Boy, these things aren't clear. I'm going to check out my seat and see what it says, but I think my son is ready to be transferred to a booster. He's almost 5.5 years old, but he's 48 inches tall and 55 lbs. Does anyone know what the transition size is? I know he needs to be 8 years and 4'9" tall to just be seatbelt. But I think he's really close to being too tall for the car seat. Thanks!
He has to be 40 lbs. and 4 years old to be in a booster seat. Our car seat is a 5 point harnessed one (Britax Frontier 85) and it 5 points up to 85 lbs and boosters up to 100lbs. I'll likely keep her harnessed up until she's 6 or so and then booster her. She's almost 5 now and I just feel better knowing that she's safest right now.
Yep, at this point it really depends on the seat that you have. We have the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1. It will hold my daughter in a 5-point harness until she is 65 lbs. Then I can take the harness out & it will be a high-back booster until she is tall enough to no longer need the back of it (holds the shoulder strap of the seatbelt). Then the back comes off and it is just a booster to raise her up. It works as a booster until 100 lbs.
My daughter is 6 1/2 years old, about 43" tall, and about 40 lbs. She'll likely be in the 5-point harness until she is 65 lbs, or until she starts getting picked on!
Just because a law says you CAN move them to the next stage, it doesn't mean you have to. It is actually safer to keep your child in each stage as long as your car seat allows. That's why car seats are being made to hold children up to 2 years old REAR facing, and keeping them in the 5-point harness at a higher weight. There are plenty of scary videos and stories about children who were buckled in according to law, but still seriously injured or killed because they moved up in stages too fast :(
So I guess they have booster seats on the school buses? Sorry, even when I was a kid riding the bus I could never understand why these types of laws, including seat belts, don't apply to school buses.
He's ready for a booster seat. According to state law, he has to be 4 and 40 lbs. I think the choice of booster seat is up to your discretion.
He's ready for the booster. If he's taller than the car seat then he definitely needs to get out of it. It's dangerous. That's what I learned from the Plano police department safety check. We first moved my daughter into one of those high back boosters - Britax I think and by 5 she was pretty much in just the booster part all the time.
When my daughter outgrew her car seat, I asked about booster recommendations and people suggested I watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azgBhZfcqaQ
I ended up getting a larger Britax that works for up to 70 lbs.
The laws only specify that infants under 20 pounds MUST be rear facing and children under 8 must be in some sort of car seat/booster. Other than that, as long as you follow manufacturer limits (height/weight) you should be fine! I just recently moved my 3 1/2 year old to a high-backed booster. Yours may be ready for a backless booster, but I would check the height/weight requirements just to be sure!
