Car seat recommendations for very tall toddler

[theinterest]

My DD2 has just hit 104cm and so has outgrown her Joie I-spin 360 car seat that she uses in DH car. We have a 9month old too and there isnt space with the driving seat position for two rear facing seats in DH car. I’m can fit two rear facing car seats in my car, DD2 uses the Axkid minikid 4 with the baby car seat (soon to be replaced with the Joie i-spin for the baby) and we use my car where possible, but there isn’t room in DH car for this set up.

Therefore DD2 needs to forward face in DH car but most forward facing car seats seem to stop using a harness at 104cm. I’m not comfortable using just a seat belt for a 2 year old. Does anyone have any recommendations for a car seat that has a 5 point harness past 105cm?

We had a Klippan ERF (not this one, a different one that they no longer make). It goes up to 124cm and 32kg. I could fit it in my Ford Focus even with 6’5 Dh driving. They aren’t cheap, but it lasted us 10 years and 2 dc until they forward faced at 5.

www.algateckids.com/en/klippan_opti129_car_seat.php

Try enfasafe 360 we really rate ours

Is there any reason you cannot rear face behind driver seat? My husband is 6ft 3 and I am 6'1. We have ERF seats behind both seats in both of our cars. We managed to fit them behind the driver seat by tethering through the seat in front so they can go further back as the rails prevented this. We also put the driver seat more upright. We could probably gain more space if we had the Minikid on the upright position but it's on the recline. I would try this first off as I was initially in tears thinking I'd have to FF my daughter before she was ready. Even to FF you need a minimum of 55cm survival gap between your child's head and the back of the seat in front. To add, the cars this has worked for in our case have been Ford Focus, Vauxhall Mokka, Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage. My inside leg measurement is 38 inches and I have plenty of space under the steering wheel.

That's a really poor seat unfortunately and not a good recommendation. The poster needs to join a car seat group and get a recommendation for an ERF seat. A 2 year old should really not be forward facing

If you can't fit a RF seat, then you won't have space for FF either lovely as you need a gap to avoid them hitting the seat in front if you were in a crash. There are a lot of ERF seats which are more compact than the Joie (it's a pretty bulky seat).

What car is it to go into?

Definitely look at joining Bump to Booster on FB - you won't get any abuse or judgement on there 😉

Thanks everyone. The Axkid minikid won’t fit behind the driver as it’s a city car as barely used as DH gets the train to work most days.

We may have to rethink the car as I’m not really
comfortable with her forward facing and it sounds like others wouldn’t be either!

There is the Joie i-Irvana Max which harnesses up to 125cm, it needs to be fitted using top tether.

The Minikid 4 is supposed to be one of the most compact ERF seats - is it not possible to fit it with less leg room to give DH more space? This might help just in case. I know the title is about 3 across but it's showing how versatile/compact the Minikid can be:

The other tips are to have the Minikid AND the front seat both as upright as possible.

Or one option could be to fit the Minikid or the baby seat in the passenger seat, if you can disable the airbag and still see the wing mirror. Put one child behind the other. If another adult needs to travel they can sit behind the driver.

It is a myth that if you can't RF there is no space to FF, I don't know of any RF seats which can be fitted in a 50cm gap which is the space needed for a newer, R129 certified forward facing seat. Unless you have a sports car where the front seats are overlapping the back seats, it's usually safe to fit a FF seat. And the 50cm/55cm is also a limit given for testing purposes, it's not necessarily a limit given to consumers, these are different things.

The Enfasafe 360 seats all stop RF (and FF harness) at 105cm / 18kg depending on whether they are R44 or R129. There is an Enfasafe version of the Cozy n Safe Excalibur, though, which is harnessed to 25kg but it is the older standard so might not be best if clearance in front of the seat is poor. It's not a dangerous brand, it's just a more generic brand.