Am I buying car seat too early.

[Eagtess3]

Hi everyone currently 20 weeks pregnant with my second child. I have a two and a half year old. I wanted to ask peoples opinions on me buying a new car seat for toddler now so that they get used to it before baby comes in February.

baby is going to go in current car seat.

I can get 30 pound off the price at the moment. Toddler has gone through lots of changes recently like a new bed, nursery and toilet training and has coped really well. I was thinking to give them enough time to get used to the car seat and not feel pushed out when baby comes . Or do people think 20 weeks is too early to get a new car seat

Buy it whenever it works for you! I don't think there's any such thing as too early... it totally depends on your individual circumstances! How many weeks you are doesn't affect the toddler after all.
I bought my pram bundle at 18 weeks because it was massively reduced in a promotion, some people might wince at that, but I couldn't say no to the £400 off!

You could buy it and leave it around so he/she sees the box. Explain it is for big children only.

When they are ready you can make their old one disappear and put this in its place.

Not too early - you can make a smooth and slow transition to the new one

What car seat are you looking to change your 2.5yo to? Presumably whatever they are in now, the baby won't go into from birth, do you have an infant carrier first? I'm concerned if you buy too early for your older one, they will either be potentially going into a seat that is the wrong type/too old for them or you will not really know when they will be likely to outgrow it and may need to buy a third seat later on. Since you won't need the next one for another 12-18 months (assuming baby is going into an infant seat first) you might even get away with waiting for the next stage. In most cases, it makes sense to wait as long as possible before changing a car seat.

IME car seat is such a minor thing and it's easy to get them excited about the new one being for bigger kids so I wouldn't rush to do that early. Things like if you need to change them out of the cot into a bed, out of your room into theirs, need to get them out of nappies or off the boob ready for the little one - all of these are changes that I would do early. But car seat has not been an issue at all IME.

She’s currently in a birth to 4 year car seat. And will be going into a 9 month to 12 year car seat she’s 31 months x

@BertieBotts She’s currently in a birth to 4 year car seat. And will be going into a 9 month to 12 year car seat she’s 31 months x

Ah I see so you will need the seat for the new baby.

It might be worth just double checking what the limit of the seat you're looking at is. Most of the 9m-12y ones use the five point harness until 18kg (height wise, around 100-105cm), and then you have to change to seatbelt. It's fine if your LO is fairly small for their age but if she is tall you can find that the 18kg or top harness height comes up too quickly and you have to change her to seatbelt too soon. There are seats like this which have an extended harness option so you could harness up to 25kg if you want to which would cover her longer if she is tall or heavy. And even seats which allow to rear face up to 25kg which is another good investment especially if she is rear facing now. Just in case you wanted to look into these :)

We swapped DS2 into a group 123 seat at around 3 and I was really happy with it - Britax Advansafix.

Call the 'In care safety centre' for impartial advice. Your children should be rear facing for as long as possible. Good luck!

Thankyou so much @BertieBotts We are Looking at the Joie bold and it has an extended 5 point harness that can be used up to 25

i should have explained better I also suffer from arthritis so would struggle with the infant carrier.
I want my daughter to be settled as she has done so well with everything else and don’t want her to feel pushed out over a car seat

I mean, it’s just a car seat? Surely it’s not a big adjustment to just put the toddler in it whenever you buy it. If you can save money by buying it now then fine, but otherwise don’t overthink it.

Personally I'd use an infant seat for baby and keep toddler as they are, there are very few seats that you actually get a good fit for a newborn in that aren't the infant seat - even if you keep it in the car rather than remove it.
As for the bold, it only rear faces to 18kg, then has to forward face, either with the harness or adult belt. In general the advise if to keep them rear facing until they're a minimum of 4.5yr old and go into the adult belt. It's worth asking for advice on a facebook page such as car seat advise uk x

If you're going for the Joie Bold then it does make sense to get it if you can get a discount, I'd try to hold out to get it around £170 if you can as that's a good price. Can't see any offers on it myself currently - is it worth waiting for Black Friday which is some time in November?

LouLou I think you're confused as the Joie Bold isn't a rear facing seat at all, are you thinking of the Joie Stages?