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Pre-School and Daycare
JoyousJulia
member
What are the recs for switching to a booster seat?
JoyousJulia
member
I don't really have any plans to move DS to a booster seat. (He still fits really comfortably in his carseat.) The reason I'm curious is that I have seen that most of the other kids at DS's preschool and DS's preschool age cousins (all ages 3-4) have been switched to boosters and I'm wondering if there's something I just don't know about.
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Re: What are the recs for switching to a booster seat?
Lots of people switch them when they reach the minimum height or weight allowable for them.
What they don't take into consideration is the child's maturity and ability to stay seated properly in the belt.
I think a lot of people just get excited about the next step in growing up and race to make those changes because they CAN without thinking about if they SHOULD.
(says a card carrying member of the "they'll be in 5 points until middle school" club.)
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
General synopsis:
You can safely switch your child to a booster seat if she's at least 4 years old and she weighs 40 pounds or more or has grown too tall for her car seat (when her shoulders are higher than the top set of harness-strap slots in the car seat's back). Whatever you do, don't move your child to a booster seat simply because she's had her fourth birthday. Car seats are the safest option, so keep using yours as long as it fits. You'll also need to check the car seat law in your state (you can use the Child Safety Laws tool at the National Safe Kids Campaign site to look up local regulations).No matter when your child finally outgrows her car seat, it's imperative that you don't skip the booster-seat step and go straight to using seat belts alone. Although many parents do this (94 percent, according to recent reports), it's a dangerous mistake. Why? Because a booster positions your vehicle's lap and shoulder belts correctly on your child's torso. Without it, the belts will be too high, falling across her belly and neck, where they can do serious damage in a crash. Given the fact that seat belts fit some shorter adults incorrectly, it's not surprising that most kids need to use booster seats until at least age 8.
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
We switched dd1 when dd2 was too big for the infant seat. That being said, we switched dd1 out of the britax marathon into the britax frontier (with the five point harness)
We did just buy a true booster for dh's new car, bc she won't be in it very often, and we liked the flexibility. (She is also super tall for her age, so we weren't worried about her not meeting the minimum requirements)
The minimum recommendations are 4 years and 40 lbs, but far more important than meeting those milestones is the maturity to sit correctly without slouching, slumping or leaning out of position, moving or unbuckling the seatbelt for the duration of every ride, even while sleeping. Some kids hit this as young as 4 (my daughter did, thankfully because she's huge and has all but outgrown her radian), most hit it around 5-6.
The reason seats are rated down to 3 years and 30 lbs is not for a 30 lb 3 year old. It's for the rare, huge 3 year old that doesn't fit in a harnessed seat (although this is rare now since larger seats are widely available) or for an older kid (5+) who is under 40 lbs still.
Actually, the American Academy of Pediatrics said exactly that in March. They aren't exactly the fastest moving or forward thinking organization in this area but I can't imagine they have changed their mind in the last 6 months.
My tall, heavy 3 year old is in the Britax Frontier (forward facing with 5 point harness) and will be until he can drive if I have any say in the matter. Even if a child is large enough and old enough to sit in a booster with a car seat belt so that it fits them well, many are not mature enough to leave it well enough alone so that in the event of a crash it works properly. I'm not taking that chance until he realizes playing with it could kill him.
The AAP was actually mostly referring to keeping a child RF as long as possible in their March statement. And trying to get people to stop using booster seats with 2 and 3 year olds (which is incredibly common). They also want to see people USE booster seats, which also isn't commonly done despite laws (I see this far more often than I care to admit... living in NYC I see it at least once a day, usually more).
The worldwide carseat community is in agreement that rear facing is absolutely the safest way to ride in a car (for anyone of any age actually) and anyone should use a rear facing seat as long as possible (in fact, I know many people who illegally import Swedish seats to the US for this purpose). There's a lot of dissent about forward facing harness versus properly used boosters. There haven't been any studies done comparing FF seats with boosters to prove one is more effective than the other (partially because there thankfully isn't enough data available to study this).
There are a lot of theories going around, including that unless the harness had as much give as a seatbelt to cushion a stop it may not be ideal (my husband is doing a PhD in the sciences and has taken high level physics and absolutely agrees with this theory). Others feel that since a booster forces a child to take responsibility for their own safety that moment should be pushed off as long as possible.
My four year old is very tall and all torso and only has 1/2" left until she outgrows her radian, so we've begun booster training (a frontier, which is the only seat that would give us a lot more time since there's only 1/2" extra in a nautilus, is incompatible with our only vehicle). We've been booster training for a few weeks and she has not once leaned, slumped, moved or unbuckled the seatbelt or done anything else that would cause the booster to work less than ideally. I'm quite comfortable, while also admitting that she's unusually mature for her age.
That's the perfect description!!! My older daughter has never had a meltdown/tantrum, not even as a young toddler. I have a feeling she's a really rare case though (and her sister's the opposite extreme and has tantrums ever few hours...), which is why I'm comfortable having her in a booster. She has literally not once in her life fought the carseat.
I think it's a bit more than that too, though. They shouldn't be falling asleep in the car everytime you get in the car in the late afternoon. If they fall asleep, they should be able to stay upright vs. falling face first out of the belt. they should be able to understand that they can't lean out of the belt or unbuckle to pick something up off the floor while you're moving. It's a good idea to take short trips in the booster at first so that they can learn how to do this, too.
I totally agree about the test run idea. My oldest isn't a tantrum thrower and in general listens and minds well but the first attempt at a booster (riding in a friend's car) had him putting the shoulder belt under his arm pit. I explained again that he couldn't mess with it and how important it was safety wise and yet he repeated screwing around with it on our return trip.
I don't think non-tantruming or non-sleeping goes far enough. Some kids are gonna be curious and want to screw around with it. Eventually I'm sure he'll get it but all it takes is an accident during one of those screw around moments and I'd be hating myself for the rest of my life.
To me it's just not worth the risk when he's still perfectly content in a 5 point.
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.
Oh definitely! For the first few weeks DD was in the seat her harnessed seat was in the car and it was very clear that one finger out of line and we'd pull over and install the seat (thankfully I'm great at installing seats since our backseat only has 2 spots, not 3 or it would have stayed installed for the transition!). Only last week did that come inside the house and she knows that if she misbehaves she'll be switched back (since we only have 1/2" of harness growth I wanted this all done before she actually outgrew the seat!). She hasn't napped since she was 2, so it's rare that she falls asleep in the car and when she does she still hasn't fallen or slumped out of position at all. Her head leans back into the seat and the belts stay where they're supposed to.