Road test – Diono Cambria booster seat

There is so much paraphernalia that you need when it comes to children and when it comes to travelling in the car with them, you need lots of kit. The guidelines and what is also required by law for travelling with children is changing all of the time and it can be hard to keep up, as well as pretty expensive. It’s certainly not so easy to just jump in the car with your kids anymore and even less easy if you need to travel with anyone else’s kids as well.

With having two cars it can sometimes be a juggling act to make sure that car seats are swapped about for journeys. It’s even more fun getting three seats in a row in the back of my car, they fit but it’s not always easy to get the seatbelts secured and extra time has to be allowed for this (although it very rarely is!). On a day to day basis though, my husband will do the school run and I will do the pre-school run, which is mainly walking anyway. So to be able to keep the boys booster seats firmly in their places in each car makes life much easier. It also saves those moments where one car is gone with a booster seat when it’s needed in the other. It can all get a bit complicated…

My youngest son is now out of his stage one car seat and has been sitting in a regular high backed booster seat now for a few months. The most noticeable aspect of this transition was how much less protected he seemed compared to his former car seat. We hadn’t gotten around to finding a suitable alternative, when we were offered the Diono cambria highback booster seat to try out. It is a group 2/3 booster seat suitable for children from approximately 4-12 years (fits children between 15 kg and 36 kg and up to 160 cm in height).

First impressions of the seat were that it was big but not only that, but it was really sturdy and durable looking. So unlike your more portable booster seats, this one is made to stay put in the car. This isn’t a bad thing as it is a much comfier option that its predecessor.

_AJW1269-blog

Excuse the slightly crazed looking child modelling in his seat. He never misses an opportunity to save his best faces for the camera!

_AJW1286-blog

It’s inevitable that at times the seat will become a little mucky, be it food, drink, mud and it’s a great feature that the cover is fully removable for washing. For small accidents it’s made of wipeable fabrics and a quick sponge will clean it straight away. It also features two extra deep cup holders and snack trays which fold away when not in use. These aspects are definitely very handy when having to take longer car journeys although I expect to find lots of hidden treasures in the trays at some point.

_AJW1303-blog

This seat is extremely spacious and much wider than your average highback seat. It’s very solid and unlike our other booster seats, it can be secured with a strap at the back to keep it in place.  The side wings are also nice and deep and much more supportive of wobbly heads if they should drift off to sleep. This is a key feature of the seat as it has enhanced head and side impact protection, should a collision ever happen. This booster is designed to cater for kids up to twelve years old and has an extendable head rest to adapt with your growing child. Unlike many other designs, I actually feel that this seat would happily seat a larger child.

We think that this seat is a great all rounder. As it’s a larger seat, you do have to compromise more on space and when you have a larger family it’s definitely a consideration that needs to be taken into account. However, with only two children in the back seat, this certainly isn’t an issue. We haven’t been on a long car journey with all three of the kids yet but already I suspect that we need a new car. Only I don’t think I can face a people carrier!

Nb. We were sent this Diono cambria highback booster seat for the purpose of this review but all views and opinions remain entirely our own.