Going up a car seat size

There's excellent advice on the extended rear facing Facebook group. This one does not look look like it is harnessed or rear facing so would be unsafe

I have, my son is huge and we had to make the decision. I got it down to the i-traver and the britax kidfix, we went with the kidfix and love it, it has an extra point of contact at the crotch and additional protection on the chest

Size isn't the issue, the issue is at not yet 3 they're spines aren't fully developed. You can safely rear face with harness up to 6!

I second the group! But a very short summary would be - a child’s bones don’t harden until closer to 6 year old. So forward facing them before then significantly increases the risk of injury (or worst case death) if you were in an accident. So ideally a child should be rearfacing until 6, although going as long as possible is best. There are Swedish plus tested car seats (which is pretty much the most rigorous testing done) that go up to 25 or even better 36kg and/or 125cm tall. So even a high centile (big) child can get to 5ish which is better than nothing! Again, join the group and there’s loadddds of info and pictures explaining it all. The seats are more expensive but I personally think worth the peace of mind, and most sellers do payment plans x

@Mel s I'm fully aware of the benefits of ERF and you're right, size isn't the only issue but it is an issue when your main childcare has degenerative disk disease and Lupus and your toddler is off the centiles. Risk cannot be eradicated only managed, that's why his ERF seat is in my husband's car. So many parents are going to choose to FF before you deem it appropriate for a number of reasons, I was answering the exact question that OP asked and recommended one of the safest FF seats on the market. If someone is going to switch I'd much rather them choose the best seat than be denied the information. @ me next time and say it with your chest out.

@Adele I appreciate that you have other circumstances that affected your decision, which is totally fair enough. But maybe I think it would be worth mentioning that to the poster, as the way I read your comment it was just because he was big in size that you made the switch. Again, it’s completely up to you as you know what’s best for your child, as you had all the info on ERF but poster (and others reading) may not. I think it’s always worth mentioning the ERF factor first and, like you, if they find them options not feasible then at least they have all the knowledge to make an informed decision rather than just jumping to suggesting FF seats. Hoping this doesn’t come across as aggressive🤞🏻

@Megan thank you, and apologies it wasn't clear, the choice we had to make was between another 25kg/36kg/125cm seat or the next stage seat as he had suddenly gone over 105cm and the 19kg weight limits of the i spin. The vast majority of similar aged children won't have reached the maximums on 105cm/18kg/19kg joie 360 style seats to need to make a decision on next seats yet was what I meant. He can climb into any car seat by going across the back seat but my mum has issues with strapping and unstrapping him into RF seats. Also worth noting that he does definitely prefer it FF and complains a little at RF in my husband's car but I don't budge on that one - less compliant children will want to swap in all cars so I definitely don't recommend testing out FF or just allowing it in one car just to anyone who might be reading! Also, over 50% of children would still be too small for the one seat I did recommend even at age 4, it's less than 2% of boys that are over 105cm at their 3rd birthday so most definitely

not a sweeping recommendation for anyone to switch to FF 😊 but for those that really have outgrown something like the joie spin seats and want to make an informed choice to FF, the kidfix is great and the additional protections compared to other FF seats meant it was literally the ONLY seat I would approve for my own son 😊

Not sure if you want ERF recommendations but if you do - we use the britax romer max safe pro x