Rear facing car seat for tall 2.5 year old

[Daisydaisydaisyy]

We currently have the joie swivel seat where it can face the back or the front and although I know it’s safer to rear-face, he does at times face the front when having a snack etc. He’s now reaching the height limit of the seat but when I’ve gone to look for the next seat up I am suddenly finding I’m clueless! Any I can find with the option to rear face are brands I’ve never heard of and are around £400+ 😳 Is there anything lower than this from a decent brand? Thanks!

Sorry I don't have an answer but following encase someone else does.

We currently have the joie aswell but my son is only 92cm so a bit yet!

I think one of the Axkid seats is around the £200 mark? Don't remember the exact one off the top of my head

Axkid, Besafe, Avionaut and Klippan are reputable brands, they are just not that well known in the UK, they are more popular in Sweden and Norway where rear facing to a longer age is recommended and more common.

If you did want a brand you have probably heard of, both Britax and Joie have rear facing seats up to 125cm. Joie's one is expensive because it is isofix only which is very difficult to do with this height limit. That is over £400.

Britax do have an offer on their Max-Safe Pro seat at the moment which is £260. That is currently the cheapest rear facing 125cm limit seat. Unfortunately since a combination of Brexit and the change over in the safety standard, there are no cheap ERF seats on the UK market any more. You used to be able to get at least one model for under £200 most of the time. These days you're lucky if there's anything much under £300.

TBH if you have a very tall child, there is not very much that will accommodate them forward facing either. You need an old-regulation 25kg harness seat because all of the newer regulation forward facing ones on the market at this time have a harness limit of 105cm. Currently these are Joie Bold, Cozy n Safe Hudson, Enfasafe Event FX and Online4Baby are now doing one called the Puggle Safe Fit & Gro, which is the same as the Enfasafe. All of these except the Joie do meet the usual definition of "unknown brands", so not a great amount of choice, but they are cheaper than the rear facing ones.

Thank you! Thank you! Such a helpful reply, I will look into these ones. And p.s, HI 👋, I know you from August 2021 board but have changed my name 😆

Ah hello! I am totally useless with name changes Hope you and LO are doing well :) How tall is LO? I think my Aug 2021 baby is about 92cm/15kg now and he is still in the Joie 360 spin with loads of space to go yet.

We had a Klippan, which was around £400 at the time we purchased it (11 years ago). It lasted us through 2 children rear-facing until they started school at 4.5 so well worth the money. We pooled dc1's birthday money to buy it, which I saw as a perfectly reasonable use for a few hundred £'s for a 1 year old who has every else she needs and a healthy savings account. It lasted 10 years and we passed it on to a friend to use as an emergency 2nd seat with grandparents.

I think you can get the Axkid Move for a little over £200 right now – it doesn't have some of the added features of the Axkid Minikids or Movekid, but it's a good, safe seat to 125cm/25kg. If you're not too picky on colour, I think you can also find the Minikid 2 for under £300.

My only query would be how heavy is your DC? Very high centile children can reach 25kg before they're really safe to go into a high back booster, in which case you'd potentially be looking for a 125cm/36kg seat.

@BertieBotts aw we’re great thanks, hope you guys are all good! He’s just gone over 100cm, maybe 102cm from memory 🙈 and that was a few weeks ago so feel like I need to be on the lookout before he reaches 105cm. A big version of it would be ideal!

Ah yes then for sure - you need a 125cm limit seat! :) It's unlikely he will suddenly shoot over 105cm and in any case it's not a huge deal if you go over slightly so long as he is still safely contained in the seat and within the weight limit, so you have time to look for something else.