One of my daugthers will be 5 soon, her current car seat specifies 9 months to 4 years but she is very small for her age, well within the weight and height her seat is designed for.
We have sat her in the group 2 car seats that have the normal three point belt going round her but they do not look like she is safe so we intend to keep her in the group one seat until she is big enough.
My question is how does this stand legaly? More asking out of curriosity as we will keep her in whatever is safest regardless of the law, saftey first.
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As long as she is strapped in a suitable seat you will be fine.
My daughter is also small and she was in her first seat until she was almost 1 , as like you we thought she looked too small for the group 1 seat and the straps didn't fit her properly.
Seats are just like children's clothes - they are made for the "average" child - my daughter is still in some clothes labelled to 18 months - she is 10 months older than this!
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Thanks, I guess if we did ever get stoped where they are checking on child seats they would look at her and see she's the right size for the seat, only ever seen them checking this once and I was by myself at the time.
School clothes are fun, we just ask for the smallest size they do and that's still big on her, her official school jumper with the logo on (we make sure she wears it for school trips) looks almost like a dress on her.
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Kids come in all shapes and sizes, I have a strapping 7 year old grandson who is counting the next couple of centimeters growth untill he can relinquish his booster seat status. If it fits use it is my take on the situation.
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Think I read while ago that most police forces are not even atempting to enforce the child seat law as there are to many loopholes, but in response to the op the ages given are a guide - its the weight on the child seat you need to work with, so if your daughter is small then the seat may well be fine for her for another 6 - 12 months. My kids were all big at birth and grew out of the stage 0 car seats quickly - they come in all different shapes and sizes!
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My understanding is that the age is only a 'guideline' and the height and weight are the limiting factors of the seat. Regards Peter
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As my youngest son reached the wonderful weight of 10 lbs when he was nearly 10 months old, we found little use for seat sizes given by manufacturers. He was in a booster seat for far longer than most children - mainly because he liked the higher level for the view. His older brother was nearly that weight at birth and soon moved onto bigger seats, using one which could be backwards facing then later forward facing.
What still bemuses me is that childrens clothes (and so on) are sold in age ranges - when six our daughter was very tall and we used to infuriate shop assistants by removing tights/school etc from their packs so we could measure them against her. I don't go into a shop and ask for socks for someone of, say, 35 (lol) and expect them to fit.....
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