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Car Seat in Minibus (Older Kid)

133 replies

BakerBop · 05/01/2026 14:22

Looking some car seat advice please.

My daughter just turned 11yo and is small for her age. She’s moved groups for sports and dance and will be going in a minibus with other kids in the club each week. The club is great and they’ve checked her car seat fits in the minibus, know how to use it, etc. The problem is she’s begging me not to use it. She’s totally fine with it in my car, so it’s just being around other kids which is the problem because she’ll be the only kid in any sort of car seat (even including boosters). She’s nowhere near being able to be without it, so I’m just wondering what others have done or would suggest to help? Thx!

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AllJoyAndNoFun · 05/01/2026 21:54

Phonicshaskilledmeoff · 05/01/2026 21:48

I think this is fake.

Last year the OP posted about looking for toddler reins for her 9 year old (with no SEN) so either she needs psych help or she's some sort of weird "child restraint at inappropriate ages" troll. I mean, people troll about weirder things so who knows? :-)

PennyLaneisinmyheartandmysoul · 05/01/2026 22:01

AllJoyAndNoFun · 05/01/2026 21:54

Last year the OP posted about looking for toddler reins for her 9 year old (with no SEN) so either she needs psych help or she's some sort of weird "child restraint at inappropriate ages" troll. I mean, people troll about weirder things so who knows? :-)

wtf 😬

BertieBotts · 05/01/2026 22:06

OK, I will leave the thread after this because I can see your mind is made up and I don't want to keep digging, although I agree with the suggestion above that if this seat needs to be used because of a disability, to explain about it in that way.

I just wanted to add one more piece of information which you may or may not be aware of. This car seat conforms to R44.03, which is still legal, but is very outdated. The UK manual for it (which was hard to find owing to proliferation of the US manual) boasts that it meets the "revised" standard suggesting that the approval happened somewhere around the adoption of revision 3, which was 1995. The Husky (which is not identical) has not been produced in the US since 2005. While some of the newer regulations pertain to aspects such as avoiding misuse, and it sounds to me like you're the kind of person who would have read the manual back to front and made damned sure not to misuse the seat, some of them also apply to things like having lower tolerance for forward rotation or better side impact protection, things which actually make a measurable difference in the outcome if there was to be a crash.

The approvals for special needs restraints are slightly more relaxed than the approvals for car seats for general use, because the understanding is that sometimes there is a trade off between having someone restrained at all in an accident vs maintaining a high standard which is impossibly hard to reach when the occupant has a higher body weight than is usually standard for this kind of restraint. For this reason, special needs restraints need to have a disclaimer somewhere on the manual. This seat has this wording on the front cover, which is actually the same wording which is given in the most up to date version of the safety standard:

This “Special Needs Restraint” is designed to give extra support to children who have difficulty in sitting correctly in conventional seats. Always consult your doctor to make sure that this restraint system is suitable for your child.

The UK law is not very clear about whether using a special needs restraint without medical advice is permissible, it just says that you need to use a child restraint conforming to R44.03, R44.04 or R129. That said, there is a clear benefit in the case of disability where a child either lacks the physical strength or cognitive awareness to use a standard booster seat properly, which likely outweighs the risks of the seat design being 30 years old (it will have been manufactured much more recently than this obviously). If the child does not have such a disability, then the benefits probably don't outweigh the risks any more, which is why this statement is printed on those seats in order to discuss the individual situation with a medical professional (who probably doesn't have any particular expertise in car seats, but should be able to assess a child's ability to understand or physically support themselves).

VikaOlson · 05/01/2026 22:18

AllJoyAndNoFun · 05/01/2026 21:54

Last year the OP posted about looking for toddler reins for her 9 year old (with no SEN) so either she needs psych help or she's some sort of weird "child restraint at inappropriate ages" troll. I mean, people troll about weirder things so who knows? :-)

Oh yuck.

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 06/01/2026 00:03

I got one like for my kids for out and about. Given your DD is 125cm she will be fine in one. She will feel babyish if she the only one in a full car seat.

Beautyfadesdumbisforever · 06/01/2026 11:07

For anyone who is genuinely concerned most minibuses have and seatbelt adjusters fitted as standard.They are quite often pushed up to the top of the belt and not always noticed. They work really well and very safe.

Justploddingonandon · 06/01/2026 12:06

My DD has SEN and took longer than average to be safe in a HBB as she hated being restrained and couldn't be trusted not to undo the belt. Fortunately this is the aforementioned tiny 10 year old so she learnt before she hit the weight limit of the non-special needs one, and moved up pretty much right on the limit (from memory she was about 6 or 7) when she had matured a bit. She doesn't sit perfectly still, but she knows to keep the seatbelt fastened and not to lean all the way over (in fact the seat side stops her unless she's also leaning forward).
I'd been assuming you meant a HBB, which my DD in my car will be using until she hits the height limit and for as long afterwards as I can get her to. Unless your DD has significant SEN I struggle to see how she cannot use a HBB correctly.
Have you considered when she gets to high school? DS's school will take them to sporting fixtures etc which happen in the school day, either by coach or minibus (often they have both due to numbers and it's up to the kids which they get on) and probably don't even consider car seats.

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