Car seats

No need for fitness régimes, pilates etc. when you have four grandchildren of different ages, and three seats. Heaving them in and out and adapting one for either the ten year old or the three year old is a constant physical challenge.

As well as the Isofix type (which are removable anyway) there are car seats which are affixed with the existing seatbelts and pretty easy to remove or transfer to another vehicle.

I am taking my Grandson 7, to the UK for a week during the summer holidays to visit friends. His first time flying, we plan to hire a car seat for the week as they will have no future use for one.
I found a company online which charges approximately 20£ a week and delivers and collects . He is also checking out the AA as friends have hired from them in the past.
Halfords used to hire but they did not come up on the Internet.

We seem to be accumilating Grandchildren and, as a result, are looking for a 7 seater. The best option seems to be a Volvo XC90 but the reviews say the third row of seats are "only suitable for children". Does anyone know if we can get two child car seats into the third row of an XC90? Modern car seats are very bulky

Bathsheba is quite right, backless boosters are not illegal. Mothercare was still selling them recently.

I think what is happening is that once they're all sold, no more will be available so they will gradually be phased out. I'm prepared to be corrected on that, though.

Franbern they're not illegal. That information further upthread was incorrect!

See my post at Wed 30-May-18 20:31:33, with image of info from Gov.UK

Was surprised to read here that booster seats without a back are now illegal. Yesterday, I visited one of my daughters and as she was suffering from a bad back which makes driving difficult, when we went out, we used my car. She just moved a backless booster seat into my car for her 8 1/2 yr old daughter.

DGD has grown out of the seat pictured above but still requires a bit of a boost so I must have a look at the Mothercare site.
In fact, I have often wondered if they may be useful for some adults who are a bit on the shorter side - myself included.

Dean eke, try going to Mothercare they are having big sales as so many shops are closing.

You need to make sure any booster seats you use have backs to them as this is now the legal requirement.

That's not true CassieJ - the law regarding booster cushions has changed, but it is still perfectly legal to use them, in accordance with the amended law. See this section from the Gov.UK site on child seats (with my highlighting)

Isofix fittings do seem to vary from car to car as to how easily accessible they are. We use a car seat with the seat belt for our GC.

When the seats aren't needed we put them in the attic.

If you are going to consider shopping for car seats, if you have the height, weight and age of each child the entire process is massively easier as it will eliminate the ones that are unsuitable or indeed illegal.

Bring the car you plan to put the seat in and ask the shop staff to demonstrate fitting it in your own car. This is super helpful if you are concerned about getting it in and out.

It is also especially important for seat belt only secured ones to make sure you are fitting the belt correctly as the fittings for those are not as obvious as the ISOFIX ones.

The shop staff should have had the training to fit the seats safely. Don’t buy a seat for under fours that you haven’t seen fitted.

If your daughter is doing extended rear facing with her little ones, it’s good for you to know that in advance too. She may not be willing to forward face them yet.

Knowledge is time and money saved! Good luck x

When my son and daughter in law came over from Canada with my grandchild they brought the car seat with them. You should check whether your daughter could do this?

You need to make sure any booster seats you use have backs to them as this is now the legal requirement.

Oh and her booster seat isn't uncomfortable at all! It's a Graco, very similar to the one in the picture that MawBroon posted above. Very sturdy, well padded and she says it's very comfortable.

I can only assume your car's fittings were easier to access harrigran. Honestly, my husband couldn't get them in, neither could I, and neither could a couple of friends who tried. Only our son, and I could see the amount of force he needed to exert to get them connected. Actually quite exhausting! One of the problems was that the isofix fitting towards the middle of the seat is right next to, virtually touching, the car's seatbelt anchor, so that we couldn't get our hands into the gap to guide the seat's fitting into place.

We have had several different child car seats, all isofix, and they were easily removed and replaced.
Little booster seats are uncomfortable but probably are okay for short journeys. My GC is very tall for her age and reached the height/weight requirement at eight so does not require a booster.

We had an isofix car seat in each car for our GD until fairly recently. Yes I know they can be moved from car to car, but we found it virtually impossible. Getting them out was easy; getting them back in, however, was an entirely different matter as the car's isofix fittings were so deeply buried it was extremely difficult to locate the seat fittings into them - and even when we did successfully marry them up, the amount of brute force needed to get them 'clicked' into place was beyond both of us. The only person who could do it was our son! Consequently we removed them only very rarely.
Now, thankfully, she uses one of the booster seats with back, secured by the car's seat belt.

Just looked and the one I have is from KidsGarden and fits with seat belts. I got it from a friend whose DGC had moved on to Booster seats.
It is very useful indeed.

We found Halfords helpful. They have a member of staff who specialises in baby seats. We have two very similar to Maws photograph, they stay in my car most of the time because they’re rather heavy and take up space in the house.

Wow, thanks everyone. With this new information I will go to Halfords. I know my daughter has the fixed isofix. Things move on so quickly and of course safety is paramount.

Yes, you can move the ones with isofix systems from car to car; we did when we had the baby seat but we used the seat belts as well (belt and braces).

We have that one MawBroon and the bottom part detaches so that you can use just the bottom cushion when the child doesn't need the seat but does need the booster cushion.
It's fixed with the seatbelt, not isofix and was quite suitable from about age 3 upwards.

Thank you - too late now for me but hopefully someone else will not be 'persuaded' into buying 2 identical car seats plus 1 without an airbag (SIL was more 'economical' than us ?

I bought 2 car seats in Halfords that do from small baby to 12 years, apparently. They don’t use the isofix system, they are attached using the car seat belts so can easily be removed and stored when grandchildren not visiting. They are quite big and heavy, but I have a big shed for storage.

Sorry, I think he was 4.
Look at this one by Graco. I think that’s what we had.