Recommendations for 1/2/3 Car seat?

[uhoh2016]

Ds will be 3 in Feb I'm looking to get him a new car seat that he can use for a while. Hes got a Mothercare Madrid 0/1 seat at the moment which I hate. It's very hard to move between cars and the straps are tricky to adjust. I feel he's growing out of it although a stage 2 seat isn't suitable for another year or so. Hes fairly tall for his age. I'm hoping someone can recommend something that's good value for money or knows of any I can pick up in the January sales??

I’ve heard good things about the joie every stage!

We've got two of the joie every stage and it's great. Rear facing until 18kg too, which is important to us. It's simple to fit, sits very sturdily in my car (a Seat) and seems to be great quality.

Another vote for the Joie Every Stage!

fanny I've always been sceptical of rear facing from a comfort point of view as in where does his legs go?? As I said before he's fairly tall for his age (98th centile) , his legs already hang down quite a bit now. I can't remember his weight From last weigh in around Sept but he was on the 50th centile range

They just cross their legs or put their feet on the back seat. I remember as a child finding it so uncomfy having my legs dangling, and even now would rather sit cross legged than with them down! Like this photo (not mine, found on google!)

You'll struggle to get him into a standard 123 seat if he's outgrowing the straps on the 0/1 - they tend to go up to about the same size.

If you're really invested in a harnessed seat then you'll need one which harnesses up to 25kg, regardless of how heavy he actually is - the ones which only harness to 18kg tend to have straps which go to the same height and most DC outgrow them around three and a half - taller ones nearer to three.

Otherwise you might as well look for a high backed booster with good side impact support which fits him well now. I recommend an isofix one if you can stretch to it as it actually makes it much easier so it doesn't move around in the car.

The britax 2way elite is a great extended rear facing seat with a tall shell. It can also be turned forward too. Both of mine were in it rf til 4 then another year ff til 5 before movibg to a hbb. This was from about 9mo after they outgrew their infant seats.

As Bertie says, if he's tall you're likely to need at 25kg harnessed seat. Joie Bold is FF, Stages is RF. He's too young for a high back booster (min 4yrs is recommended) and ignore the age indicators on harnessed seats - look for the weight/height range.

Children aren't uncomfortable in rear facing seats. They just fold their legs up. I do take the safety of ERF over any other considerations though.

I'd recommend the 'car seat advice for mummies and daddies' on Facebook. Their advice is really excellent.

HBB is fine from 3 IF the child fits well (and is over 15kg) and can be trusted not to undo or wriggle out of seatbelt.