Car seat question

[r3dh3d]

DD1 is just turning 3. DD2 is growing out of her "baby" car seat so I'm thinking of bumping DD1 up to a stage 1-2-3 car seat and putting DD2 in her old stage 1.

DD1 has SLD but no real postural problems. Stage 1-2-3 seats seem to have a 5-point harness to age 4 and then use the normal seatbelt. I'm not convinced this will keep her in, if only because because she'll pull at it and try to eat it. At the moment she's not bright enough to work out how to escape from a normal seatbelt intentionall, but the whole thing just sort of ....bodes iyswim.

Any thoughts/experience? How does eg a Crelling harness adapt/fit on to one of these big car seats? Or is there some way of "jamming" the adult harness in the child seat so they can't pull it loose? Or - even better - is there a 1-2-3 seat where the 5-point harness in practice will last a good bit longer than up to age 4?

The annoying thing is that she doesn't need a SN seat... well, not precisely. And due to DH's impractical choice of car (on the subject of which just don't get me started...) it would be really helpful to be able to choose from a wide range of seats to give a better chance one will fit.

tbh I think you have to look at how long you will need the seat.
We got the britax sn seat that went up untill age 11. dd could sit in a normal child seat but not a normal car seat so we knew we would need one long term. hope that makes sense.

I've had exactly the same problem r3dh3d.

Stage 1 car seats with harnesses go up to 18kg and DD is almost there, but not yet ready for just a seatbelt/highback booster. I'd thought of getting something like the Britax Evolva 123 & using it for as long as possible with the harness, as DD is small and then investigate something like a Crelling. However I phoned Britax who said that the harnesses was only designed to hold 18kg so no way should I use it beyond.

The special needs seats have harnesses designed beyond that limit but like you didn't need the extra supports.

The only other one I could find is the Britax Elite (which is the same basic seat as the Junior Traveller SN seat with harness for up to 25kgs (age 6 approx). I thought it had been phased out as it didn't fit with the new EU categories ........but it is still available. Bought one last week from Halfords online and it fits well.

www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk were also helpful.

really should proof read before I post .........

"the harness was only designed"

it's been a long day!