In the UK, it is legal for children to use a car seat until they are 12 years old or 135cm tall. This is because they are not deemed physically or mentally mature enough to remain safe in a vehicle until either of these points. Even though a smaller or younger child may be perfectly fine sitting in a normal seat using a seatbelt, it is extremely unlikely that the vehicle's safety features will be effective for them in the event of an accident. 

Ensuring a car seat supports them means features such as airbags and seat belts enable them to do their job properly for safe travel. 

Growing children may not always be best pleased with the thought of using a car seat, so we think three components are essential to get right: design, comfort and adjustability. 

Design is vital as it ensures that children don't feel like sitting in a car seat intended for someone younger than them. Whether you choose a sleek leather option or a trendy fabric design, we guarantee growing children will not have any issues using the seats.

Comfort is important to get right also. It's ideal for you to select seats that offer padded liners so that the robust frame of a car seat never restricts a growing child. Finally, the selling point of these seats is that they can adjust easily to accommodate a growing child. Moving the headrest, armrests and harness points can create the ideal car seat for a developing child.

As long as a car seat can be adjusted to meet your child's current height and weight, it is safe to use for travel. In the UK, it's also a legal requirement for all seats to be i-Size tested. This means your product should feature an 'E' marking to demonstrate its compliance. Finally, you should only ever install a car seat in the rear of a vehicle to ensure safety.

The installation instructions will depend on the product you have selected. However, generally speaking car seats should be fitted using either an Isofix or i-Size base. Once that is fitted, the car seat can be simply attached and removed as needed. 

Click this link to find out more details on how to fit a car seat correctly.

You should always look for signs of wear or damage as this could mean that the current adjustable settings are not correct. Furthermore, by keeping the seat clean and out of permanent sun exposure, it will last for longer.