When to move to car booster seat?

My kids will be 4 in a few months and I was wondering when I should move them to a booster seat in the car? We still have a 5 point harness type seat, but when do I switch ?

 

It is recommended they stay in a 5 pt harness as long as possible, ideally at least 5 or 6. More important than their age is both their size and theirs ability to sit upright while on a booster. If a child is likely to bend over to pick a toy up off of the floor, move around a lot, or fall asleep and lean over, they are not safe in the booster. There really is no rush - my 7 year old is still in a 5 pt harness.

 

Like PP said. For the law, it's 4yo/40bs in most places, as far as I know. But most children are not mature enough for a booster until they're 6. They need to know to stay put, not move the belt, not try and turn around or pick up stuff, and most 4 year olds still slump over when they sleep, which would make the seat belt useless, or even downright dangerous.

 

I would love to put my girls in booster seats so that I'd have more room in the back seat. All of my friends with children the same age have put them in the high back boosters (or even just the little boosters), but my girls don't weigh enough. They probably won't reach 40 lbs until they are 6. They turn 4 this month and are still 27 lbs.

 

We're going to wait to move our girls to high back boosters until they're 6, probably. Our car seats convert to boosters, and the straps go through an opening on the side of the booster. So it seems to me that they're basically the same as the five point harness... just with less protection.

It will be ages before we move our kids to regular boosters. I've watched too many of my friend's kids move all over the place in the car while sitting in boosters. The seatbelts just give whenever they lunge to pick up a toy, or twist around to see out the back. So until my kids can sit still, they're going to be stuck in the five point harness (or maybe the high back booster in a year or two).

 

Mine are 4 1/2 and are still in 5 point for my van and the sitter's van. In dh's car we have high back boosters, but they only go in his car for school pick up. As long as they fit we'll use the 5 point. They can buckle themselves in so I dont see it as any more work than a booster. Plus those seats are comfy!

 

We have these and they are a lot smaller than the giant car seats they used to be in. You can keep them in the 5-point harness up to 65lbs and then it converts to a backless booster. I bought these when they were around 2 1/2 because I needed to be able to fit an 8 year old between them in the back seat of my car.

 

Our car seats go to 80 pounds I doubt my girls will weigh 80 pounds until high school so I doubt they will ever switch to a booster.

 

Here the law is 4/yo or 40 lbs, whichever is first. And to be out of boosters they have to be 4'9" or 8. But like a PP said, it's also about knowing to sit the right way all the time. I think my girls would both be mature enough at this point, but only one is in a booster. Sabrina won't be 40 lbs for a couple of years probably and she'll be 6 in December. She's like 33 lbs and that's after a big growth spurt and a little medical intervention. So she's in a 5-pt harness still. Sydney is pushing 50 lbs and is in a booster.

 

I was wondering the same thing myself. I will be happy to get my girls out of their seats and into boosters! But I guess they have awhile to go.

 

I moved my older kids around age 3.5 or so. The twins will stay in their regular harness for awhile because I have the graco nautilus's for them.

 

OK. The more I read, the more confused I get! When you say booster, do you mean a regular seatbelt across their lap? We have the Nautilus' for all three kids. I thought they would go to the booster(seat only part) when they weighed whatever it was they had to...40 lbs? I mean-we are nowhere near it, so it's not an issue now.

 

A booster seat uses the car's regular seatbelt to go across the child. It might be just a small seat, or it might have a high back. In our van we need the high backs, because the seats only come to about the shoulders when the kids are in boosters so there's no head support in case of an accident. Plus, my kids like the higher back booster because if they're tired there's somewhere to lean their heads. There are convertible seats that use a 5 point harness when the child is small, and then you can take that out and use it with the car's seatbelt when they're bigger. We have one of those. The 5 point harness really is the safest, as long as the seat fits the child. And usually by the time they're close to 4, they can buckle and unbuckle themselves from it, so there's not a huge advantage I can think of to being in a booster (well, other than the installation of them).

 

Check your states law and then go with what you are comfortable with.

We bought the Graco Nautilus for my girls when they were 3 because you can harness up to 65 pounds so we can choose to use it harnessed much longer than the state required 40 pounds. We do also have a seatbelt threaded through it and for short trips around town, we just use a seatbelt since my girls are 44 and 46 pounds and on the tall side.

For anything more than around town, they have to use the harness buckle.

Nautilus converts to a booster. You take the harness straps off and use a regular seatbelt with it when they are big enough. After that, you can take the back off and it can be a booster just under their tushies. A "booster seat" is a seat with either a back or no back, that you use with a seatbelt.