Car seat for 3+ ... recommendations?

[edanna1234]

As our baby has almost outgrown his maxi cosi, we are looking to buy his older brother a new car seat.

Is almost 3 too young to go for one which just uses the adult seat belt with no additional restraint? Our son is tall for his age, but I'm concerned he might be able to wiggle out of the adult belt, or even release the buckle itself.

If anyone has any advice on navigating the huge array of seats and brands it would be greatly received.

Thanks

[etta166]

Hi! If you're on Facebook I can really recomend this group for answering car seat questions:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/289434267864378/?fref=ts

The short answer is that it is generally not safe for a child unfer 4.5 years to use a High Back Booster that only uses the adult seat belt. This is for a variety of reasons including skeletal maturity and the ability to sit still. It is legal once a child is over 15 kg in weight, but that does not make it the safest choice.

Most infant seats like the Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix are outgrown once your child's head is right at the top of the shell of the seat. It is unusual for this to happen before 18 months so you may have more time than you think before you need to move your son on to a new car seat. After the infant seat, it is safer to move on to an extended rear facing seat.

You can get advice on car seat safety from a local expert called Margaret Bolt, and on her website:

http://www.rearfacingtoddlers.com/

I can strongly recomend contacting her to help you navigate through all the choice out there for car seats.

Etta

[Dulwich13]

Hi,

I strongly second Etta's recommendation of having your child in a rear facing car seat for as long as possible. Here is another link with some really good advice:

http://www.carseat.se/

Best of Luck

[edanna1234]

Thanks all. Following Etta's recommendation I have just had a really useful chat with Margaret at www.rearfacingtoddlers.com, and feel far more confident!

[PeckhamNicola]

Thanks very much Etta and Dulwich13 for posting these links.