Is it Time to Move Your Toddler to a Booster Seat?
Heather Corley, a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, has answers about when you should move your toddler from a full car seat into a booster and what type of booster seat you should consider. Her recommendation:
"I suggest that parents keep their children in a harnessed car seat to at least 40 pounds and 4 years, but preferably longer. Today there are many car seats available that harness to 65 or even 80 pounds. Most children can fit into one of these bigger car seats well past age 4."
Your child needs to be able to sit properly for the booster to offer complete protection and for most toddlers, that's just not going to happen. It may seem easier for you to wrangle your child into the booster, but it's also easier for your child to move around, sit sideways and slouch there. Even when my son was technically ready for the booster seat, it was a struggle to get him to stop trying to sit sideways. The sides and harness prevented him from doing this in his car seat. So it can be worth it to wait before you make the switch.
Sometimes, too, you have to go above and beyond the law and do what's safest for your child. When it comes to booster seats, sometimes the laws haven't caught up with what studies and data tell us. When you finally make the move and you're thinking about when to move your child out of the booster seat, keep in mind that recent research shows that your child is safest in a booster up to the age of 8.
Comments
My daughter is 2.5 years old and still hasn’t even been switched FORWARD-FACING, never mind a booster. It makes me sick to the stomach to see such terrible car seat mistakes made by parents.
my 6 1/2 year old and my 4 year old are still in 5 point harness. they know – it’s the safest thing, and don’t even question it. convenience isn’t worth the life / health of your child. rather take the extra 2 minutes to strap them in.