car seat for 5 year old with CP?

[dandlmum]

My 5 year old ds has spastic quad CP. He can't walk and is a wheelchair user. At the moment he is still in his "toddler" carseat, but has really outgrown it now, so we need to get a bigger one. His trunk control is not great, so he will not cope with a "normal" stage 3 booster seat. He also really needs a 5 point harness and basically needs a bigger version of the carseat he has now. Does anyone have experience of special needs (or normal, but bigger) carseats which would be suitable for a physically disabled child? Our previous carseats have been isofix ones, so that would be our first choice, but being realistic, I know we will probably have to do without that, in order to get one which will be the right size and give the right support. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

here are some but they are dear though

incarsafetycentre.co.uk/catalog/index.php/cPath/31

have you tried your ot or physio, some areas will provide them, some won't. Either way they may be able to recommend something that suits his needs and may suggest some charities to help with funding. The other option is to have a look for the facebook group special needs buy sell swap, they've had a few seats come up but don't know if they'd be suitable.

Yep think there's at least one on my FB group that might be suitable www.facebook.com/media/set/?id=1126136380&qn=1319620341&tid=259037294140608&success=1&session_id=0&start_time=1319620341&failure=0&set=oa.268628639848140#!/groups/223452871046280/

defiantly the recaro car seat. If money is tight you could either apply to a charity or check out ebay although that one doesn't say special needs it is almost identical in design and has the same weight recommendation, to the one I have that cost £450 through a charity. here My son is 5 and big and fits very well.

Hello my 10 year old still uses her sunshine kids seat - I bought it on amazon a few years ago. It is a bit different from a usual big kid seat as it folds up for travelling - we need this for plane travel when coming to UK to visit family. It is very heavy because of the metal reinforcement, but 5 point harness, straps into most cars. Here www.amazon.com/Sunshine-Kids-Radian65-Convertible-Champagne/dp/B002OC32XO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1320246523&sr=8-3

We have the Britax Traveller plus (its on the link from piglet). Had it several years as DS has been slow to grow!!

We went through OT who organised a few for DS to try; they didn't pay for it but organised funding from a local charity.

Just a tip when looking, is that if you think you will need to lower any of your rear seats for more space then check the car seat doesn't overhang the seat it is on.