Basic booster safer than just a seat belt?

[madasabadger]

Hi, my son has grown too tall for his high back booster (which is the tallest I found), and although he is over 135cm, he is only 9 and seems very small without a seat and the seat belt is quite high above his shoulder. Does anyone know if it's safer to use a basic booster seat (no sides) than to use just a seat belt in these situations? Thanks

The purpose of a backless booster is purely for belt position ING. Ds1 is fine in some cars, but the back seat in ours is quite tall and the belt cuts across his neck.

Not true.

It's also about how it feeds the belt across their legs rather than across the abdomen where all the delicate organs are.

So in that sense, yes a backless booster is better than nothing.

Use a backless booster - while I'm all for banning them for younger children (no under 8's should be using them in my opinion) I do think they serve a very good purpose for older children.

I moved my son out of a high backed booster just before he was 10. Our issue wasn't height (it was a Britax one that would have lasted height-wise way past 135cm) but the lack of 'depth' in the seat. He has quite long thigh bones and his legs just weren't comfortable any more because the seat didn't support his thighs all the way along - the bit of the seat his bottom was on finished half way along his thigh if that makes sense!

135cm is the bare minimum height for not using a seat, and it's yet another example of where the law with regards to child seats doesn't reflect what is actually safe! Seatbelts are designed to protect an adult of 150cm+ andbin lots of other European countries children must stay in an appropriate child seat until they are 150cm tall, not 135cm.

A child should only stop using a booster entirely when you can answer 'yes' to all the questions in this link (it's American, but all relevant here too) csftl.org/the-five-step-test/

DD was over 135cm at 7.5 years. When researching the same scenario I found that in many other countries they advise using a seat booster until 150 cm which is what we will be doing. If I could have found a high back one she fitted in I would have done so but couldnt so she uses a seat booster now.

Thank you for your comments - really helpful

DD 9 is 142cm (last time I checked) she still uses one - she actually tried the seat without and agreed she sits too far down. She has very long legs as well so I think she will use one for a while yet

I looked at the article mentioned by Alicemum09 (thank you) and it linked to this one: csftl.org/boosters-are-for-very-big-kids/

My son actually seems to pass on all 5 points!