My kids are 5 and 2.. They have the high back booster type seats, the younger one has the multi point harness and the older one just has the seatbelt over..
But I find them a bit of a pain to secure using the car seat belts, well especially the youngsters.. It sort of snakes through the back and it doesn't feel as secure as i'd like and it takes a good five minutes of swearing to install.. Maybe once per week we have the seats in and out to take other passengers or to vacuum or whatever.
Think to change to the isofix type but they don't seem very common here, at least not in my local jumbo or big migros do it all stores..
What do you use? I'm looking for something isofix so it's easy to fit/remove and something with multi point harness?
Isofix is incredibly common, more expensive though than your type of seats. All cars sold here since quite a while have to have isofix system installed to accept isofix seats !
I found a Graco booster seat with isofix/ latch hooks. I absolutely love it. It has a strap that pulls the seat belt down so it doesn't cut into my sons neck. It even has a cup holder. I bought it at Target, but I don't know if they ship to Switzerland.
It wouldn't be legal usually to use an American car seat. I don't think they ever check the stickers to know but if there was an accident it could be a problem
I am not sure about Switzerland, but in the rest of the EU they need to have a special sticker on them to say they are EU approved. Same if you go to the USA with a non US approved seat.
Your seat needs to have the approved European stickers on it for you to legally be able to use it here.
In reality they don't often go around checking the stickers on child car seats but they could and as others have pointed out it may become an issue if you are involved in an accident.
Ask in one of the larger baby/child-ware shop that has child seats for sale, or even your local car dealership.
The isofix system is definitely easily available here, #1 son added it to his classic Mini a couple of years ago. A bit of a fag as in his case the car frame needed reinforcing to pass safety requirements... but that shouldn't be a problem with a more recent car.
Pretty sure he ordered the fittings through the same shop he'd bought the seats from, then had it installed by his usual bodywork chap.
"This weight limit is usually reached when children reach 18kg (approximately four years old), so Isofix seats for children older than that are also used with the adult seatbelt."
Likely the 5 year old is above this weight.
Now I know more about car seats than most and I didn't know this. At the time my son was in his seat using the ISOFIX above this weight. I didn't ever see it had a weight limit
Sigh. Yes, they or me don't mention the weight however they are made for certain weights, for example the "booster seat type" I have for my 3 year old is specially made for her weight. Just because I don't know the specific weight doesn't mean it isn't safe! And I'm calling it booster seat type because I don't know the name for it. Stop being so pedantic! I got mine for both my kids from a swiss company online and they start at a roaring 350chf ouch. They go by groups I think in the UK and so I got a 1-2-3 group one.
Seriously I give the info to help. There are many people who don't know anything about the subject and they go buy a seat thinking "it must be safe if they sell it". Sadly one of the most common ways young kids dies is car accidents.
Price doesn't mean it's better, although generally the safest seats aren't the cheapest.
Sorry if you took offence, but it's really good for people to be educated about the subject. Maybe one day they will have more strict laws for seats and only sell the safest possible
If price doesn't mean it's better then why are the rear facing ones so damn expensive?
you can call me out for not providing a safe seat for my children all day long, God knows you're a better parent because you don't use a booster seat. Either do I, and either does the original post you quoted which I quoted. The only thing that offends me is you didn't read the part about the harness and instantly assumed that that poster puts their 2 year old in a booster seat suitable for a 7 year old, which they don't.
Because it is unfortunately a 'niche market' and there isn't a lot of competition. Our twins are riding in BeSafe iZi Pluses; we bought them online from Germany, tax deducted etc and it comes around 40% cheaper than they are in Switzerland.
I have the Izi Kid from my first child stilll, my 2nd is just about grown out at 6. That is one solid seat! Will be a shame if I can't rehome it, it's a tank to just throw away
I think the problem here arises from the definition of a booster seat. I think the OP's definition of a booster seat and yours are probably not the same.
I think what the OP has for his younger child is probably a stage 2 car seat with the 5 point harness aimed at babies from 9 months up to about 4 years.
We can only guess what is being used. A forward facing car seat usually isn't called a booster seat, and you'd be shocked how many DO use a booster seat early on. The stage 2 you mention above is 9 months + that means putting a 9 month old forward facing, which means in an accident this is very unsafe. They are trying to change this as a 9 month old just hasn't the neck strength to be forward facing.