To ask if you're still using high back booster for 8yo?

[mscherry]

Dd is nearly 8 and tall - weighs 5stone and is 138cm tall. She is looking a bit uncomfortable in her high back booster seat. Can you get high back boosters for taller children?
I feel loathed to take her out of a car seat as it’s obviously safer, but also would it be a bit daft to buy a new one at this stage?
Just wondered what other people do, I don’t really want her in the car with no protection. She currently sits on one side of the car, should I move her to the middle so she has a bit more distance in case there was a side impact?

Thanks @BertieBotts, I had thought they are dangerous for forward facing too.
I would have thought having side head protection in a high back booster would be safer in case of collision @grobagsforever - I’d be interested to see the data etc.

Ds is almost 11 and in a high back booster seat as is dd at 8. I think I am in the minority though. Ds is skinny and over the weekend I took 2 of his friends and they were a bit shocked at the car seats and only just squeezed Into them. Howeve4 we do a lot of motorway driving so I will be keeping them aS long as possible.

Volvo have been at the forefront of car seat safety also say sir bag on... www.volvocars.com/intl/about/child-safety/child-safety-by-volvo

Its something I've researched as much as I could as a lay person as the advice isn't clear cut, but we must all make our own choices for our children.

I believe grobags is talking about the Freakonomics data which shows no significant increase in deaths in children over 2 years old when in a seatbelt as opposed to a car seat (any kind).

Worth noting if you're a statistician, no significant increase doesn't mean no increase. And they didn't look at injuries, only deaths. To me it's not that much hassle to use a booster seat in comparison to preventing injury. If it was massively complicated, fair enough but there's no significant benefit in not using one, so why not carry on?

However I am relaxed about occasional trips where it would be a huge pain to use the extra equipment.

The argument from Freakonomics is that car seats are expensive (causing parents to buy old ones, second hand ones, unknown history, etc, plus a concern that the industry is unfairly profiting from our anxiety) and complicated (people use the wrong age group, install incorrectly, and so on) but don't really provide enough of a benefit to justify this.

I disagree - I think car seats are getting easier to install and use all the time. Yes people can get overly anxious about using the wrong type but I don't think it's a significant worry. There are benefits other than safety - containment and lack of driver distraction being a big one - but I do believe that protection from injury, not just death, is important.

Yes I think I'm out of date on FF airbags -

"Our recommendation for the use of the front passenger airbag for children has been updated, thanks to advances in airbag technology in recent years."

However surely this only applies to brand new cars - anything over say 3 years old would use the old recommendation to turn off if possible? It does say contact your vehicle manufacturer on the RoSPA site.

My just turned 8 year old ds has been in a normal booster since he was about 5. There are no children around here in a hbb after the age of around 5 around here. I'd never get my ds in one as 'they are for babies' as he puts it.

I wasn’t over 150cm until I was older than 13. I still have friends who are in fact under 5 foot and can drive; they sure aren’t in a high backed booster!

DD is just turned 8 and still in her HBB. As are most of her friends.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=0cH5WaYpCfg

Was this video that did it for me. You can clearly see that high back seat takes the impact as oppose from the child taking it in the backless booster.