF seats aren't the best options for forward facing.

Thanks again for your time @BertieBotts. Do you think there's any advantage to getting a seat that only goes to to age 7 rather than 12?

We have the Joie Every Stage for both DC as it expands as they grow up to age 12.
DD (9) is already technically tall enough to not need any car seat or booster, but prefer she's in the high back booster it converts into. But soon she will definitely be too tall.
DS (5) is now using the seat belt rather than the 5-point harness.
Both are ISOFIX. Both are obviously comfy as both kids regularly fall asleep in them.

For forward facing, not usually.

For rear facing yes, as you can get the proper Swedish ones that let them rear face right up to age 7ish. Then move to a high backed booster seat after this.

For the forward facing ones, the difference between up to age 7 / up to age 12 is usually just the size of the booster seat, and this is a pain because then you have to either put your 7yo on a backless booster, which is less safe, or buy a whole new high back booster seat which seems like a waste.

Plus most of the ones which convert to booster up to age 7 aren't as highly rated as the ones I mentioned above.

If there's any specific up to age 7 seat you're looking at I can say more but without specifics, it's hard to say concretely.

Maybe I’m missing something but what would be the point of an ‘up to age 7’ booster seat? Most 7YOs still need a booster- my 6.5YO isn’t even 120cm yet so she’s way off. And I wouldn’t plan to swap to a backless booster cushion at that age, we own one but it’s only used for travelling or when we give a lift to a friend that means we have to get 3 across the back. I wouldn’t plan to have one as our ‘every day’ seat. If you go for an ‘age 12’ one OP this should be the last car seat you need to buy so no brainer IMO.

I totally agree InTheRain! Yet they seem to be produced by various companies.

I think it comes from a vague idea of the four "stages" - rear facing infant seat (Group 0/0+), forward facing harness seat (Group 1), high backed booster seat (Group 2), backless booster (Group 3). But this seems so outdated now.

This is based on the fact they have now made it illegal to certify new backless boosters as Group 2, only Group 3 (from 125cm/22kg) - I suppose perhaps the idea is that you swap to that kind of seat then. But for most people this is a needless step down in safety. Keep them in a high back :)

That's really good to know, thanks @BertieBotts. I couldn't really figure out if there was any advantage to them but if they're active worse then that's them crossed off the list! We're off to see some Britax-Romer's you reccomended tomorrow so fingers crossed it will be a good fit!

Ah great!

It's worth being aware that the older model of the Advansafix (not the pro) has a slightly shorter harness limit at 102cm rather than 105cm for the Advansafix pro or the evolvafix. 3cm is roughly 6 months worth of growth so could make a difference.

@BertieBotts Thanks again for the great advice, we ended up getting a great deal on an Advansafix Pro and she's headed off to nursery in it this morning. It seems to fit well and tick all the boxes so wet fit one for the grandparents car too!

Ah, great! Glad you found something :)