EU/UK Britax Evolva 1-2-3.

As another option, and I manage to booster train my daughter, the sunshine kids Monterey is available here and the UK - I'll try my daughter out a bunch of boosters tomorrow and buy one that fits her body well, then we will 'train' her.. and see what happens..



http://www.skjp.com/product/150XX

twinkletoes said:

My dd is below the charts for height, at 42", 33lbs.. so very petite.. she doesn't look 'skinny' but she is certainly petite for her age! that said, her height and weight are proportioned at 50%. do you feel the Adventure would suit her size? I can measure her torso if this helps some? this is a seat we wouldn't be able to try before we buy..so nervous about that; we will be leaving for the UK in two weeks (dd is two months shy of 6) and will be staying for three months, so she will be turing 6 once there.

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My daughter is 3.5 and about same height as dd. I'll take some photos of her in a booster later today to give you an idea of how it looks. She rides rear facing in a Britax Hi-Way but her brother uses the Adventure.

The Sunshine Kids Monterey is a wide booster and does not usually fit children at as small as your DD well. In a recent ADAC crash test the 15kg dummy slip out of the belt. :twocents:

we're going to be looking at some five point boosters as well, there is more of a chance though, that they wont install well in my parents car.. where as there is a better chance that the high back boosters will. which is why we need some 'back' up Ideas - so my parents have options.

Thanks for the Info on the Monterey, even if it did fit my dd's body, are you saying that because of her weight, we should avoid it? did the dummy that slipped out of the seat, fit the booster correctly?

Adventure dad, Thank you for taking the time to take the photo's!

Adventure dad, you may know this being in Europe? Is the Britax Highliner the same as the Britax adventure? It doesn't have the arm rests, like the Adventure! but the head area looks more enclosed - just wondering if it's shell is the same and therefore would fit a child the same? and it's weight? perhaps a little heavier? or the same weight as the adventure?

I'm asking as they have parking at Halfords, but the Adventure takes ten days to come from the manufacture, they have the highliner in stock. the adventure is at Mothercare, but there is not any parking close to mothercare in my parents twon, and at my parents morhercare, they don't do the installation for you (either lack of car park, or not tech? (In the UK, you can not return the seat once you've paid for it, so it's highly recommended to try a seat out before you buy, but then you can't do this if the store doesn't have parking!!!

This is proving to be quite a challenge.. sigh.

Looking forward to the photo's of you daughter in the adventure, this will at least give me an Idea of it's size.

Is the Maxi Cosi Rodi about the same size and weight as the Adventure? they have this in Halfords too.

TIA.

I would be very surprised if the Recaro Young Sport doesn't install well in your parent's car. Recaros are known for their ease and compatibility of installation. You can at least have them try it out and see.

As for the Highliner vs. Adventure, if you are going to buy a booster without trying your daughter in it, why would your parents need to try it in their car? There is no real "installation" element to a booster seat. The question isn't whether it will fit your car, it is whether it will fit your daughter so whether they buy it from Mothercare or from Halfords isn't really important since either way they can't return it if it doesn't work when your daughter gets there, KWIM?

OP, this is a thread in Carseat Chat that discusses latchable vs. non-latching boosters which I thought you might find interesting. They discuss the test data I was talking about above which indicates that maybe latching a booster isn't such a great idea.

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?p=1187727&posted=1#post1187727

Adventure Dad, I paraphrased your argument a bit in the thread, hope that was okay. Should you feel inspired to add your :twocents: I'm sure everyone would be interested to hear it.

InternationalMama said:

OP, this is a thread in Carseat Chat that discusses latchable vs. non-latching boosters which I thought you might find interesting. They discuss the test data I was talking about above which indicates that maybe latching a booster isn't such a great idea.

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?p=1187727&posted=1#post1187727

Adventure Dad, I paraphrased your argument a bit in the thread, hope that was okay. Should you feel inspired to add your :twocents: I'm sure everyone would be interested to hear it.

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I added a couple of things in the thread as well.

I managed to try dd in the Graco turbo booster to give me an Idea of how she would fit in a relatively small booster.. as it happens, she was perfect height for the lowest setting (and she only has a 13 3/4 torso, after measuring her correctly and with out 'eye balling' it ..

but the lap belt part didn't fit low enough on her pelvis/thighs but rather went up on her soft tummy a wee bit (there isn't much space between her pelvis and tummy, she's petite).. so we are going to have to wait on booster training..

my parents tried several high back boosters with five point harnesses in the UK, the Evolva fitted their cars the best, and since it has 17" harness slots we know it will fit our dd for now. at the end of the day, it was about finding a seat that will work for this trip, and fit both my dads car and preferably my mums car as well, since my dad drives an suv in the UK, my mum has a smaller compact car - if the seat ends up being too wide as a booster when dd reaches 40lbds or is too heavy as stated by adventure dad, then we will simply get a booster to fit when we need it my dads seat in the rear slopes, so even though some seats said they fit his car, when the tech tried the seat, there was too much movement that no one was happy with! The Britax Evolva was a rock solid installation!

right now, dd is tiny at 13 3/4 torso height and 40 3/4" ( I was off by 1 1/4" in her height, but I realize it's pretty irrelevant, but gives an idea of her size, she is still 34lbs that was correct so given her size and the Evolva fitted my parents cars beautifully, it is what works for us this year on this trip whilst our dd is so tiny and still needs a full harness.

of course, the shop assistants were discouraging buying a five point booster for a five year (nearly 6) old lol, until my parents told them my dd's weight and size then they were content my parents were not wasting their money

thanks for you help, it was helpful but I cna't believe after all of this, my parents ended up with an Evolva!!

I'll take photo's of dd in the Evolva when we get to the UK.

Hope it's a safe seat.. it has to have passed EU testing anyway...

Thanks for coming back to let us know what you decided to do! I always wonder what people end up choosing.

The Evolva is definitely a safe seat as a 5-point harness and as you say you can evaluate booster fit when she gets to that point. I think in your situation with the trip being so soon and without the possibility of booster training ahead of time keeping her in the 5-point is a great idea. That's very interesting about the installation. I know Britax has a great reputation for being easy to install.

Glad to hear things worked out well. Sounds like Evolvia will work nicely for you.

Uk seats do not all have isofix adapters like USA seats.
We only have fixed isofix seats. Or non isofix seats.
The new nautilus in the uk will not have an isofix strap like the USA version has. Likewise, the young sport will not have one either.
Unless you buy an isofix specific car seat, your only option for fitting is the seatbelt.

mommytojoshmadty said:

Unless you buy an isofix specific car seat, your only option for fitting is the seatbelt.

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This is a good point about the YoungSport etc., but there are some seats that can be fitted either isofix or seatbelt. Our Duologic can be fitted with either the seatbelt or rigid isofix, for example.