:yeahthat:
(And oh my, yes, he is very very slim - DS1 is 42lbs and about same age and height and he seems very skinny to me, so wow. Hopefully he will fill out a little soon. I assume you have had that weight confirmed on more than one scale to be sure it is correct.)
You may need to supply a harnessed seat for him to use when going in others' vehicles. This obvioulsy takes a little more time to arrange as you need to make the seat available and it would need to be installed properly. The good thing is, he could still get out with friends, and most people with kids will have used FF seats for their kids and so will have tether anchors available in their vehicles. I would get a spare seat so you don't need to take his every-day seat in and out, something like the Evenflo Maestro - it is only $129.99 regular price (some Zellers,
ToysRUs,
Sears), it has very tall top slots at ~18", a 47-lb harness limit and will turn into a decent (though short) booster for once he reaches 40lbs. It is light and relatively narrow. Unless he has a particularly tall torso, he should still have room to grow in the harness. Some of the other Evenflo combination seats may be even cheaper but have lower slots, so they may not last him long enough if he takes a while to gain those 8 lbs.
Bonus Information in case you were wondering about the school bus (since compartmentalization is typically said to work best for kids over 40lb and 40" - and some places now require buses to provide harnesses for kids under 40lbs):
Actually, compartmentalization working has very little to do with weight-- more to do with height and age. "Preschool-aged children" are supposed to be restrained in harnesses on the bus.
So what is an appropriate height and age for compartmentalization to provide protection?
I don't remember the numbers but I believe it was cited as the height of the "average 6 year old" in our tech class, and definitely kids at 5 or 6-- booster age-- have more complete bone development than younger children. Also, by the time they are booster age they are generally more able to sit properly the whole time on the bus (obviously SN kids are excluded from that.
)
Does it matter? Yes. Does compartmentalization fail for smaller children? No- it just doesn't work as well, thus ideally we want them harnessed. Buses, like city buses, without compartmentalization, with standing passengers, etc are also very safe. The reasons include the size of the bus (buses are large and tend to "win" in accidents), the amount of training bus drivers receive, and that bus drivers drive the same route every day so are use to the terrain.
