Multi stage car seats and old plastic/fatigue?

[moaningminniewhingesagain]

Both my Dcs are in group 1/2/3 car seats. They are 18m and 3yo. I chose these so they would last until they no longer need a carseat/booster, but then it occured to me that I remebered something about ageing plastic items, 'plastic fatigue?'

So would I need to replace theseats routinely after 6 years or so - making the whole 1/2/3 thing pointless?? Or am I being mad

[SpottyLotty]

My understanding is that the type/grade of polymer used is based on the planned life of the product.

Eg A infant carrier for birth-1yr will have an expected life of about a year or two and will have be designed and tested as such.

A stage 1/2/3 seat will have been designed and tested with a much longer life in mind and so that will have been taken into account in order to met safety regs.

PS. I could be very wrong...!

[moaningminniewhingesagain]

Thanks, I would hope that if it is marketed as suitable from 1yr-11yrs approx, then it wouldn't be too aged and brittle that you need to replace it!!

Or I would have just got a basic stage 1 seat and plan on a booster for later...Mind you, I'm not sure they will survive another 8 years of crumbs, stains, vomit, spills