backless boosters

kangato2roos · Feb 19, 2007

Would you be willing to use a backless booster over the weight limit? Say for 115 pounds when the weight limit is for 100 pounds? They don't actually take any force of a crash, right, they're just there to boost a person up to proper seat belt position height?

This was discussed on another board I visit, which many of you visit and participate in too, so I'm betting at least a handful of you know which thread I'm talking about and probably participated or at least lurked on it. I just want a few extra opinions.

If so, is the Prospect the widest backless booster? Does anybody know anything about the Combi Dakota? Any other backless boosters out there wider than the TB?

Victorious4 · Feb 19, 2007

The Intera seemed wider than my Prospect/Cubb, but I don't have the means to compare side-by-side....

I would only use a booster over the weight limits if kiddo does not fit the Ride Safer Travel Vest and/or does not pass the 5 Step Test: last resort kind of thing -- boosters do help absorb some of the impact (because hip bones do not solidify until puberty).

kangato2roos · Feb 19, 2007

The booster is not actually for one of my kids.

It's for me. 4'10" tall with shoes on, 115 pounds, 26 years old, and I can barely see over the steering wheel of my car. No seatbelt in any car has ever fit me right (most cut across my neck, some still ride up onto my belly) and on another board we got into a discussion on boosters for adults who just don't fit the belt right. Darn it, I deserve to be safe in the car too! I'd never thought about a booster seat for me, even as a teenager under 100 pounds it never occured to me. I just dealt with an ill-fitting seat belt, like I do now. But... if I could use a booster over the weight limit and it might actually make a belt fit me right, make me high enough in the seat to sit properly, I just might use one.

I know my kids will survive a crash because they are properly restrained. I hate the thought that I might leave my kids motherless in a crash I might otherwise survive simply because I'm too short (I'm already worried enough about sitting so close to the airbag, much less the seatbelt fitting wrong).

Victorious4 · Feb 19, 2007

I know how you feel -- I was so uncomfortable & paranoid in my DEEP seated rental 2 years ago.... If the Intera had been available I'd have used it! (However, your feet must still be able to reach the pedals

)

Also, if you're conemtplating saving towards a newer vehicle, make sure to look for those with driver adjustable seat height/depth/angel, etc. as well as adjustable shoulder belt + pedals! I forget which vehicles have the adjustable pedals, but I think most newer vehicles now have the other features

kangato2roos · Feb 19, 2007

We actually have some very nice pedal extenders for my Saturn right now. They're not on right now, but I can reattach them should I ever need to (and do it myself this time!). Dh had to go to the dealership and buy them when I was pregnant with ds (now 17 months old). My belly got so big I couldn't sit close enough to reach the pedals. One set of pedal extenders later and viola! I could drive again.

My Saturn has adjustable shoulder belts (but not seat height) and even on the lowest setting, it's still a smidge too high. My father has a Saturn VUE and that's easier for me to drive. I can sit higher in it because the seat adjusts, plus with it being higher up than my little car in the first place helps. I don't know if I'll ever be able to find a car with a belt that does on it's own. I figure better to use a booster if I can than only ride in a select few vehicles that might fit me.

joolsplus3 · Feb 19, 2007

How about one of those foam comfort pillows they sell in a lot of car catalogs? They don't have armrests (you have hips, don't really need them), and might be just that extra inch you need?

One company was going to make adult boosters, but they either went out of business or just stopped making kid boosters and I never heard from them about it again

emandbri · Feb 19, 2007

My son is over the weight limit and in a turbo booster, he doesn't fit yet without so I'm okay with it. I thought about getting a cosco booster that is wider then the turbo but we are buying a new van and I want to see if he fits in the new van first. He might fit in the new van since the shoulder belt will be connected to the seat insead of the side of the van and he seems to fit in every vehicle except for my van! lol

deedeesmom · Feb 19, 2007

That's an interesting idea! I am 5 feet tall and after backing into a few parked cars, I finally learned to sit on a cushion (the kind for chairs in the house) so I can see out the back window well. Too bad I'm much farther from the booster seat weight limit than you are right now...

backless boosters

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