Seatbelt fitted toddler seat

[Claudethecaterpillar]

MIL has a Joie Stages for our nearly 2 year old. It’s a good seat but only has one, very reclined, setting for rear facing.

I'm trying to encourage her to rear face him as long as possible (he’s very short so this should be easy) but the seat is so reclined he’s basically lying down and it takes up so much space.

is there another car seat suitable that he can rear face in but a bit more upright? MIL doesn’t have isofix and as she doesn’t drive him often, I wouldn’t want to be spending loads if avoidable.

Hi OP. There’s lots of options if you’re open to seat belt and lower tethers:

Britax Max Safe Pro: ERF to 36kg, currently on offer for £200
Axkid Move: ERF to 25kg, also on offer at the moment for £200

If your little one is tall, you may want to consider Axkid Minikid 4 (more expensive) which has a the tallest shell on the ERF market.

All these seats should get most children to a safe HBB age of 5+

Sorry, @FamilyAreEverything , finally coming back to this! I’m not sure about the tethers… do you have to tether them every time? How do they attach to the car?

@bertiebotts any advice on seat-belt fitted toddler car seats that aren’t way reclined? For a short, fat, 24 month old!

I don’t mind spending a bit as we will plan to have a second child at some point so will inevitably need a second, good car seat.

by then, DS will be over the 18kg rear-facing limit (his centile trajectory puts him at 18kg by 3.5!) on the stages so he can go back in it forward-facing.

I think I saw this thread at the time and sent a thanks to FamilyAreEverything as she said everything I would have said! :)

Tethers don't need to be fitted every time. You install them usually around the front seat rails, then they stay there and they can stay fitted. Even if you take the seat in and out of the car, the tethers can stay in the car, they just tuck under the front seat so aren't in the way, then they click in similar to a seatbelt buckle. If you don't take the seat out of the car, you don't need to touch the tethers at all.

I understand that they are relatively simple to fit in most cars, but if you have trouble or don't want to do it yourself, if you can find a local ERF retailer, most of them will fit the tethers for you as part of the service.

If you look on the Axkid website, they have a retailer search, so you can see if anyone is near you. Most Axkid retailers also sell other brands, so they can show you all the options at all the different price points. Because these seats have a higher than 18kg weight limit, you'll be able to use them much longer than a standard seat - up to 5 years even for the very high centile children, up to about 6/7 years for most children, some even longer.

If your LO is on higher centiles, then I would probably not use the Stages for him forward facing. After 18kg, it is only allowed to be used as a high back booster, and honestly it's not a great high back booster, it's OK, but the fit isn't as good as some others, and it will be outgrown at about 125cm at which point you'll still have 10cm left before he can legally go without a car seat (or 25cm until it's recommended) so you will need to buy a full-sized high back booster for him long term anyway. IMO you might as well bite the bullet and buy it when he first goes into a booster, rather than using the stages for a couple of years and then upgrading.

One issue with higher centile children is that for all the belt fitted seats, the forward facing seats max out at 18kg, although I think there are a couple with 105cm/21kg combination on the harness. So if you want to keep him in a harness past 18kg (which would be recommended if he is still under 4) then the only option is normally rear facing.

Thank you both so much. I’ll have a look at both these seats and check what MIL’s car is…

I had no idea he couldn’t just go forward-facing in the Stages past 18kg (and I doubt MIL knows. She just bought the seat without asking). I certainly wouldn’t want him in a HBB at that stage. (NB although he’ll hit 18kg by 3.5, he won’t reach 105cm until he’s well over 5 😂)