Car seat for 3YO - rear facing that grows with her

[hellosunshine8]

Hi

I'm looking for a car seat for grandparents. DD is nearly 3 so the Joie ispin I have doesn't seem sensible because it's only for 0-4 years.

I want her to stay rear facing, and we have an Axkidd but I find it impossible to tighten so I don't want to get another one of those. I think I will be OK with her forward facing from 4, but preferably not before.

I feel a bit overwhelmed looking online and it's hard to establish what seats have passed what safety tests (I know Axkidd are more extensively tested for example).

Does anyone have a recommendation for a car seat which can rear face until 4, but last until the child is older than that? And preferably one you know has come out well on safety tests?

Thanks!

How much does she weigh? Do you know what centile she is on? Most important thing is to remember to stick to well known brands - so Joie, Britax, Cybex, Axkid, Besafe, Avionaut, Nuna. Graco has some that are the same as joie but rebranded so good budget options - the extend is the same as the tilt, enhance the same as stages and Turn2Me the same as the regular 360

Safest thing is to get a harnessed seat until around 4 years old (18kg or 25kg) then a separate high back booster for forward facing, the 1/2/3 type seats tend to have to compromise on something as HBB need to be flexible and lightweight as opposed to a harness seat which needs to be more secure. For example, joie every stage doesn’t score too well forward facing with harness but does OK rearward facing and then in HBB mode. There’s a new R129 version which rear faces to 21kg/105cm then is FF as a HBB to 145cm.

Do you have a budget? Is it going to be used everyday or more as a spare?

Really helpful, thank you!

She's quite small, 12th centile. Right now she's under 13kgs.

It would probably be used a maximum of a few times a week to help with nursery pick ups type of thing. Really insightful what you've said about the Joie Every Stage as that is what was coming higher up my list, but I was a bit worried about how 'safe' it is.

Budget wise, £300 is OK. Not sure I see the point in spending more than that, the more expensive ones seem to be birth onwards and we only need her current size onwards.

Could you not use the joie spin if she only weighs 13kg? She will go way past 4 years old in that car seat at her current weight. My son was 4 in January and is still in his joie spin as he isn't 18kg yet. I am hoping he gets past 4.5 then I am thinking of getting a HBB.

The majority of rear facing car seats (that aren’t the 25kg ERF Swedish plus tested ones) are suitable from birth. The i-spin goes up to 105cm/18kg so she would have plenty of time left in that. I’d also take a look at the Britax Maxway plus as within budget.

Other good budget seats:
Graco extend/Joie tilt (same car seat, different fabrics. some groups say guidelines have changed about the height the tilt is outgrown at with it being head inline with top of shell if there’s less than 74cm)
Joie steadi
Joie stages/Graco enhance (when used RF. again, the same car seat with different fabrics)
Joie spin 360/Graco turn to me - same seats but again different fabrics, so the Graco is slightly cheaper. Has slightly bulkier inserts than the i-spin and does score slightly less well on the side impact
Joie spin 360 GTi - updated i-size version of the 360 with added side impact protection parts and goes up to 19.5kg/105cm. About £25 more than the regular 360.
Britax dualfix 2R - similar pricing to the GTi.
Also within your budget is the Dualfix M Plus which goes up to 20kg/105cm.

Hope this helps

The Axkid minikid and move are also on sale within your budget

As she’s small you have a lot more flexibility. I’d get a group 1 rear facing car seat for now which will last her until she’s about 6 on her current centile. You can then change her to a high backed booster which are much cheaper. Get a good brand (britax, joie, maxicosi, be safe etc

the ERF are more expensive and take up more room so better to avoid if you don’t need them.

We’ve got Britax maxway in one grandparent’s car.

Axkid Move, Minikid and Britax Max Way Plus are the only longer lasting RF ones within your budget. A 12th centile kid could in theory get to 8-9 years in them.

The tightening on the Move and Minikid are different from each other, so if you didn't like the one you have you could try the other.

Otherwise you could go cheaper isofix - Joie 360 Spin, Graco Turn2Me i-size, Britax Dualfix 2R, Maxi Cosi Mica, Cybex Sirona etc - and then get a separate booster seat afterwards with the remaining £60-150 budget.

Generally the cheaper ones that do both rear facing + booster are not as good, and the only one that got a half decent safety rating is £400. It's more cost effective usually to get a separate seat for the RF stage and then a high backed booster later.

Joie Every Stage R129 might be worth a look, as has the better R129 testing, but it's bulky and annoying (belt in the way) as a RF seat, unnecessarily large as a booster seat and honestly, I think safety wise you're best off with separate seats for each stage.

There are some good forward facing seats (good in relation to other FF seats, still worse than RF) which convert to good boosters, but then that would mean a drop in safety for her now by forward facing.

Is she 12th centile for height too or just weight? If she's a more average height then you might run out of space in the 18kg seats before she hits the weight limit.

This site is great for recommendations info and advice
https://rearfacingtoddlers.com/
No need to turn her forward at 4, plenty of these seats go up to 6-7

Btw I'm nothing to do with that site, I'm not promoting for sales! They do sell them too but the site is really well put together with advice.