AIBU to say the new booster seat law totally confuses me?

[CharlieDimmocksbosoms]

Just that really. I know from April the law changes on what age/weight/height child can use a booster seat but can someone clearly explain it for me please?

[MrsCharlesBrandon]

I completely understand the new guidelines, but unsure how to apply them in my DS's case.

He's 7, 142cm tall, and almost 40 kg. Given that car seats (inc boosters) have an upper limit of 36kg, where does that leave me?

Currently he's in the back on a regular booster, but he's clearly over the weight limits! We go to Europe every summer and I can't find any information about seats that hold heavier children.

[peggyundercrackers]

the lap belt can literally cut them in two

what absolute baloney - no child has ever been cut in two...

[littledinaco]

Peggy-the doctor in that link says 'the force cause the belt to shred the muscle and fat underneath. It even sliced through on her left side, causing inches of her intestine to spill outside her belly' and that the seatbelt 'acts like a knife'.
It's not baloney although I love that word

[5moreminutes]

www.chefkoch.de/forum/2,45,519997/zu-schwer-fuer-den-Kindersitz.html MrsCharles we are in Germany and the same discussion occurs from time to time. Basically the backless boosters are only tested to 36kg but everyone uses them for heavier kids who are not quite 150cm and under 12. What the police care about is how the seatbelt sits on the child - they won't be weighing him under any circumstances!

There are some seats that are actually tested up to higher weights for heavier children but they are really made for children with special needs who need a seat for reasons other than just height for the most part and tend to be enormous and very expensive.

One of mine is 148cm and almost 40 kg and one about 145cm and about 37kg and both are using a booster cushion labelled for 15-36 kg in Germany.

[MrsCharlesBrandon]

Thank you 5, that's reassuring!

[BertieBotts]

The weight won't be an issue. It's just a way to classify the seats. Bear in mind that the original R44 legislation which the categories still come under was written in something like 1982. At that time not everyone used car seats for babies, and if they did they usually stopped as soon as the child could be trusted not to climb around the car and distract the driver. It wouldn't have occurred to anyone that a 40kg child would still be using a booster!

All a booster does is position the seatbelt, the belt itself does the restraining in a crash. The only problem with weight would be if he was so heavy he was bending the plastic but I think you'd have to be talking well over adult weight for that to happen. It's a problem to use harnessed seats over their weight categories because the harness itself can theoretically fail.

Injuries caused by using just the seatbelt too early, or caused by children wriggling forwards in their booster seat (often because they find it uncomfortable that their knees don't reach the edge of the seat) are collectively called "seatbelt syndrome" and make for sobering reading. It's important to make sure your DC's boosters fit properly and that they sit comfortably in them so they're not tempted to wriggle down.

[BertieBotts]

Saying that children can be cut in half is a very dramatic way of putting it, but lap belt only restraint, which is what happens when the shoulder belt is too high to fit a child properly, can cause massive internal injuries and be a serious problem.

Interestingly I remember riding on a booster seat intermittently when I was possibly about 8 years old which would have been in the 90s. I don't remember high backed boosters ever being a thing until the law changed in 2003. We had car seats for babies and toddlers and then just nothing or a booster, but no back and sides. We had a little gadget thing which was supposed to make the seatbelt fit more safely too by pulling it closer together, but in reality probably just increased the chance of submarining under it

[peggyundercrackers]

littledinaco yes I get the person had a lot of serious injuries but they still weren't cut in two...

[littledinaco]

Like Bertie says, I admit it was a very dramatic way of putting it and yes you are correct, the poor little girl wasn't actually quite cut in two.

One quote from a doctor in relation to the girl's injuries:
“Where you could see the stripe of the seat belt in an enormous bruise across her abdomen, as well as the fact that the edge, the far edge of the belt, had actually cut through her abdominal wall and she had protruding intestines from that. She was just about cut in two. Much of which, quite frankly, couldn't be repaired. The injury was too severe.”

I do understand that it is a media article and will be made to sound 'dramatic'.
My point was more to highlight how severe the consequences can be from not using a car seat.
Hopefully, it may make someone think twice about putting their children in without a car seat.

[BertieBotts]

I found an interesting report about car seat performance from 1980. It's from North America so they had different types of seat there at the time but the same as in Europe WRT the fact that most people didn't use them and there were barely any safety standards about them.

It really highlights how important car seats are. Even old ones, even less safe ones, even improperly used ones. Splitting hairs is less important than the basic situation of using one to begin with. :)

deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/500/44653.0001.001.pdf

[BertieBotts]

The report does talk about deaths in quite a frank way, just as a warning.