I'm not sure what I should get for my kids' next seat. I have 4.5 year old twins who are tall and skinny. We live in South Korea. We don't have a scale but IIRC from a doctor appt they are probably a little under 40lbs, currently. Somewhere around 38-40lbs. And they've always been 95th+percentile for height so I'll guess they're around 45" (based on some online chart. I honestly don't know how tall they are.) Right now they're in Britax Boulevard 70s. I don't think they'll be in them too much longer because of their height. I'm looking to start a new seat in August, right around their 5th birthday.
We are coming back to the US over the summer and I want to buy the next seat there, but that presents a dilemma because I can't check 2 car seats for each kid on the plane. We have to use our luggage allotment for all the other stuff we need to stock up on. (We won't be back to the US til the summer of 2016.) So I want something that works "now," (aka August) but also works as they grow, AND is convenient. I love our boulevards but they're huge and my car is small. I'd love something I can easily un/reinstall and throw in the trunk because I drive adults around way more often than my kids. 2 boulevards don't fit in my trunk. I do not normally drive long distances (ie don't normally have kids falling asleep) but we might in the future so I still kind of want a 5pt harness even though skipping that would be so much easier. Grumble. We have latch and tether anchors in our cars.
I keep seeing travel high back boosters posted. Are those as safe as other daily-use 5pt boosters? Any recs on what kind of seat and what models are good?
"Do you mean that you need seats that can be packed and not checked? Or do you mean that you won't be able to check 4 carseats (but could perhaps check 2). "
I need to check whatever seats I'm bringing back, and I think you can only check 1 per kid for free. (Delta) I don't want to use one on the plane. I could go into why but I don't want to bore you and go on and on.
You said you don't drive your kids as often as adults. How often? I know it's a pain but if it's not often maybe just keep the boulevards and get mew boosters next year when they are 5.5?
Do you mean that you need seats that can be packed and not checked? Or do you mean that you won't be able to check 4 carseats (but could perhaps check 2).
If you are flying a commercial American carrier, I think you can check the carseats in their boxes for free. Not sure if you are military or flying a non-US carrier.
If you get them harnessed seats, they can use them on the plane. It's not necessary at their size, but if you are worried about the luggage allotment, it's an option.
This 5-point harnessed seat is easily stowed in the overhead compartment or your trunk. May or may not be comfortable for sleeping, but it will be safe. However, if your kids are 95th percentile, they may not last very long. However, if they still fit in the Boulevards (shoulders below the top slots), they probably have torsos that are compact enough to make it work. The top slots are about the same height as the Boulevards, so they won't last any longer, but are more compact for your car.
The other travel seats that are generally posted are boosters, no harness.
I would probably wait until this summer, see if they are close to outgrowing their Britax seats, and see how mature they are. Although some highback boosters can be just as bulky as harnessed carseats. But some of the Graco ones can be disassembled and fit in the trunk.
ETA: Sit them again the wall and measure from bum to the top of their shoulders and let me know their torso height. Kids gain about 1 inch of torso height per year, so you could guesstimate what kind of seats you might need.
thx for your thoughts. I think I'm maybe just clueless about when to move out of a 5pt harness. If my kids are too tall for most harness boosters, they can still use a high back booster with a seat belt right? If they had a headrest to sleep against is that ok? It's only the slumping forward that's the problem? I think I read a high back booster is safer than a low back. Is that true? As much as I want something more compact I'll go with safety first. My friends can deal.
You said you don't drive your kids as often as adults. How often? I know it's a pain but if it's not often maybe just keep the boulevards and get mew boosters next year when they are 5.5?
I would but I think they'll be outgrown by the next time I come back to the U.S. I drive them maybe an hour per week.
Post by penguingrrl on Apr 1, 2015 20:29:58 GMT -5
Not a tech, but fairly knowledgable, so I'm going to chime in.
There isn't a hard and fast rule about when to move from a harness to a booster. There's no evidence that a harness is safer for a child who is over 5 and over 40 lbs than a properly used booster, but proper use is important. They can't slump over, slide down (placing the lap belt over their abdomen instead of their hips), lean over to pick up a dropped toy, unbuckle themselves, etc. Some kids are mature enough at 5, some not until closer to 7, so it's very kid based. My kids actually are tall and outgrew their harnessed seats at 4 and moved to boosters then because space in our tiny car (beetle) and cost were both significant issues preventing us getting taller-harnessed seats. Both girls transitioned beautifully and I have no regrets, but from what I understand they aren't the norm.
As far as sleeping, my girls use the headrests on their boosters as pillows when they sleep and we haven't yet had either slump forward while sleeping. When we booster trained we talked about the importance of staying upright and the first late night rides with either we had both of us in the car so H could push them back in position if necessary while they got used to it.
The jury is out on whether high back is safer than backless. The latest info I've read on car-seat.org has shown no significant safety difference between the two. A high back may offer side impact protection, but it's likely that the frontal movement of a crash will push their head outside of where the shells are anyway. Some techs over there like a backless for the fact that it puts the kid a few inches further from whatever (seat, console) is in front of them, reducing the likelihood of their head hitting that. I find my kids still need the high back to help support them while they're sleeping, but for around town drives they like to use backless.
I would assess their behavior between now and summer. Watch how they behave in the car. Even though my kids had new freedom with the booster, I had put the fear of god in them about needing to sit right for safety and we had no issues transitioning on the early side. Other kids are definitely not ready (and I'm 99.9% sure my son will be the not ready category; luckily we now have a bigger budget and bigger car, so we can buy whatever he needs when the time comes).