Next seat for 3.5-4year old.

[fullfatsocks]

Hi all. I recently weighed/ measured my DS at his 3.4y jab appt and he was 16.5kg (75th centile) and 99.5cm (50th). He’s currently RF in a maxi cosi pearl 360 (wish I’d had the wherewithal to research further ahead at the point we bought this 😬) which he will grow out of at 17.5kg/ 105cm. He has a RF seat we got given by a friend in MILs car which I need to check the limits on, think it’s recarro, and which we will replace for her for next stage. My dad had Joie stages for him and my niece which they’ve FF them both in from 18m ish and fwiu he’s ok in the harness till around 18kg/ 4 years and then it will be a hbb?

From looking in his red book, he’s due to reach the weight limit earlier than he is the height limit for his current seat, likely in the next few months. I’ve been reading on here/ looking at our next options. I know I could get an ERF eg Britax Safeway max but I honestly think at 4/ almost 4 I might be happy to FF (we are also due to replace our car mid next year and don’t know what model we’ll be getting, room wise etc). I had been under the impression that it wasn’t safe to FF in a harness but again, reading here, understand that is less of an issue than I’d thought at this age? So FF options I am looking at are joie irvana max which it seems can use harness until 125cm/ 25kg or britax Evolvafix which is harness until 105cm so same as his current seat but 22kg which would still give us a bit longer weight wise and take us to hopefully 4.5/5y height wise along his current centiles? I’m leaning towards the britax as it then has the middle crotch post bit to stop “submarining” which feels safer. So basically is it better to be harnessed for longer or have the crotch post? We’ll be buying two of either seat, for us and mil.

Any thoughts/ advice welcome, thanks in advance.

I really like the Evolvafix - we have the Advansafix which is an older version, and I've just converted it to high back booster for my nearly 5yo. It's comfy and feels like a really sturdy seat especially for this age group. I have also had no issues fitting it in any cars (we now do carsharing so it's been in loads) whereas the Joie high back booster we have for our 7yo often overlaps the seatbelt buckle which makes it really hard to do up.

I don't know anything about the i-Irvana Max except that it does have the longer harness capacity. It does seem to me more like it's been designed more as a high back booster seat and then the harness capability added on rather than the other way around. OTOH the Evolvafix is a heavy and chunky seat, so while it works really well as your main seat I do think it's a bit of a pain to take in and out. The isofix at least in our version also has a habit of getting stuck on the plastic frame and you have to straighten it out before it will retract again, which is a pain. But as said - if left fitted, this is never an issue.

In general, I tend to think only get an extended harness capacity seat if you actually need this. It doesn't sound like you do - the capacity of the Evolvafix sounds fine for you. And it's a good price in Argos at the moment.

The crotch hook thing is a bit unnecessary really - it's not that seats without it are less safe. But if you find it reassuring then it's no bad thing.

You do need the top tether (for either seat) when used in 5 point harness mode, so bear that in mind for MIL's car, but all modern cars have top tether points now. When it's used as a booster, the top tether stows away in a pouch at the back of the seat, but it's really easy to swap it between modes, if she has other grandchildren she needs to transport.

Joie Stages has an 18kg limit on the harness, so will be outgrown soon and need to be used with seatbelt. I suspect the Recaro will also be an 18kg limit and could be fairly old, as it's been a while since Recaro produced any RF seats. They did have some R129 ones though but not with any higher limit IIRC, unless it's the Concord Reverso Plus you're thinking of? That one was 105cm/21kg, so you'll be OK with this seat for a while.

If you wanted to replace the Joie Stages, you could look at Graco Slimfit R129 which is seatbelt fitted and cheaper than the Britax, but it doesn't have a forward facing harness mode - it's just rear facing up to 105cm/21kg, and then a high back booster. If that would work OK for your niece too, maybe that would work.

Thank you so much @BertieBotts that’s really helpful. I think we are leaning towards the britax and will likely buy one each for us and MIL. We won’t be swapping them about between cars and no other grandkids for her. Thankfully there’s only 3 weeks between DS and niece so the Joie should be fine for them both until 18kg and then HBB. If I don’t feel comfortable him being in a seatbelt at that point I’ll assess it then. They won’t be interested in RF him as they turned him at 18m without asking me, sister was already FF niece and uses a Joie elevate now so is overall more relaxed 😬 it’s once a week with no other issues re doing what we ask so I can’t get too worked up about it.