Your Child Grows into a Forward-Facing Car Seat
I’ve been posting about safe car seats for your child as she grows from infancy into older childhood. See my two prior posts for birth to about one year. We had just moved into forward-facing seats.
Forward-facing models should all have a 5-point restraint harness. Children should stay in this model until at least 40 pounds, but can usually fit until 65 pounds. These are especially helpful if you have a restless child who might try to get out of the seat belt.
When you think your child might be ready to move to a booster seat, be sure to test it out first. If they fit, their legs should not stick out straight and they should not slouch or slide forward in the seat. Once again, keep you child in the forward-facing car seat for as long as possible — it’s safer.
Booster seats are the newest addition to child car safety. Most likely you didn’t use a booster seat when you were a kid. Seat belts are designed for adults, not for children, so children need to be boosted into a higher position so that the seat belt can do its job correctly. 
Children need to be in a booster seat until they reach a height of 4’9”. At this height, the seat belt will fall correctly on the child as to protect them in a crash. Once again, there are multiple types of booster seats. There are full backed seats that resemble a forward facing seat and there are half booster seats which only have a bottom portion. In deciding which one to purchase for your child, you should consider factors such as support while sleeping in the car and the height of the seats in your car. The booster should position the child so that the seat belt falls on the hips, not the stomach, and the collarbone, not the neck. Once they reach 4’9”, the belt should fit properly without any additional support. Even once they no longer need a booster seat, children though should stay in the back seat until they reach 13 years old.
Post a comment to let us know how your child has grown into her various types of car seats.
Comments
Leave a Reply