HBB for (a just turned) 5 year old

[TDAO]

Hi all,

Looking for advice for a HBB for a just turned 5 year old she's quite petite (106cms tall and 17.5kg - her 3 year old brother weighs the same so needs to go into her ERF seat).

Looking for something with good safety rating but ideally around £150 as need two (one will be in a nissan juke which doesn't have great interior space).

Also need another two HBBs for grandparents cars is there anything that's £100 or under that has good safety ratings? (she only goes in their cars about once a week and not on motorways or long journeys, we would give them our better seats if they were to take them further).

Would like them all to be isofix (assuming this is easier than remember to strap them in all the time when she's not using it)

Any advice/recommendations greatly appreciated...there are soo many options!

@bertiebotts hope you don't mind me tagging you, I know you've helped me before with car seat advice. Don't suppose you'd mind helping with the next one's (this should be it hopefully lol)

Any of the Britax/Cybex/maxi Cosi ones on black Friday offers are likely to be good options 🙂

I can look more specifically later but that would be my tip for bargain hunting.

I think off the top of my head britax discovery plus 2 is a good option at the moment.

Thank you @BertieBotts!

Any more recommendations would be amazing!

I've been looking at the britax kidfix I size which is just over the budget for the more expensive seats in the sales. Is this one worth the bit extra with the crotch bit and padding on the front?

Also the joie Traver (which is well below £100 in the sale) seems to have a really low ADAC score (lower than the besafe izi flex which is £200+ and seems to get lots of recommendations..so a bit confused by the ADAC scores).

It's mind boggling try to work out which ones are the best/safest 🙈 and value for money.

Joie seats do get good safety recs and the Traver is a good seat. People like the Besafe one because it's Besafe and Besafe make ERF seats. 🤷‍♀️ I think (at least in the UK) they are much too expensive to recommend. There is nothing magic about them.

I don't personally think the extra features of the Kidfix i-size do that much, though I do have a seat with the little crotch guard thing for my 5yo. I think it helps keep the belt in the right position which I like because my DH doesn't always pay attention to the position as much as I would like. But if you're positioning the belt over the pelvis, without coats etc in the way then this is not strictly needed. The pad for the shoulder belt seems to be hit and miss with whether children tolerate it or not. The Besafe one does have a pad which I've heard (from children) is more comfy.

TBH the safety rating doesn't make as much of a difference at this stage compared to the previous toddler stage. I'd avoid the total cheapy ones or where the head wings are really shallow and basically non existent but other than this, you can't go that far wrong.

Sorry I still haven't had time to go and look up specifics! 🙈 one tip which I think hasn't made its way round the FB groups yet is that the newer Graco Logico L R129 seems to be a clone of the Joie Trillo which is fairly well rated by these groups. I expect people are cautious to recommend it because the old/R44 Logico L had a really poor safety score and was very shallow/flimsy - and they don't want to confuse the two. But the new one seems to be the same as the Joie. (I wouldn't swear my life on it, because I haven't seen it IRL yet, but I'd put money on it.)

Perhaps if you have the chance to view some in person with your child that would be the best approach? As asking them which are comfy is a useful thing to do, since they will likely be using this seat for a long time.

OK this is what I'd look at currently.

Under £100
Britax Adventure Plus / Discovery Plus (Disco is about £110)
Cybex Solution S2 i-fix (actually a vv good choice in general - amazon)
Maxi Cosi Rodifix Air Protect
Maxi Cosi Rodifix M i-size (Halfords)
Joie i-Trillo
Joie Traver (ah it's the old model, that's why cheaper. Good seat though.)

Around £150
Britax Kidfix SL
Britax Kidfix M i-size (Boots)
Britax Kidfix Z-Line
Maxi Cosi Rodifix Pro i-Size - just saw this in person, looks v nice.
Joie Transfix (Halfords) - upgraded version of Traver

I think my overall recommendation/top pick is probably the Cybex Solution S2 i-fix which is on offer on amazon. For both of your categories.

The Rodifix Pro and Kidfix M i-size are both newer seats, but the Kidfix M is a more mid-range whereas Rodifix Pro is top end and current, and Cybex Solution S2 is their second-best seat of the previous range to the current range.

So probably either Cybex S2 for all the cars, or a combo of Cybex S2 and Maxi Cosi Rodifix Pro for the higher budget cars.

Kidfix Z-Line if you're keen on having the extra crotch guard and XP-Pad.

Thank you so much! I've ordered a cybex solution s2 ifix, really like the look of it (managed to get a deal from Halfords using NHS discount so got the colour I wanted for £102) :)

I have gone a bit over budget and got a kidfix I size (from little peas hoping I win the free seat for the day lol).

Decided we'll try them both and then order the further 2 seats in Jan when we've tried these ones to see if we order more of these or something different (hoping there will be some deals in the sales).

Thanks again for your fountain of knowledge!

Ah yes that sounds like a good idea :) Hope that they are good when they arrive.