AIBU DD 6 wants to ditch the car booster seat

[littlewaltham]

How old were your kids when you ditched the car booster seat?

Yes it says

"Fortunately, we know that the law is not enough to keep children safe. NHTSA, Safe Kids, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all recommend that children between 8 and 12 years old continue to use a booster until they fit the belt correctly alone, usually around 4?9″.The law is not enough. It?s a starting place, but following it to the letter won?t protect your child from harm. 4?9″ is the size of a 50th percentile 11 year old, not an 8 year old.
Keep your kids boostered until 4?9″. They are more important than the minimums!
"

My 9 year old DD is 146cm tall and we're about to ditch it I think. I know she's tall enough but I'm still trying to work out if she's still safer in it at this height.

4?9&#8243 = 4 foot 9 = 144.78 centimetres

My 6 year old ds2 (110cm) is still in a forward facing var seat in my mums car. She took the harness out so it was a hbb and he wouldnt sit still so she put it back in.

Ineed - careful with that - some are fine, but many car seat harnesses are only for use up to 18kg.

DS was 7 in January and used his 5 point Group 1 seat until last August, so just over 6 1/2. He didnt give two hoots.

You are the adult, and you decide when she can safely come out of the HBB

He weighed just under 18kg last time we weighed him, but I will check that thanks. I don't drive, kinda trust my mum as its her car. I did wonder if there was a weight limit though. :)

Wow, that link really made me think. I often have adults in my car who are definitely shorter than OP's child. (One person has hypochondroplasia)
Do they make booster seats that will take an adult's weight?

Doesn't matter what your DD wants. There is the law and there is common sense.
You have to be 140cm iirc before you come out of a high backed booster seat.
6 is far too young imo even if she is very tall.

I just can't believe children are worried about the 'shame' of having a booster seat as surely all young children know no different. The rules have been in a while now so the dcs would have been little at the time so it should just be normal now.

My 7 and 5 year old are in high back boosters still and will be until they are too tall, we use normal boosters for occasional journeys in other people cars.

Or a normal booster, as long as the seatbelt is at te right positioning

My six year old is in a high back booster and will be for some time. No idea how tall she is but she's 6 - she needs all the help she can get in the event of an accident. I had a friend's tall three year old in the car at the weekend though so she had the high back booster and dd had an ordinary one.

We use it in different cars so the normal booster is much better and only really make local journeys. The positions of the belt is important and tats what matters as that's what boosters do.

I want to know just how safe it is with 3 booster seats in the back of a car. All of mine use theirs but none of them actually sit properly on them, they're all squint and the seat belts don't go where they're supposed to because they quite simply do not fit properly! It's hugely frustrating. No one seems to have a solution! How do others manage?

My almost 11-year-old is still in one!

I could do with a booster seat in FIL's car as the seats sort of "dip" at the back and my thighs are too skinny so it sits over my stomach!

Once you realise the difference between the seatbelt being positioned wrong and the seatbelt being positioned correctly it's a no-brainer. It's not just to keep you from being thrown out of the car, it's also designed to spread the impact over the strongest parts of the body and avoid internal injury. If a seatbelt is over a child's neck it can break their neck or strangle them, if the lap belt is over their stomach it can cause internal injury (imagine someone hitting your child in the stomach with an iron bar), if the diagonal belt is under their arm, it can puncture a lung, and if it is behind them then the belt will be far too loose and they may as well not wear one at all.

Samuel - the tallest child should sit in the middle without a booster or with a slim base-only booster, or put one of them in the front.

A lot depends on.the car also, my zafira has adjustable heights on the rear belts so my 7 yo dsd doesn't need the booster seat although bother her and her 9 yo brother need them in dp's Volvo due to sports seats and it being lower.

Dd1 was in a booster until she was 9yo, Dd2 is very tall, so she was in a booster until she was 7yo, then her head started being uncomfortablely near to the roof of the car.
Ds is 6yo and still in his high back booster and won't be changing until he's much older, he's way off the height.

Some of t 10/11 year olds were taller than me 5ft 3, don't think they would appreciate a booster until 12

That I used to work with I mean

Ha, that's a good point actually...I stopped growing at 12 and at 5'9 I don't think I'd have fitted in my parent's car on a car seat!

My 8 and 6 yr olds are still in high backed boosters. The 8yr old is trying to downgrade to a booster cushion but I am resisting. Am I right?

Hmmm well the simple solution to me would be to say to DD

'Ok stop using your booster seat if you want to, but you don't use it means that I don't take you anywhere in the car!' so how would she feel about having to walk/get the bus to school or any of the other activities that you probably ferry her around to?

I bought a slimline booster seat for the middle seat, it just fits between the 2 high back boosters

hemel07 You are absolutely right to keep them in booster seats rather than cushions. The 'side impact' cushions protect their head and on the Which? website, they tell us the cushions don't provide anywhere near the same protection in a side impact crash.

My DCs are 6 and 4, and they'll be in their booster seats until they're the right legal height and I think the seat belt sits correctly against them. DDs friend is actually jealous of her fancy car seat, as she only has a booster cushion!