car seats on holiday

[tigger15]

We are going on holiday next week and will probably have about 4 short 5-30mins car journeys over the holiday. Ds is nearly 3 and about average height. We can't manage to take a whole proper seat for him. Would you take a booster with or anything similar and if so any recommendations? Our friends seem to range from those who take boosters or nothing at all.

Can't you hire a car seat? Most car hire firms and taxi companies provide seats that are suitable for the 3 year old.

And where are you going? How busy will the roads be?

Not IME. It is the middle east and the roads have a pretty bad accident rate but at the same time no one does car seats even the people who live there. We are not hiring a car so can't get a seat via that route and the last time I tried taxi services they just ignored the request.

In a similar situation some years ago, when we had 16m and nearly 4y dc, we took boosters with us - the sort that have a strap up the back to clip to the seatbelt and make sure it sits properly. 16mo was quite tall, probably not technically big enough for the booster, but she seemed to fit it well enough, and we considered it better than nothing.

No, I wouldn't take a booster, I would take his proper seat or not use the car.

Most airlines will carry a car seat in the same way as a buggy, as an extra piece of baggage. I wouldn't take my children in a car without a seat in Dubai (my total experience of the middle-east!). The roads were crazy. And I'm also conscious of giving police/officials are reason to pull you over.

I would take the safest car seat you reasonably can. I read a post on another forum a while ago, the poster's mother was a police official in a country which had no car seat laws, and she dealt a lot with car accidents. She said that 90% of the time, the children who were in carseats or wearing seatbelts appropriately for their age were fine or had minor injuries. The children not in carseats or just in a seatbelt very young were not. This was true for rear-facing, forward-facing, old, new, expensive, cheap, sturdy looking, flimsy looking seats. Any car seat is better than no car seat.