Booster seat v.s. harnessed and age

Digrr · Jan 23, 2014

Hello!

My daughter will be 8 in April. She weighs 44 pounds. She is currently in Sunshine Kids Radian XT which goes up to 60 pounds. We're in Alberta, Canada. Once she's 8, do I keep her in the Sunshine kids until she grows out of it in height (shoulders get reach the head protectors), or do I put her in a high back booster or are there no real regulations?

Thanks!

Erin

TechnoGranola · Jan 23, 2014

Alberta doesn't have much for regulations. It's up to you if you would like to keep harnessing her if she still fits or move her to a booster. At almost 8, barring any special needs, she's safe in a booster now.

Your Radian should go to 65# but she'll likely outgrow it by height first.

Alison's Mom · Jan 24, 2014

My kids are also small for their ages, so I didn't have them ride in their Radians to the max weight or even height. I moved my daughter into a high back booster at 8 and 45 pounds, and my son at 7 and 43 pounds.

It was partly for social reasons, as in their friends are all in no back boosters, or just seat belt (my daughter is now 9 and her friends are turning 10), and also for practicality - if someone else needs to drive them, it's just easier to hand them the booster rather than a 5pt harness seat that needs to be installed and tethered.

Adventuredad · Jan 26, 2014

It's irrelevant if your child is forward facing in a harnessed seat or in a high back booster at this age. A harnessed FF seat is not any safer than a high back booster seat at age 4+. There is no data, stats, research or real life experiences supporting this US myth.

At age 8 she is likely safest in a low back booster according to research by Jacobsson and Arbogast. Not really anything surprising about this reaserach.

MotoMommaNH · Jan 26, 2014

Is there a dedicated headrest in that position and a lap/shoulder belt? If not, can you move her to one there is?

All those things being equal, she's very safe in either a HBB or NBB.

canadiangie · Jan 26, 2014

Hi Erin,

Good job harnessing until at least 40 pounds. A 5 point harness is required in Alberta until 40 pounds or age 6, whichever comes first. At this point, a well fitting high back booster seat would be a great choice. Most highback booster seats sold in Canada also convert to a backless booster, so your next seat purchase will also be your last, which is nice.

You could look at the Britax Parkway SG or SGL, Graco Turbobooster, Diono Monterey (requires a head rest behind it), and the Clek Oobr. All tend to position a lap/shoulder belt nicely.

If you post back what vehicle you have we might be able to narrow things down.

For now, do you have the SafeStop removed from her Radian harness, and are her shoulders still below the top harness slots?

Booster seat v.s. harnessed and age

Digrr

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