If your child seems to be outgrowing their car seat, you might be wondering if it's time to move them to a booster seat. Information about booster seats can be confusing. Which instructions do you follow? Should you wait to move your child? How do you know if your kid is ready?
How to Choose the Right Car Seat for Your Child
We reached out to car seat safety experts to answer parents' most common questions about booster seats so that you can make smart, informed—and most of all—safe choices for your little one.
What Is Booster Seat Age?
Booster seat age refers to the age of a child at which they are ready to move from a car seat to a booster seat. The appropriate age is generally at least 4 years old, but for various children may be a few years older. In fact, it's safest for most kids to remain in a 5-point harness car seat until age 5 or 6.
What Are Booster Seats?
Booster seats are a type of car safety device that a child graduates to after outgrowing a forward-facing harnessed car seat. Booster seats are secured in your car with a seat belt that is placed across your child's chest and hips. Unlike rear and forward facing car seats, booster seats do not have a harness that buckles your child into the seat; instead, the seat belt secures your child. According to the Academy of American Pediatrics (AAP), booster seats reduce a child's chances of injury by 45%, as compared to using a seat belt alone.
There are four types of booster seats:
Booster seats with high backsBooster seats with no backCombination seats, which transition from a forward-facing harnessed seat to a booster seatAll-in-one seats, which can transition from rear-facing, to forward-facing, to a booster
Booster Seat Weight and Height Requirements
Different booster seats will have different weight and height recommendations, so the first thing to do as you consider when to move your child to a booster seat is to check the instruction manual. You should also check the instructions of the forward-facing car seat your child is currently using to determine if they may have outgrown it. Most forward-facing car seats can accommodate a child up to 65 pounds, with some able to accommodate a child up to 70 to 90 pounds.
Whatever the case, theAcademy of American Pediatrics (AAP)urges parents to keep their children in forward-facing car seats as long as possible, because the harness on these seats offer optimal protection. Brittany Kaiser, public health educator withSafety Stopat St. Louis Children's Hospital agrees with this assessment. “It is recommended to move a child to a booster seat once they have maxed out the height OR weight limit of their 5-point harness car seat,” she suggests.
Signs Your Child Is Ready to Move to a Booster Seat
It's not just height and weight requirements to watch for when it comes to making the switch to a booster, says Kaiser. "Maturity is a huge factor in deciding if your child is ready to transition into a booster seat," she says. Here's why: when your child is in a 5-point harness, they are restrained, whereas when they are in a booster, there's only a seatbelt holding them in place.
"They now have the ability to slouch down in their seat, lean over and play with siblings, reach down or slide out to get a toy that has fallen, etc.," Kaiser says. "If they are not sitting in the booster seat correctly, the seatbelt cannot do its job at protecting them." Moving your child into a booster requires a major leap in maturity, Kaiser says. She suggests having conversations with your child about what this responsibility means, and the fact that you need them to stay seated correctly in their booster.
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Jennifer McCue, injury prevention coordinator at Nemours Children's Hospital in Delaware says that for kids to ride safely in a booster, they should be able to sit upright with the seat belt fitted properly for the entire ride. "Children should never play with the seat belt, put the shoulder belt behind them, under their arm, or unbuckle it during the ride," she describes.
How to know your child is ready for a booster seat:
They're mature enough to sit properly in the booster for the entire trip (no slouching, no leaning over, no messing with or unbuckling the seat belt)They've exceeded the height or weight limits on their harnessed car seatIdeally they are at least 4 or older
When Can You Move Your Child to a Booster Seat?
Beyond the recommendations for your particular booster seat, there is no magic age that a child should be moved to a booster. "Every child is different," says Kaiser. "It is usually safer to keep a child in their 5-point harness car seat until they have outgrown it." However, there are some criteria that she uses as a minimum for when it's acceptable to move a child to a booster:
They should be at least 40 poundsThey should be at least 40 inches tallThey should be at least 4-years-old
You should also look at how the seatbelt is fitting your child when they are using a booster, says Kaiser. "The seat belt lap portion should be over the top of their thighs or very low on the hips, never on the stomach," she describes. "The shoulder belt goes across the middle of the shoulder, never on the neck." Either way, if you have a wiggly child, Kaiser says, you should keep them in a forward facing car seat until they are more mature.
Should You Wait to Switch?
McCue agrees with the AAP's stance that children should remain in forward-facing car seats as long as possible, up until the manufacturer's height or weight limit.
Many parents find that their child is actually much older than 4 before they can be expected to sit still in a booster. If your vehicle has lap-only seatbelts in the rear seats, keep your child in a harnessed car seat as long as possible. Harnessed seats can be installed with a lap-only belt.
Booster seats absolutely must be used with a lap/shoulder belt. Extended harnessing, or using a harnessed car seat with a higher weight limit, is vastly preferable safety-wise to moving a child into a lap-only seatbelt with a booster.
If you have a pre-2008 vehicle with a lap-only belt in the center, it is important to know that car seats can safely go there, but boosters and big kids should not. Boosters and big kids need the protection of a shoulder belt. Therefore, if you need to have a kid ride in the center, make sure to use a car seat with a 5-point harness there.
How Long to Use a Booster Seat
Once your child has transitioned to their booster, you might want to know how long you should keep them in one. Just like it's best to keep your child in a forward facing car seat as long as possible, it's best to keep them in a booster for as long as you can, says Kaiser. "Do not be eager to transition into or out of the booster too soon," she recommends. "We see lots of children who are moved out of a booster seat and sitting in a vehicle seat with only a seatbelt far too soon."
Keep in mind that seatbelts were designed for adults, not children, Kaiser emphasizes. This means that your child should be as close to adult-size as possible before ditching the booster. "They need to be in a booster seat until they are 4'9", can sit straight with their back against the vehicle seat and knees bent at the seat edge naturally, and the seatbelt should sit on their hips and their shoulder properly," she says.
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Usually kids need to be in booster seats until they are about 8 to 12 years old, according to the AAP. That might seem like a long time, but when it comes to kids and safe safety, it's always best to err on the side of caution. After all, car crashes are a leading cause of death among kids aged 1 to 13, so taking proper safety precautions in a car is a must. If you have any further questions about booster seats or car seat safety in general, please reach out to a pediatrician or car seat safety technician.
Additional reporting by Heather Corley.
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