car seat conundrums

[sunbob]

Hello, Please can anyone offer advice?

We have a birth-3 or 4 years car seat for our daughter. It has been great throughout and is still a lovely comfortable size for her. However, now she is getting taller (not particularly big 19 months) it is becoming impossible to get her into the seat without strange contortions to avoid hitting her head on the car ceiling.

Our car is quite big, Volvo 850. Are we doing something obvious wrong? Any tips on how to get child in to seat more comfortably?

An alternative could be to go onto a new 9 month-11 years high back booster. The worry I have about that is would it be a waste of money - it seems that by 4 years a child could just sit on a booster cushion, and I certainly don't think that a 9 year old would want to go into a full seat when they could just have a discreet cushion.

Any ideas gratefully received, thanks.

[Fuschia]

sunbob Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> An alternative could be to go onto a new 9

> month-11 years high back booster. The worry I have

> about that is would it be a waste of money - it

> seems that by 4 years a child could just sit on a

> booster cushion, and I certainly don't think that

> a 9 year old would want to go into a full seat

> when they could just have a discreet cushion.

>

I'd stick firm on the proper booster issue, side protection is MUCH safer. Our son is almost 8 and he doesn't quibble even though most of his friends use small booster cushions.

[candj]

I agree with Fuschia, and would buy the high back booster. Our nearly 6 year old has been using one since she was 3 and we just bought another one for our youngest. I think by law you have to use this over the seat only booster - depending on your child's weight.

When we used to have difficulty in getting the children into the stage two seats (think that's the one you currently have) I would have to ask them to climb into it themselves, take winter coats off and extend the straps as far as possible. Also, if their heads stick out of the top, they have outgrown the seat.

[kristymac1]

I think 19months may be a little young for a high back booster - especially since she still fits comfortably in the car seat - we've only just moved our daughter to a high back booster and she's 3.5yrs. We also had frequent 'contact' with the door frame in particular, you could always try putting her in from the other side and then lifting her into the seat (no door frame issue then), or as soon as she's able she'll probably want to climb in herself anyway....

[crystal7]

We have a small 3 door car and I usually climb onto the back seat with my 19 month old then put her in the carseat that way, removing coat is a must!