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4 years ago when my daughter was in kindergarten, the kids had to bring in their car seats for a field trip. Everyone pretty much brought in the Graco with or without a high back booster while I lugged in a heavy-as-heck Recaro whatever with 5-point harness.
Are these 5 year-olds seriously sitting in boosters already? I wanted to tell the parents that the kids should be in a harness for as long as possible, but I kept ma big mouth shut! None of ma bizness.
You had your son secured. That mom should've kept quiet.
You should put your son in the safest seat you can afford based on his height and weight.
4 years ago when my daughter was in kindergarten, the kids had to bring in their car seats for a field trip. Everyone pretty much brought in the Graco with or without a high back booster while I lugged in a heavy-as-heck Recaro whatever with 5-point harness.
Are these 5 year-olds seriously sitting in boosters already? I wanted to tell the parents that the kids should be in a harness for as long as possible, but I kept ma big mouth shut! None of ma bizness.
You had your son secured. That mom should've kept quiet.
You should put your son in the safest seat you can afford based on his height and weight.
Yes, both my kids were in Recaro high back boosters in K. I also drive a Volvo which also had built in booster seats. One of the safest cars out there.
We also had Recaro seats. We also had the Recaro high back boosters as well. My kids loved them because on long road trips they could sleep comfortably because of the side impact protections for their heads (gave them a nice little place to put their heads without flopping around).
Quote:
Originally Posted by russlancea
4 years ago when my daughter was in kindergarten, the kids had to bring in their car seats for a field trip. Everyone pretty much brought in the Graco with or without a high back booster while I lugged in a heavy-as-heck Recaro whatever with 5-point harness.
Are these 5 year-olds seriously sitting in boosters already? I wanted to tell the parents that the kids should be in a harness for as long as possible, but I kept ma big mouth shut! None of ma bizness.
You had your son secured. That mom should've kept quiet.
You should put your son in the safest seat you can afford based on his height and weight.
Honestly the kids that are average in height and weight in my sons preschool class(he is in the 3 year old class because he has a fall birthday) are still harnessed. The ones bigger than average, from what ive seen are in high back seats. In the 4 year old class(the class I will put him in next year) the kids are in a combination of harness and highback boosters.
I've decided to just buy the graco atlas seat. It holds 65 pounds, reclines, seems comfortable, is affordable, has a harness and will last him a year-so that when he is 5.5 he will be able to transition back to his highback booster. I was really debating on getting the britax click tight but so many reviews said that the seat wasn't padded enough and was uncomfortable for the kid. The graco nautalius elite also got some "it's not comfortable with the straps" and the 3 in 1 regular nautalius got a few of those comments too and a comment about how it doesn't recline so when they fall asleep it hurts the neck-comments. I was then looking at the britax pioneer and saw that it was extremely difficult to install that properly. Process of elimination because the graco atlas seemed to be rated as high as britax, was said to be comfortable, and reclines lol.
Oh and it wasn't a mom who commented on my my sons seat, it was a teachers aide.
If you can find a child seat that fits, it's always going to be safer than a booster. Child seats have additional strapping system that can keep your child safe in an accident.
saw you bought 5 point harness seat, i just wanted to point out that its really nothing to do with age/weight/height limits. its more of whether the child's bones and spine can withstand a bad high impact crash. studies have proven that a 4 year old bones is still very much not matured vs a 7 year old, hence more recommendations to keep your child harnessed as long possible.
my oldest son will be 5 in 2 weeks and he's still harnessed in his britax frontier 90 and the only reason i bought that particularl seat cuz it can convert to a booster AND can pass it off to my younger son when oldest grows out of it. Also the other big thing is do the 5 step pinch test to determine whether your 6-7-8 year old is truly ready to sit in a booster seat, it really varies car to car as well!
saw you bought 5 point harness seat, i just wanted to point out that its really nothing to do with age/weight/height limits. its more of whether the child's bones and spine can withstand a bad high impact crash. studies have proven that a 4 year old bones is still very much not matured vs a 7 year old, hence more recommendations to keep your child harnessed as long possible.
my oldest son will be 5 in 2 weeks and he's still harnessed in his britax frontier 90 and the only reason i bought that particularl seat cuz it can convert to a booster AND can pass it off to my younger son when oldest grows out of it. Also the other big thing is do the 5 step pinch test to determine whether your 6-7-8 year old is truly ready to sit in a booster seat, it really varies car to car as well!
The "5 step test" is to determine if a child (generally in the 10-12 age range) can safely use a seatbelt without a booster, not if a child is ready to sit in a booster seat. The Five Step Test - Car Seats For The Littles
The biggest thing with switching to a booster is the maturity of the child to stay properly seated. Yes, bone/spinal maturity is an important factor (particularly when it comes to younger children being forward faced too soon) and kids should be harnessed until around age 5, at minimum, but there are 5 year olds mature enough to sit properly and many older kids who aren't. As I said in my previous post, my almost-6 year old is still harnessed (and my almost-3 year old is still rear facing, just as my oldest was at the same age) and will be until she reaches the limits of her harness because I don't feel comfortable putting the responsibility of staying in proper position (and thus safety) on her. She's mature enough for it but why put that responsibility on her when she still safely fits her harnesses, kwim? (And, yes, I know you and I seem to be on the same page on the harness vs. booster but I just wanted to explain my reasoning for those lurking out there who don't understand extended harnessing.)
A lot of it has to do more with bone development than with height and weight. A child is always safer in a 5-point harness. Generally, you should leave them in the 5-point harness until they reach the height or weight limits, which are pretty high.
Personally, I would leave him in a 5-point harness. Here's a good article to help you decide.
Just to let everyone know. I ordered the graco 2 and 1 atlas yesterday from Amazon. It will arrive tomorrow. It seemed like the best transition seat for the price, value, and needs. I completely understand those of you who keep children harnessed as long as possible. Right now the longest my son has ever been in the car has been maybe 20 minutes max. We live in an area where things are so local that it takes us very little time to get from point a to point b. When I want to go somewhere long distance we catch a flight or a train. We just aren't in the car often enough or long enough to warrant anything over the top.
I don't have any other kids and usually give my items away to friends who need them. Thus for me buying an expensive harness seat especially when he will be 5 in the fall and will only need an additional year or so in it, did not make sense.
Looking back on things now--the best option probably would have been that once I was ready to switch him to the highback(last fall) to have purchased a higher value harness system. With him turning 5 in 4.5 months it seems like he really just needs a transition seat that will last him a year of harnessing before he is ready to go back to the booster--not a very good but super expensive seat. I don't forsee having any more kids in the next couple of years and I don't hoarde/keep things so I just couldn't part with paying almost $300 for the britax or other high performance options.
My goal is keeping him harnessed until 6, and then moving on to highback again.
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