When Is It Time to Switch From Toddler Car Seat To a Booster Seat?

When parents shop for toddler car seat covers for Graco, they often wonder whether their young child is ready for a booster seat because of their current height, or is it all about an age requirement? Yes, anyone selling toddler boy car seat covers and girl toddler car seat covers can tell you to take a look at the weight and height limits of several boosters to find out if your child will fit based on manufacturer instructions. Nevertheless, not many parents know that there is also a maturity requirement to ride in a booster seat. 

Before you even decide to place your child in a booster seat that can take toddler car seat covers for Graco, you first must understand the difference between a car seat and a booster. First of all, car seats work with a five-point harness to hold back a child, and a booster seat places the vehicle’s seat belt across the child’s torso and legs as a restraint. 

 

When Is A Child Ready For A Booster Seat? 

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends keeping your child in a harnessed car seat for as long as you can. Ideally, until they reach the maximum height or weight for a five-point harness, which is usually up to the age of four, based on information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Although your three-year-old may fit within the booster seat manufacturer’s height and weight guidelines, they are still not ready. 

For a child to be ready to sit in a booster seat with toddler car seat covers for Graco, they must exhibit the following:

• The child should be mature enough to sit correctly in the booster for the complete trip. (This means no fiddling around with the seat belt, no leaning over, no slouching. )

• Have surpassed the height or weight limits on their harnessed car seat. 

• The best age would be at least four. 

 

You will find that many convertible and harness-to-booster car seats on the market have harnesses estimated to hold children up to 65 pounds. As a matter of fact, children in the U.S. can usually remain in a harnessed car seat until age six and onwards. Due to car sear safety technologies advancements, four-year-olds who may have been switched into a booster seat around ten years ago can still safely ride in a rear-facing car seat. 

Additionally, even somewhat tall children can stay in a rear-facing car seat throughout their toddler years and then change to a forward-facing harness until kindergarten age. For many children, even children who are in the 95% for weight and height shouldn’t have a reason to move to a booster before the age of four. 

Is It A Good Idea To Wait To Switch?

Whenever you step up in car seats, for instance, from rear-facing to forward-facing or from the harness to booster, you are actually decreasing safety. The five-point harness disperses crash forces over more points on a child’s body, reducing the potential force any single part of the body must tolerate in a crash. 

Although some high-back booster seats have a minimum weight of thirty pounds, children should weigh at least forty pounds before riding in any booster seat.

 

When talking about efficiency, many parents believe it is easier to keep a child sitting properly in a car seat instead of a booster, since in a booster, the child can simply unbuckle themselves with very little effort compared to being in a car seat. Also, they can lean and slouch, which is dangerous, and this is impossible to do in a car seat when the five-point harness is correctly adjusted. 

 

Often, parents realize that their child is way older than four before they can actually sit still in a booster. If the booster is in a vehicle that has lap-only seatbelts in the rear seats, you should keep your child harnessed in a car seat for as long as you can. You can install harnessed seats with a lap-only belt. 

On the other hand, booster seats should always be used with a lap/shoulder belt. Extended harnessing, or using a harnessed car seat that has a higher weight limit, is a lot better than moving a child into a lap-only seatbelt. 

If your vehicle was manufactured before 2008 with a lap-only belt in the middle, it is vital to know that car seats can safely go there, but boosters and big children should not. Boosters and big kids require the protection of a shoulder belt. Needless to say, if you have to ride a child in the center, use a car seat with a five-point harness there. 

How To Figure Out The Car Seat Fit?

If you feel your child is outgrowing their harnessed car seat, start checking the appropriate signs to indicate the fit. Often, children outgrow harnessed car seats by height way before they outgrow by weight, especially with the 65-pound seats. When the child sits in a forward-facing manner, the harness slots should be at or above the child’s shoulders. When the shoulders are above the top slots, you must change seats. 

You will also know your child has outgrown their car seat by height when a forward-facing car seat when their ear tops can reach the top of the car seat shell. Unless the manufacturer mentions otherwise in the instructions, this is another indication that it’s time to change the car seat. When looking into the weight limits of the car seat, make sure you’re checking the forward-facing harness weight limit and not the booster weight limit, for instance, if it’s a harness to a booster seat.