Booster Car Seat Tips
Installing a Booster Car Seat Tips
You know your child is growing up when it’s time for a booster car seat. Many states have passed laws requiring booster seats for kids up to 8 years old and 80 pounds (37 kilograms), or 4-feet 9-inches (about 150 centimeters) tall.
Booster seats come in many styles. Belt-positioning boosters raise kids to a height where they can safely use the car’s lap and shoulder belts. They come in high-back or backless models: High-back boosters are recommended when the car has low seat backs, and backless boosters may be used if a child’s head is supported up to the top of his or her ears by the vehicle’s back seat or head support. Follow these guidelines.
Installing a Booster Car Seat:
- Booster seats should be placed forward-facing in the back seat, ideally in the middle of the back seat where there is a lap and shoulder belt.
- Read the owner’s manual for your car to find out how to use your car’s seat belts with a booster car seat.
- Read the entire booster seat manual.
- Be sure to check the tightness of the car seat before each use.
Securing your child’s seat belt
- Read the entire booster seat manual.
- Make sure the lap belt is low and tight across your child’s hips.
- The shoulder belt should lay flat and snug across your child’s shoulder and stay clear of his or her neck and face.
- Shoulder and lap belts should always lie flat, never twisted.
- Kids this age begin to understand the importance of buckling up and may want to buckle themselves in. Be sure to check their seat belts and offer praise when they voluntarily put on their belts.
Using a seat belt without a booster
- Check your local laws regarding booster seat requirements.
- Kids can generally stop using a booster seat when they’re big enough to use the vehicle’s lap and shoulder belts while sitting without slouching with their back against the vehicle’s seat back, with their knees bent over the edge of the seat and with their feet flat on the floor.
- The lap belt should rest low, on top of the thighs, and the shoulder belt should lie comfortably across the middle of the chest. The child should be able to stay this way through the entire trip.
- Transitioning from a booster seat usually happens when a child reaches a height of 4 feet 9 inches (about 150 centimeters), but every vehicle and every child is different. Be sure to do what is right for your child and legal in your state.
- Remember, the shoulder strap of the seat belt should never be fastened behind a child’s back or under his or her arm. And you should never buckle two kids (or an adult and a child) under one seat belt – a crash could cause their heads to collide.
Go to NHTSA.GOV for more information. And be sure to read the instruction manuals for both your vehicle and for the convertible car seat before installation.
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