Reply to When to transition from a harness car seat to a booster

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our car seat converts to a high back booster so at 7 we did that. Exact same seat but removed the harness and switched to the seat belt. We decided she was "ready" based on her using a booster in her grandparents' car (for a few around town trips) and following all rules for using a booster and seat belt and being able evaluate and see that the seat belt was hitting her correctly on her lap and shoulder.

She never falls asleep in the car (I wish she would but she has not done it more than twice since she was 3.

I would consider reinstalling the harness if we went on a road trip at this age just for extra safety on the trip. We didn't switch to the seatbelt until our summer travel was done so that I wouldn't stress about it during a bunch of high speed highway travel.[/quote]

Thanks.  We have never taken a trip with her longer than 2 hours.  What is her height/weight if you don't mind?  Did she express about wanting to fully transition?  
I understand about reinstalling it.  With my daughter still being somewhat small, its a very difficult decision to move her into a booster seat.[/quote]

45 lbs and 46 inches. So a little taller and bigger than your kid. Perhaps give it a few months and then take a look.

For us the key to transition was height and maturity. Seatbelts are incredibly safe but they must be worn properly and they must hit the person at the right parts of the body. So we wouldn't consider it until she could sit in a booster with a seatbelt and have it hit correctly across her shoulder and chest and lap. We also needed her to be mature enough to understand that she needed to wear the seatbelt  properly and couldn't shift the shoulder belt around or lean on it or whatever. It has to stay in place. She was highly motivated because she was the last of her friends to transition to a booster. She's honestly more vigilant about it than we are at this point.

The high back booster helps a lot because it will position the belt -- while she'd be tall enough even with a backless booster we like that the high back has a thread for the shoulder belt that ensures it always crosses her correctly. This does make it slightly more annoying to latch though -- it took several months for her to be able to buckle her seatbelt on her own even though she'd been buckling her own harness for a couple years. It takes some getting used to how much slack you need to get the belt through the correct parts of the booster and she has to buckle it "blind" because of how close the belt latch is to the seat. So we did it for her for a while talking her through it and then she did it with a double check from us for a while and now she does it on her own with us just giving it a quick once over from the front seat and needing to hear the click of the the latch.

It's way easier for her getting out of the car.

I don't think there's a wrong answer as long as she's in a seat appropriate to her size with a properly rated belt. Seatbelts are incredibly safe when used properly. Honestly the biggest loss of safety for kids is moving from back facing to front facing -- we'd all be a lot safer in vehicles if we were back facing. If you made that transition okay then this one is actually less significant provided she meets the height and weight requirements for whatever seat and belt combo she's in.[/quote]

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