Car seat question

I thought two of the car seats I have would be suitable for my kids to be in the five point harness past 40lbs. Upon re-reading the manual, however, I see that it is for a regular seat belt and not the 5 point harness for use past 40lbs. Oy. One of my boys is 35lbs and the other is more than that (maybe 36-37). It's possible they may be over 40lbs before they are mature enough for a seat belt.

Are your 3-4 years olds in a 5 point harness or are they mature enough for a seat belt (in the booster). I'm just wondering if I'm going to have to invest in another set of car seats (I'm BIG on car safety).

 

We tried the booster seats with my two, (they are 48 and 44 pounds) and although they fit perfectly in them, they kept leaning over and unbuckling themselves... so we went back to their 5 point harness seats because they can't get out of those AS easy.

 

Personally I would stick with the 5 pt. harness. I bought seats that go to 60 lbs. with a 5 pt. harness. I think 3 is too young for the regular seat belt.

 

When I met my DH my SD was 3, neither DH nor I had a car. I got my first car the next year 4 months after she turned 4 and she was in a booster with a seatbelt. I worked at TRU at the time so I bought one when I got my car but I don't remember what her weight was. But I was new to the kid thing and agree that with my boys I probably would go with a 5 pt harness until they maybe 45-50lbs.

 

My oldest DD was in a booster seat (not the Graco turbo booster at that point, but we took the harness out of her booster seat) with a seatbelt at age 4.

 

One of my boys was 40lbs and 40 inches just after turning three. the other was not. Still is not close to 40lbs but almost 40 inches. My "little" guy is also a mover. He is not even still in his sleep. I would not think about putting him in a booster. Vince however, was too tall and too heavy for the ones we had. He sits still though when in his chair. He occasionally needs to be reminded to sit up but we had one incident with him unbuckling and now he asks if he can unbuckle when we get to where we are going.

SO, I would say it depends on the child.

We looked at some of the ones that went up to a higher weight, but, they were too big for our back seat. The seat fit but the child did not.

 

My boys were just like yours -- close to 40lbs. but not nearly mature enough for booster seats. I went ahead an got booster seats thinking it would be unsafe to keep them in seats they were too heavy for. They proceeded to take nearly a year and a half to gain those last 5lbs! They really slowed down on the weight gain between 3 and 4, so we didn't end up making the switch until closer to 4.5 years-old. I still kind of wish I'd bought a booster with a 5-point harness, but it ended up working out for us.

Maybe your boys will slow down as well?

 

We bought car seats that you can take the harness out of for when they got to the 4 and 40 pounds. That's the law in our state - must be 4 years old and 40 pounds before going to a booster seat. After that, no law, but mine will be in either a booster seat or the convertible car seat without the harness. My oldest doesn't meet either requirement yet, although I think she would stay in a booster and leave the seat belt buckled at this point.

 

Mine were in the Graco high back boosters just before 3. They were too tall to fit the convertable seats, and we wanted to get one seat that will last them until they don't need them anymore--in NJ it is 8 years/80lbs/or 56". They did unbuckle a few times at first, but after learning that if they did that, the car stopped, they stopped doing it.

 

Like others have said 40lbs and 4yo is a bare minimum. The longer in a harnassed seat the better. My oldest is in a Radian 65, a great seat for taller children with a high weight limit (she's 95%). This is also the reason that many technicians don't like these 3 in 1 seats. They make you believe this will be the only seat you ever need, but with the low slots and the harnassed weight limit only up to 40lbs many children outgrow these seats way before they're ready for a booster.

Radian, Regents, APEX ... those are the seats you should be looking into.

With a 3rd one on the way I think the Radians are your best bet ... they're very narrow and will last most kids until age 5-7.

 

No way are my my boys anywhere near mature enough for a seat belt only booster (they will be 3 in a few months!). Knowing what I know now about how much SAFER they are keeping them harnessed as long as possible, I have Britax Marathons and Fisher Price Safe Voyages for our vehicles. They harness up to 49" and 55 and 65 lbs I believe. I am hoping that keeps them harnessed until 5.5 or so.

FWIW dd could fit into her brother's MA until this past fall at 7ish!!!!!!!

For your kids safety, which is priceless to ME, invest in a larger 5pt harness. What is a few hundred dollars when it comes to accident safety? I was just rearended in June. Thank goodness me and dd were both ok but very shook up. She was in her britax booster in the back row. Even though the hatch got smashed in about 6-8 inches, she was FINE. My boys were not with me TG. But I cannot imagine what COULD have happened to them if they were in boosters and not mature enough. YIKES.

HTH

ETA: fwiw, the LAW in VT is 8 years old or 4 ft 9 in for a booster. My dd will be 8 in less than 2 months but is no where NEAR tall enough 48 inches MAYBE? to go w/out a booster safely. So the law is a GUIDE, you should use all info you can get and common sense! :winking0009:

 

depends on height and weight of children

 

My first DD races out of carseat after carseat...with her height. We are on our 4th carseat. She is 4.5 years old, and we still have her in a 5pt harness. First reason, her weight was not high enough to be in a booster seat. Second reason, she sits in the back of the van, and she does like to fiddle with the seat belt, but mostly liked to lean down to pick something up, thereby moving the shoulder belt out of her way. Third reason, much research shows that little kids, even though law says they are ready for a booster seat, are really not ready. If they were to be in an accident with an adult seatbelt, even in a booster seat, the seatbelt can cut right through their little bellies and chests.

 

My two went into a booster with a seat belt right at about 39 months. They were over 40" tall. As for maturity, mine mind very well and we only had 1 incident with the seatbelt. Immeadiately after we switched, I kept the carseats sitting in the guest room where they could see them. I informed the kids that if they ever unbuckled their seatbelts while driving they would immeadiately be going back into a carseat (they were very proud of their boosters). Timothy did it one time. We stopped and fixed the seatbelt. Then when we got home we made him carry his booster seat back inside and put it up and I put the carseat back in for another week. We haven't had another problem.

Marissa