J has always been a big child – I think he’s got his height from his Mum’s side of the family. He outgrew his rear facing seat quickly (although that was before the law changed). His first forward facing seat was a hand-me-down from a relative, and again in seemingly no time at all, he was creeping out of that in a sprawling mass of limbs. In hindsight, it probably would have been better to get something like this Graco seat to start with, but live and learn eh? There’s lots of great advice online too – I found this section on Babies Lounge that is super helpful too.
I picked up a relatively cheap Group 1/2 seat online to replace it, which had the brilliant (if occasionally annoying) feature of having a ‘buckle alarm’. The buckle alarm basically beeps if the buckle is undone, which is fantastic if your child is a budding Houdini – although it got annoying randomly going off when J wasn’t in the car.
As he grew further and was too heavy for the buckles, I switched the seat into its Group 2 mode, and that’s where we are now! Whilst the seat is perfectly adequate, I’d like to get something a little better.
Both mine and Miss A’s car have ISOFix mountings in them, which I didn’t have in my old car (which I had when I got his Group 1/2 seat). So ideally I’d like a Group 2 seat with ISOFix, and possibly the option to have it seatbelt mounted as well just in case we ever have a hire car, or he’s with a relative.
Another ‘need’ is for a seat that will grow with him – I know seats aren’t cheap, and therefore I’d like it to last him until he can safely travel without it. Or, perhaps be converted to a regular booster when he’s a lot older.
Something else I want are washable covers – and thankfully we’re well past post milk car vomits now – kids are messy creatures at the best of times. All it takes is a rogue bit of chocolate melting under his bum, or a Fruit Shoot spillage, and you’re screwed. So I’m really keen to get a seat that can have the covers stripped off and chucked into the wash repeatedly.
Whilst I’m talking about Fruit Shoots, something that would be ideal would be a seat with inbuilt cup holders – my Scenic has trays for the kids, with holes for cups to slide into. But they are too big for most kids drinks, so they just fall through! G is fine juggling a drink and her phone / tablet, J, not so much, so somewhere to ‘dock’ his bottle would be fantastic!
So – if any of you have some suggestions that would fit my criteria, drop me a comment!
