To move my 4 year old onto a hbb

[carmelsundae]

Car seats for my 4 year old is stressing me! She's still in her stage 1 car seat, and 1kg away from the weight limit. I need that car seat for my 2 year old. So need to buy a new car seat. Do I just buy her a high back booster? I've checked all the ones that harness to 25kg but they all top teather and we can't do that. AIBU to put a 4 year old 17kg in a high back booster or should I try and find something else with a 5 point harness!

17kg in a high back booster is fine. She's well over the 15kg minimum.

There's always freecycle etc if you want something better but for a short time.

I was worried about mine wriggling or falling asleep and not staying in belt also I read about impact on pelvis in accident. The car seat lady has a checklist for moving to a booster you might find helpful (thecarseatlady.com/who-should-use-a-booster/). Appreciate it is hard when you have time pressure.

No, you're absolutely fine.

There is no evidence behind this recent obsession with longer harnessing. Someone will come along and post the facebook diagram of the "iliac crest" but it appears to be nothing more than one person's theory/interpretation with no hard facts behind it. Personally I actually think a seatbelt has several benefits over a 5 point harness. The only reason to use a harness instead is when children are younger and their behaviour is less predictable in the car, as a harness is more difficult to escape/wriggle into an unsafe position, or if the car seat is rear facing and hence the adult seatbelt wouldn't work at all.

17kg 4 year olds are supposed to be in hbbs

Have you looked at the britax evolva? (123 seat that harnesses to 18kg only unfortunately but would buy you a bit more time). That's what we went for in the end and it is installed with just a belt. You can get older models cheaper on Amazon etc.

I had similar a few years back. When I looked in to it was very clear that rear facing is much much safer than forward facing ... but it's not as clear cut with forward facing - 5 point harness versus high back booster. I ended up going for a good high back booster (they are not all equal safety-wise)