My very small almost 9 year old (48 inches, 50 lbs) is still in the Britax Frontier 5 point harness mode.

For the PP who asked if we are embarrassed- why? We are doing what is safest for our child. It’s also not like we’ve been carpooling with other kids for nearly a year now....

I’d be embarrassed to have my small child in an unsafe seat in the car.

Mine is 7 (and a few months), 52" and about 55 lb. Still in backless booster, which is a Britax convertible, and planning to keep him in it for the foreseeable. He can't quite buckle himself in yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7 year old still rides in a 5 point harness most of the time. It’s a forward facing only seat which is much cheaper than a convertible.

You mean a carseat? I am genuinely curious as to why? Assuming safety reasons but isn't this going beyond the recs and isn't she embarrassed? This question sounds very rude but I'm not trying to be

Mine is 7 and still using 5 pts, 48 lbs and 48 inches. We can move to the seatbelt but he can get in and out of his 5 pt harness in seconds so we haven't bothered to switch yet, and will also require us to move the container of books that we keep between the carseats for our kids.

Its the front facing high back booster- most of them just also have the 5 pt harness if you buy the nicer ones. It doesn't look any different than a HBB, its different than the convertible car seat.

Our kids aren't going anywhere in the car with kids not in our household, don't see how they could be embarrassed?

high back booster with a seatbelt? My 8 and 11 yr olds still rides in one in my husband's car. We just never removed the back. They like it for long car rides because they have a place to rest their heads. In my car they have backless boosters.

Anonymous wrote:My 7 year old still rides in a 5 point harness most of the time. It’s a forward facing only seat which is much cheaper than a convertible.

My just turned 8 year old, 48" and 42 pounds, still uses a Diono car seat. Planning to keep her there as long as possible.

Anonymous wrote:I plan on using the high back booster in harness mode for as long as possible, it’s safer (kid is 5, 46lbs and and 43in).

Oh and who cares what other people think? This is about safety, not appearances.

I plan on using the high back booster in harness mode for as long as possible, it’s safer (kid is 5, 46lbs and and 43in).

My child used the high back a fairly short time, it felt kind of wasteful and we could have gone directly to backless. I kept her in the FF seat until she outgrew it (about your kid's height) and then got Evenflow Spectrum boosters which have removable backs. We removed the back of one for travel and now that's what she prefers and she meets all requirements. We still have the back on one for some theoretical long car trip where she'll sleep, but that hasn't actually come up.

DD learned to buckle herself in the summer after she turned 7, it was not a factor in switching to booster.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 7 year old still rides in a 5 point harness most of the time. It’s a forward facing only seat which is much cheaper than a convertible.

You mean a carseat? I am genuinely curious as to why? Assuming safety reasons but isn't this going beyond the recs and isn't she embarrassed? This question sounds very rude but I'm not trying to be

NP: my DS used a 5pt harness in our main vehicle until age 6-7 as well. He was on the small side, and under the seats weight limit. He also had an easier time getting himself in and out of it, than a booster! Easier to buckle actually. I don’t recall any embarrassment- most of his friends were in HBB at that age. Not a huge difference appearance wise

Anonymous wrote:My 7 year old still rides in a 5 point harness most of the time. It’s a forward facing only seat which is much cheaper than a convertible.

You mean a carseat? I am genuinely curious as to why? Assuming safety reasons but isn't this going beyond the recs and isn't she embarrassed? This question sounds very rude but I'm not trying to be

For a similar-sized 7 year old we recently switched to a high-back booster. We choose it over backless because we figured our younger kid would need the high-back booster before older kid is ready to be without a booster at all. Older kid can switch to a backless booster when the younger one is ready for the high-back booster. Also, the model we got is convertible -- you can pop the back off and make it backless. So that appeals for some mythical day down the road when the older one is in the backless booster and the younger one is ready for a backless booster but we don't want to buy another one.

The high-back booster is much roomier than the combination seat. He still fits in the combination seat without any problems, but he says the booster is more comfortable.

My 7 year old still rides in a 5 point harness most of the time. It’s a forward facing only seat which is much cheaper than a convertible.

Car Seat tech: If she can sit in your car in a backless booster and the belt is across her shoulder then she is fine in a backless. This is assuming you have headrests too. If no headrest and her head is over the top of the back of the seat then you need a back on the booster to support the neck/head.

I just read that and it's super unclear -- we need the current "combination" seat for her sibling to use with a harness, so we're trying to decide between buying a high-back booster that you can take the back off of eventually or just going straight to a backless booster seat.

I have a 7 year old who is 48" and 45lbs. She's currently in a combination seat using the seatbelt in high-back booster mode, but her sibling is getting too big for her convertible seat. She's been using the seatbelt in her current seat for less than a year and still struggles with buckling it herself (unbuckling is not a problem, LOL). We're trying to figure out if we should buy a high-back booster or a backless booster. Any recommendations? The guidance on when to use a high-back vs. backless booster is really unclear!