Choosing a child car seat Booster seats & multiple-group seats
Booster cushions are cheap, but car seats are safest
All child car seats are categorised according to the child's weight.
This is because a child’s bone and body structure changes dramatically during the first few years, and so what's needed from a car safety seat also changes.
Some seats span different groups. At 15kg (3 to 4 years old) you can change to a Group 2/3 seat, which should suit the child all the way up to age 12, when they should use the adult seat belt.
But we've found that, generally, car seats designed to span more than two groups are too much of a compromise in at least one weight group.
And, even though our review of child car seats looked at a total of 48 different models, we didn't find any Group 1/2/3 seats worth recommending.
Booster seats
Some Group 3 car seats are just booster cushions.
These raise the child's body to a height suitable for use with the adult seat belt, but the booster cushions are not as safe as Group 3 child seats with a full length back and 'wings', which provide extra protection for the head and chest in a side-impact crash.
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Watch the video to see the differences - with and without the back fitted.
The booster cushion satisfies the new legal requirement for children up to 1.35m (approx. 4ft 6in), and they're cheap (about £20-£30) but the full child car seats are safer – if more expensive.
Our car seats review shows you how Britax car seats, Maxi Cosi car seats and Graco car seats performed in our rigorous tests.
