When did you completely get rid of a car seat.

[beanbum]

I have a 9yo still in one is this normal? I live out the way and worry but I can see a few of their friends no longer have one and wondered what's normal.

My ten year old still fits in his. To be honest never even considered that he wouldn’t need it anymore.

They rear faced till 4 too. Never had any comments or teasing.

150cms is fine for children who will eventually reach that height.

Lots of adults are walking around shorter than 150cms. So it may be that a view needs to be taken at some stage of latter childhood / early adolescence for those not blessed with height!

Age 12.5 Dd is very small. We would have kept her in the seat past that age, but the school drop off situation that year meant it would have been obvious she was still using a seat.

I think they are so important to be used as long as is safely possible.

We only have a very petite DS so he may be about 15 and still using one 😂 but on a serious note, he will use one for as long as he needs to.

Even if they have passed the legal criteria, If it's still safe and of a benefit to your kids and they don't mind, I would carry on.

9yo DS is 135cm. The seatbelt still digs into his neck without a booster seat, so we use one.

That's why it also tops out at age 12.

When she turned 9 she got tall enough

My 8 yr old is allowed legally not to have one. We still have it in our car but I don’t bother if they are going on a short journey with a friend (grandparents have carseats so they do still use those).

Relatively few child deaths and serious injuries are to car occupants though. More children are killed by acquaintances or strangers than die in cars (as far as I can tell from the slightly flaky data available). If every child in the UK had the perfect car seat to age 12 and always used them perfectly then the improvement in child mortality rates would be non-zero but tiny.

I'm not against car seats, which seem to be a proportionate and reasonable way of reducing risk, but I do think that the risk to car occupants on UK roads is routinely overstated on MN.

DS was 8 when we ditched ours but he was over the recommended height

The 150cm being safest is interesting my dc isn't there yet but is above 135cm. Sounds like it's safest to keep the seat then and it's fairly normal to still have one at this age.

YY I do think car accident deaths are fairly uncommon now.

In fact I just went and looked up accident statistics for 2021 and for children aged 0-14, traffic accidents (which will include where the child was a pedestrian) are much less common as a cause of death than "accidental threats to breathing" which I assume means choking and suffocation.

My 9yo is only 132cm but she is desperate to be on a booster seat rather than in a hbb. She does seem to be in the minority, most of her friends ditched the seat as soon as they hit 135cm. Unfortunately for her I'm a bit paranoid about car seats so I think it'll be a running battle for the next year or so.

I was just thinking this. If DD grows to be my hight she will have finished school before she is out of one!

I'm shocked that people are saying there 8 year old was over 150. My 8year old is one of the tallest in their class and still under 135cm.

Yes. Of the 36 child deaths on the roads, 17 were pedestrians, 13 car occupants and the rest cyclists/trucks/vans/motorcycles.

Those thirteen were each tragedies, but in the context of twelve million children it's not as much of a risk as MNers often assume.

Dd is 13 and still in one. She's about 130cm

DCs moved from high back boosters to normal boosters when they hit 140cm ish. That's the point when the back / neck / shoulder bit became too uncomfortable for them. DC1 was 11, DC2 was nearly 10.
They stopped using normal boosters around 150cm. DC1 will still use one so long as nobody of their age sees them (they're 12 but short for their age and find it much more comfy with the booster).

Mine aren't old enough for this yet but I had no idea about the 150cm thing, I'm only just over that height! I can't imagine being in a car seat until then, I would have been about 15 before I was tall enough!

@Toffeebythesea I agree with this. My 7 and a half year old is exceptionally tall, above 99th percentile and he's 146cm. He is a full head taller than most of his classmates

DS was just turned 9, he was 143cm and the seatbelt was positioned properly.

DD is very petite so I reckon she'll be 11/12.

They were both rear facing until 4 or 5. I won't take chances with car seat safety.

I'm just imagining dropping a 15 year old at the school gates in a car seat, complete with stubble and a slight tash 😁

Same. My eldest is 12, still in his.

The rules have changed a lot over the last decade. Rear facing wasn't a thing when DD was small. Nor the hi-back booster seat. DD was. very, very tall for her age and we ditched the booster cushion when she was about 8. I wouldn't have ever done the rear facing thing... I get hideously sick just going backwards on a train so wouldn't inflict that on my child. Whilst car safety is clearly important, I do think it's over the top on MN. Also... how do families afford all these seats?

We weren’t sure if DD would get to 135cm or 12 first - she got to 135cm when she was 11.5-ish. But she’s v petite and most definitely an outlier, most of her friends, even the petite ones were out of theirs by 10/Y6.