sorry another car seat thread - would the Britax Horizon be OK for DS's friends?

[Bozza]

I have spent ages looking back through the archives but most info is related to high back boosters.

We have a 5 yo and a 1 yo. The 5yo is in a high back booster and the 1yo is in a MaxiCosi Priori. So the plan is that when DD gets to 33lb (she's been 27 lb for ages so will be no time soon) she will go into DS's high back booster and DS will have a booster cushion.

However as DS gets older we increasingly find ourselves ferrying one or other of his friends around. So for convenience I was thinking of investing in a booster cushion that DS or a friend (whichever was bigger/heavier) could use when necessary now but would be used for DS once DD has his seat.

But the Which survey doesn't seem to cover the cushions. The Britax Horizon is £10.99 from Kiddicare and comes with a seat belt adjuster strap.

Just to say I also looked in the Mumsnet recomendations as well.

ok.... they REALLY recommend children are in proper 5 point harnesses until 3 years old if at all possible, so if i were you id keep yoy youngest in the maxi cosi priori until she at least nears 18kg... it is afterall one of the SAFEST seats.

Most boosters say from 15kg but the new advice is that a proper seat (ie high backed booster) is recommended until 22kg / 6 years old.

Many high backed boosters do REALLY badly in independant crash tests.... the only ones that seem to do ok are the britax kids, bitax high liner, maxi cosy rodi and one by concord...

how about buying one of those (the britax highliner did VERY well and can be used as a proper seat until 36kg as well, giving optimum protection until 11 years) Other like the britax kid can come apart to be a booster for an oldder child.

At the end of the day its up to you what you do and a britax horizon will meet the legal requirements for a 5 year old.... BUT it is not nearly as safe as the better seats, which i assume you would prefer your child to be sitting in if you were involved in an accident!

we ferry alot of dd's (also 5) friends around. As she's the youngest in her year, most of her friends are already (or about to be) 6. We use the booster cushion. I check with the parent's first - tbh, alot of them don't even bother with car seats for their kids anymore.

when I mean a lot - I don't mean all the time but it seems to be more common to share trips for things like parties, sport etc.

That's the sort of thing I have in mind foxinsocks. What sort of booster cushion do you have?

NannyL I was slightly confused thinking that your 2nd para was saying that I shouldn't use a high back booster until 6 which kind of contradicts your first para. But having reread you are saying that I should use a high back booster until 6 rather than just a cushion.

I fully intend to use a high back booster for DS until DD is between 15 and 18 kg by which time he will be at least 6 if not older. However I was thinking just for those odd lifts that foxinsocks mentions the purchase of the booster cushion would be handy. Also I think a booster cushion would fit in the third seat in the back of DH's Volvo S40, which a high back booster wouldn't.

I think I just got a plain standard booster cushion from Halfords. I think it's the britax one on this page

\link{http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10001&categoryId=31489&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=33953&top_category=33953&topCategoryId=&crumb=33949-33953\booster seats}

That's the one I was looking at actually. It sounds like I am planning the sort of thing you do already.

I also reckon it would fit in the back middle of my Fiesta which is a bonus because when I had DS's friend in on Monday he had to go in his highback booster in the front and kept leaning over and stuff - also I wasn't happy about how the seat belt fit him because it is a two door car so the seat belts are mounted quite far back. I had the passenger seat as far back as poss, but DD was behind and her legs stick out forwards.

we have a very cheap booster cushion which fits between my 2's Britax Hilinwers, for occasional use by friends.

Agree that most children in ds1's class haven't used a booster for a long time ( he's 6) - had a big argument with one of his friends who refused to sit in the hiliner ( I won) - I think lots of parents will be surprised by the new regs.

we have a focus and the booster does fit between our two britax kids. We put one child in the kid first, do their seatbelt up, do the booster and the belt and finally do the last kid up by moving the car seat a little to the side, doing up the belt and then moving it back and tightening. Works fine.