Which car seat should be daughter be in?

[mumroom6571]

I've tried researching but would really appreciate some simple, easy to understand advice. My daughter is 4 (5 in a few weeks) she is 117cm tall and 26.5kg... how should she be in the car? She's been forward facing a while because she's tall and wears age 6/7 clothes. I'm wanting to get her a new car seat and generally get clued up, make sure she's safe.

Does she need isofix? The car seat straps or just the adult seat belt? Any particular brand? One that's reasonably priced if possible.

Any help would be appreciated thank you ☺️

We went for the Britax Romer Kidfix I size.
Like yours, my daughter is 4 but about 116 tall and over the 25kg weight limit for her extended rear facing seat.
The one we chose fits in the isofix, but then also used the adult seat belt.
It has a spongy cover to keep it away from the neck, and a fixture in the bottom middle to keep the waist belt from sitting flush on their lap.
It fares well on any reviews/ tests I found at the time. I paid about £155 delivered on offer.
https://www.babyandco.com/products/britax-kidfix-i-size-cosmos-black

@anon2022anon thank you for the reply! Does this height and weight mean they shouldn't have the car seats straps on?

She is beyond the weight limit of most harnessed car seats and after that you are looking at a high back booster (HBB). These may attach in using isofix but will use the main car seat belt to actually strap her in. We have the Britax Romer Kidfix i-size which is well reviewed and has a crotch guard to keep the lap belt in a better position for younger children like your DD.

The Facebook page Car Seat Advice UK has some great advice and help about car seats and would be worth checking out.

@mumroom6571

Most car seats with harnesses are outgrown at 18-25kg. Check your individual seat but I'd assume she is now too heavy for the harness and you should stop using the current seat.

@sugarplum33 thank you I really appreciate the advice. I was embarrassed to post because I felt I should have known but will look into ordering a new seat.

Thank you both. ☺️

@mumroom6571 no problem at all 😊
It's quite hard to find information, as lots of sources say that you should rear face until 7, which our previous car seat was capable of- but that works on the basis that an average child is on the 50th centile, and hits 25kg at 7. Yours (and my) child skew the results!

Most isofix fittings and harnesses in car seats only work until a certain weight of child. How I understand it is if you have a car crash and imagine the car propelling forward, they hit a certain weight that they can't guarantee they will be able to hold in. Therefore it needs to move to the seat belt at 25kg. However, the kids are still small enough to find the belt a bit uncomfortable or sit at the wrong place on the neck/lap, which is why the I size looked good to me, it still offered a place for the belt to be guided to.

She needs to be in a high back booster which uses the adult seatbelt. She will be too heavy for the straps on any forward facing seat on the market now, so you should change her seat ASAP as her current seat could potentially break if you had an accident, and not protect her.

There are a few rear facing seats which she would still fit into, but they are expensive and probably not really worth it since she is already over 4 and used to forward facing. But if you wanted to keep her harnessed this would be an option.

If you have one of the Group 1-2-3 seats, then you could check in the manual how to take the straps out and convert it to high back booster (Group 2-3) mode. This would be more appropriate than using the child seat straps over their weight limit. But you can only the seat you have as a high back booster if it is designed/approved to be used that way. Some of the combination type seats don't make very good high back boosters so it might be worth upgrading anyway, depending on what you have and how it seems to fit her.

When you get a high backed booster, it's important to make sure the seatbelt is routed correctly so the shoulder belt needs to go through the red or green clip on the headrest, and both parts of the lap belt and the bottom part of the diagonal belt need to go under the little "arms" or "horns" if your seat has them, at the child's lap. You can move the head support up and down in most seats so you should do this to keep the shoulder belt in a comfortable and safe position. If you buy a seat from a brick and mortar shop, you should be able to ask the staff to adjust it to your daughter's size and advise on when it should be moved up to the next setting.

@BertieBotts what rear facing car seats can she go in at 25kg? Just out of curiosity- I thought 25kg was the maximum in all of them, at least when I was hunting around.

It used to be 25kg was the max, but there are a few on the market now - Axkid Minikid 4, Britax Max Space or Safe Way, and Besafe Stretch which go up to 125cm and 36kg. (And Klippan Opti which is 125cm/32kg).

Doesn't hugely make sense for OP's DD, because she is about 8cm off the height limits so they would probably only last another year or so, maybe about 2 years at a push. But they do exist in case anyone wanted to know.