What kind of car seat is your child in?

Think about your 6 year old. (If you have older kids, think back when they were 6.) What kind of car seat were they in when they rode in the car.

My twins are in 5 pt. harnesses still. I think their niece is in a booster with a seat belt.

My two were pushing 50 lbs at their 6 year appt. in July. (47 & 49.5)

 

Mine are 5 1/2, and still in a 5-point harness (Graco Nautilus seats). They are both well under 40 pounds (33 and 35 pounds) so they will be in those seats for a good long while still. They ask every once in a while about being in a booster, but I just tell them they are not heavy enough (which is completely true). They have no idea how heavy they have to be so I can use that a good long while still. The statement "you are safest in your seat the way it is" works on them for now.

 

My 6 year old is 57.5 lbs and 50 something inches tall and he is riding in a high backed booster.

 

DH and I were just talking about this last night. We are a ways away from this transition, but I look forward to seeing what everyone else says(and tell my dh he is wrong...lol).

My boys are in their Graco Nautilus' and Anthony tips the scale at 30 lbs at almost 4 years old. We have awhile!

 

All three of my kids ride in high back boosters. The boys are about 43 lbs each and Meghan is about 33 lbs. Most of their friends (the twins friends) ride in backless boosters.

 

When my oldest DD was 6 she was in a high back booster seat, I can't remember how much she weighed. My two are 5.5 years old and they are also in high back boosters, they are 35 lbs and 37 lbs,

 

At six both my sets of twins were in high back boosters for their main family car, but both also had extra booster seats (without high backs) for putting in other people's cars/short trips.
I don't know how much they weighed back then, I'd have to look it up.

 

I'm going to be the oddball here. My kids have been in regular booster seats for several years. When they turn 8, I know I will be taking them out of dh's car. His backseats are slightly molded and the boosters have never fit right in that car. For my car, we'll see. The middle seatbelt is significantly lower than the side seatbelts and when the kids have to sit in the middle with the booster, that seatbelt rubs on their necks. It would fit better as just a plain seatbelt. We'll see how the side seatbelts fit them to make a decision on those.

I will also admit that when we were visiting my parents in KY, we let the kids ride without boosters. The state laws are a little younger there. We were in dh's car and they did great. It also meant they could ride with my parents without us all doing the carseat juggling act.

Honestly, I'm not obsessed with carseats. I see them as a necessary evil that has probably gone a bit too far. When the kids were little, I absolutely was a huge supporter and I kept mine rear-facing for quite a bit more than a year. But now that they're older, the skeptic in me wonders about it because the mandatory limits on it keep people in bigger cars than they really need which tends to result in the sale of more gasoline. I know that's my paranoia. "Freakonomics" also have a chapter about the true statistics of child injury and car seat safety that's an interesting read.

I wish there was a way to have the law a little more flexible. Where the need for a carseat was dependent more on fit for your vehicle. I can see my kids still need the boosters for the seatbelts to fit correctly on the side seats in my car. I can also see that the seatbelt does fit them correctly in the middle seat of my car. But yet, legally I still have to use a booster which make that seatbelt not fit as it should.

Marissa

 

At just over 6yo mine are in high back booster seats and weigh in at 34 and 35 pounds. I know I could have kept them in 5pt harnesses longer but the booster made things easier for camp over the summer and drop off at school early for x-tra help. But if we are going on a car trip to visit family in New Jersey and a trip I took over the summer to North Carolina I put them back in their 5pt harness seats and they were fine with it. I plan on keeping the 5pt harness seats till they grow out of them height wise.

 

My 7 year old is still in a 5pt harness. It expires June 2012, so that is when we'll move him to a HBB. He's about 50 lbs.

I admit, I'm a bit paranoid about car seat safety. But statistically speaking, it is one of the most dangerous things children do on a daily basis - so that's how I justify my paranoia.

 

I didn't read fully before I voted so I did mess up. At 6 yrs old my oldest was in a high back booster and in the 40-50 lb range, not wearing a seatbelt and in the 50-60 lb range.

At just turned 5 my dd is in a high back booster. She's in the 40-50 lb range as well.

I'm not obsessed with carseats either, both my oldest's were in high back boosters at 4 yrs old. The twins may stay harnessed longer mostly because I have the graco nautilus's for them and it's convenient. I wasn't about to buy a new harnessed carseat for my older kids that cost far more than the high back boosters did at the time

 

Mine are in the Graco high backs. Jesse weighs 45 and Jayden just hit 40lbs.

 

My 7year old is still in a 5pt harness, she weighs 44lbs and is pretty little...I think in Kansas at 8yrs old they can go with out anything but the regular seat belt but I doubt my daughter will get to do that, she's just so little and I would hate for anything to happen.

 

Mine are in the same seats they've been in since they were out of infant carriers, but I don't use the 5-point harness anymore. They are some kind of Eddie Bauer convertible car seat. They are freaking huge and I can't wait until they are big enough to be out of them.

 

Mine were in the highback boosters by around age 3--the only reason I remember was because they were in them when they started preschool. On their 6th birthday, we took the backs off, and on their 8th birthday they went without boosters (I also voted before reading the description) Jon could have come out of the high back booster sooner, but we waited until Marc was ready as well. At our school, you cannot get out of the car for drop off, so I can't imagine how someone would use a 5 point harness for any kid who is dropped off, which is over 2/3 the school.

 

My girls can buckle and unbuckle their 5-point harness seats, so we've never had an issue at camp or school dropoff/pickup.

 

Abby and Gabe just turned 6 and are in high back boosters. Isabel is 8.5 and is in a regular booster.

 

My two are in a high back booster and have been since they exceeded the height for the 5 point (about at 4). They are 6 in a few days and weigh 36 & 43 lbs.

 

My kids could do theirs, too.

 

My 6 year olds are about 54 lbs are in the Graco Nautiluses. Sometimes I use the 5 point harness and sometimes I use the seatbelts with it in booster mode. If we are going on a longer car ride (hour +), I put them in the 5 point harness. They fall asleep in the car and fall completely out of the seatbelt. makes it kind of pointless. So, they are harnessed in that situation. I've been in a car accident with my children before and it was terrifying. I do what I can to keep them as safe as possible in the car. Personally, I don't see it as some master plan by the oil companies to keep me in a minivan instead of smart car.

 

We just brought the Graco Nautiluses this past summer because we had them in the Britax Marathon. It was way past overdue; they just had their 5 yr old wellness check up weighting 45 and 42.6 lbs with their height at 43-7/8 and 44". They do know how to unbuckled their 5-point harness so it does make it easier on me for pick/drop off.

 

mine are 5 and 40 and 43 lbs and they are in HBB in mine and Tony's cars and backless boosters in my parents car (they don't go too many places with them)...

I too don't buy into the carseat paranoia...

 

Is it bad that I can't remember a year ago? I know that Nathan was in a HBB with seatbelt and in the 50-60lb range. I think we switched William from the built-in 5pt harness to a HBB sometime during the year. It might have been right around his 7th bday though. He is still in the low 50lb range (the cut off for my built in harnesses). Brandon came out of the 5pt about 2 wks ago. He is in the 48-49lb range, so getting too close for my comfort on weight. He is now in Nathan's HBB, as Nathan is completely out of a booster. He is the size of most 8yos (or bigger) and the seatbelt did not fit him correctly in the booster anymore.

 

My three have been in high backed boosters for over a year. The twins are a couple months shy of 6 years old and weigh 37 and 42 pounds. At the time we switched them, they were 32 and 37 pounds. Their sister, who is a year older, weighed about 45 pounds when she was switched.

In hindsight, I probaby should have kept the boys, especially my smaller one, in 5-point harnesses a little longer. Fortunately, nothing happened that makes me regret my decision to switch them when I did.

 

My girls weigh 41 and 51 lbs. They are in short back boosters. Once they turn six at the end of the month then they aren't required to ride in a carseat. We will still have them in car seats until they are bigger

 

At 6 Peyton is in a high back booster. She is 43 lbs. At 3, Jake is in a 5 pt harness and is also 43 lbs. It all depends. The twins were in a high back booster at 6 also, and I think they weighed probably about the same as Peyton.

 

It really depends on what vehicle I'm driving, but in our van, which can accomodate a much larger carseat, the girls are still in their Graco Nautilus 5 pt harness. In my car, they are in just regular booster seats with the seatbelt. Honestly, if I wasn't so lazy, I would have taken out the 5 pt and put them in the booster by now, but the though of unlatching those darn tethers makes me want to just keep them in the 5 pt.. Like Susan said, my girls can buckle and unbuckle themselves, so that really hasn't been an issue.

My son at age 6 was already in the seat with just the seatbelt. At that time, Ky only required you to stay in a booster until 4, I believe. He actually stayed in a booster until he started kindergarten. KY now requires boosters until 8 years old and 80 lbs. I have some middle school kids that aren't 80 lbs, and they are definitely aren't in a booster.

Here's an interesting link just to show how state requirements have changed in the past few years

http://www.inventiveparent.com/StateLaws.htm

 

When my older boys ( now 17, 14, and 12) turned 4 I got rid of the car seats and let them use just seat belts. I was dumb. My younger 3 will ride in their 5 point harnesses until they outgrow them. We have Sunshine radians in my car and Britax boulevards in dh's for the twins and Easton has his infant car seat (baby trend) and a Britax marathon. I am a car seat FREAK. Britax is my brand of choice although I am loving these Sunshine radians and so do the girls (we just got these seats last week).

 

They are taller than the back of the highback booster. Alison's about 40# and Martin's about 45# (I think!) and they are mostly in the backless booster. In DH's car we use the backs because of how high his seatbelts are. In my car they hit them in the right place....

 

My 7 yo is in a high back booster since summer last year (so 6) as one Marathon expired so I moved one of the twins in her Radian 65. Then this summer the other Marathon expired so I bought one twin a high back booster (at age 4y9m) and the other one is in the Radian. We drive very little here anyway since it's only an island. They travel to school by bus and days go by I don't use my car ... Public transport is very cheap and efficient, like taxis.