Moving Beyond the Baby Car Seat: What You Must Understand

Your little one needs to travel in a car seat that is the correct size for them. The right time to switch to the next car seat is not based on their age, but their height or their weight. Most baby car seats go up to 13 kg and/or 75 cm. It depends on which car seat you have when you will need to move up but we created some general tips to help you out!

How do you know when it’s time to switch?

You may need to switch even if your child has not reached the maximum weight. For optimum safety, you’ll need to move up to the next car seat stage when the top of your baby’s head comes up over the seat back. Tip: put your hand on the top of the back-seat, does the top of your baby’s head touch your hand? Time to move up to a new car seat!

Don’t be tempted to switch to a forward-facing car seat too soon. At Maxi-Cosi, we recommend that your child continues to travel in a safe rearward-facing position for as long as possible or at least up to 15 months.

Read More About Rear-ward Facing

What are the roads to take after a baby car seat?

There are two main roads to take in this situation; you can choose a toddler car seat up to approx. 4 years (after which you switch to a child car seat) or choose for a toddler & child car seat in one which could last up to 12 years; we also call this a multi-group car seat.

Toddler (9 months up to approx. 4 years).

Which type of toddler car seat to go for depends on the current solution you have for your baby car seat:

• You can browse for a toddler car (up to 4 years) seat that fits your current ISOFIX-base like the Pearl Pro 2, Pearl Smart or rotating Pearl 360 which also allows you to travel rear-ward facing up to 15 months.
• Next to this smart solution, Maxi-Cosi also offers ready to install car seats. Our Mica Eco & Mica Pro Eco make it easy to install due to its 360 rotation!

Toddler & Child car seat (0/9 months up to approx. 7 or 12 years).

Interested in a more long-term solution? Then these multi-group car seats are the way for you as they grow with your child!

• Our forward-facing only Titan i-Size and Titan Pro i-Size will keep your little one safe up to 12 years (from 15 months)!
• Our Maxi-Cosi Beryl rotating car seat can be used in both travel directions and goes up to approx. 7 years.