The Extra Small size is new (2022). The manufacturer crash tested it for use with younger children, starting at age 2.
The safest option for an 2-year-old is to use a rear-facing car seat. We realize while traveling this can be very inconvenient. If this is the option you choose, there are very inexpensive lightweight convertible seats that make travel easier. This is what we did when our children required rear-facing while traveling. We bought an inexpensive lightweight seat for travel and left our nice one in our car at home ready for our return.
If you are taking taxis, using ride shares or traveling without your usual car seat and the choice comes down to using a RideSafer for a 2-year-old versus having your child buckled in with you (definitely not a safe option) or even buckling them in with no positioning device; we would prefer a parent to use a RideSafer. Ideally an adult will sit next to the child to help keep the child in proper position.
The truth is that whether forward facing in a 5-point harness or forward facing in the RideSafer vest, in a frontal crash (the most common type), the end mechanism is the same. We are restraining the body with the harness or vest/seat belt and the head is being thrust forward, dependent upon the neck to hold back the child’s disproportionally large head. The potential for injury is virtually the same.
Really it comes down to a choice we make as parents.
