Carpool booster question

My husband or I drive our daycare provider's son to school along with our daughter 3 times a week. It's about a 2-mile drive along surface streets. They're both 7.5 but he's huge and recently hit the 4'9" minimum to be out of a booster in our state. His mom has told him he can stop using a booster in their car because he finds the booster uncomfortable.

We have the exact same car (Honda Odyssey, hers is a 2007, ours is a 2010) and he rides in the middle row "+1 seat" in both . I let him try riding without a booster in our car and he's most of the way to five-stepping--feet are flat on the floor, knees bend at the edge of seat, sitting at the back of the seat, belt is across his pelvic bones, but the shoulder belt totally hits him in the neck and he was almost immediately twisting his body sideways to avoid having the seatbelt hit him there.

My plan, for the remaining 5 weeks of school, was to tell him he needs to keep using the booster in our car, but his mom also mentioned that he's 104 pounds and the backless booster we've been using for him has a 100 lb limit.

I really don't want to invest in an Incognito or other higher-weight booster for 5 more weeks of use (in the fall we won't be taking him anymore), so is it better to use the existing booster even though he's a few pounds over the weight limit or have the belt hit him in the neck?

If the lap belt is across the abdomen, he definitely needs a booster. This blog post has pictures for reference http://carseatblog.com/3966/the-5-step-test/
If you bought an incognito, would you use it for your children in the future?

Brianna said:

If the lap belt is across the abdomen, he definitely needs a booster. This blog post has pictures for reference http://carseatblog.com/3966/the-5-step-test/
If you bought an incognito, would you use it for your children in the future?

Click to expand...

Sorry, that was a pre-coffee typo on my part; the lap belt is across the pelvic bones, where it is supposed to be. I probably wouldn't use the Incognito for my kids, as they're pretty lightweight and tall. My daughter is only 53 lbs now and 53", I'm thinking she'll five-step before she hits the weight limit of any of our backless boosters, so the only reason to use an Incognito would be the peer pressure factor, which doesn't hold much sway with me.

"Tall and Thin" is a great use for the Incognito, actually- the lower profile means not getting tall-and-tippy (and getting a bad shoulder belt fit) with a standard backless booster.

Wow, that's a big 7.5 year old!
Since you don't think you would have a need for an incognito I wouldn't bother. It wouldn't do much for the shoulder belt at the neck anyways as it only lifts them up about an inch and doesn't have one of those little straps (like some other backless boosters have) for the the shoulder belt.

104 lbs for a 100lb booster for this short term situation wouldn't bother me much but that's your decision. It would bother me if that booster made him too tall for the headrest, though.

I'd let him go without, but let parents know he must leave the shoulder belt alone for the 2 mile ride or parents will either need to pay for an incognito or make other transportation arrangements.

Hi - Am here looking up answers to a booster issue I have been having, and happened upon your post. I had the problem in my Odyssey center seat with the belt coming across the neck of my daughter (who is in a no-back booster). Someone here wisely suggested to slide the center seat a little bit forward. That helped the belt become more on the shoulder than the neck. Maybe that will help with you and the child being comfortable riding without a booster.