would you...?

put a newly 4 year old (just turned 4 a two months ago) 44lb 44" in a booster? She is in a 5 point right now and I'm getting her a frontier this month. But Grandma takes her once and a while and she won't buy a frontier for her van. It would be for trips literly down the country road to her house from ours and to town on the highway for about 8 min.

what are your opinions? we have always just taken out her seat and put it in grandmas van but sometimes that's not possibal and she misses out on going with grandma.....

thanks ladies, I trust your advice.


I guess I'm asking b/c it is a very scary thought for me to be putting her in a booster seat.

Why not a Nautilus?

Edit... well, duh, because you're in Canada. Sorry!

I guess get her a booster, have several good long 'how to sit properly in a booster and how to buckle the seatbelt properly' sessions with her and grandma, and trust that she's more than likely perfectly safe. If she turns out to not sit right, then find a way to re-harness her so she can be safe.

As long as she is capable of sitting correctly I'd be comfortable with her in a (high back) booster in that situation for that age and weight.

Make sure you teach her to buckle herself properly and sit properly, though, not just Grandma, make her the "police" of it so you know there won't be errors!

Looks like she still has a few pounds to go in the harness of her generations, right? Could you put that in gramma's car? 3#s could take her a year to gain and you could revisit the booster idea then.

melniemi said:

Looks like she still has a few pounds to go in the harness of her generations, right? Could you put that in gramma's car? 3#s could take her a year to gain and you could revisit the booster idea then.

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:yeahthat: Unless she's getting too tall for the harness.

TerisBoys said:

:yeahthat: Unless she's getting too tall for the harness.

Click to expand...

yeah, she is 45lbs with shoes on and is very very close to outgrowing the harness. so not much use it left her really.

I'm the oddball, I'd be really uneasy about putting a just turned 4yr old in a booster with highway travel involved. That could very well be though because my dd is pretty much the same age (though 8 or 9lbs lighter,) and I can't imagine her sitting properly even with coaching. It's the highway travel that concerns me mostly, because while statistically highway speed collisions aren't frequent, that would be the scenario where being out of position would be the biggest risk with the worst consequences.

When looking at a fully clothed with shoes weight of 45lbs, I'd probably push another 1.5lbs out of it and even consider just taking shoes off in the vehicle to try and get another few months. She could hang out at 45lbs for awhile too. (Assuming she has height room left, I don't recall how much height room she had left.)

This is my comfort level talking though. I know lots of kids are boostered at 4yrs old and do fine. My minimum comfort zone tends to start at 4.5yrs old, you can always try and see how it goes though.

The Nautilus is due in the next 2 months if that would possibly be an option, so you might get that long out of the generations... or just switch the Frontier back & forth until the end of the winter if the travel is infrequent to begin with... Though changing out seats in the middle of winter doesn't sound like fun either...

eta: I see you posted that there's not much harness height left in the generations while I was posting this, so I guess that scraps that idea. I'd probably switch seats through the winter then if purchasing another seat isn't an option.

I'm in agreement with Trudy that I don't particularly like to see a barely 4 year old in a booster. I would either switch out seats or switch vehicles. I would also push the Generations as long as you can in Grandma's car.

I'm more comfortable with kids in boosters at age 5 or 6 years old. I have a 6.5 year old that I'm still not 100% comfortable with in a booster... especially when it's out of his regular environment (ie. with friends/relatives/fun trips/ect.).

I did, in a similar situation. Greg had outgrown the evenflo express (by height and weight) that was in my inlaw's car, and I needed to replace it. I think he was not quite 4, but at the time I didn't have any other (legal) options because the interim order had yet to come out, and there were no harnessed seats >48lbs. I replaced it with a Turbo booster, and practiced in our car on short rides until he could sit properly. He did fine, but if there had been other HWH seats here, I'd have bought one for him.

My four year old rides the bus four mornings a week in a Graco Turbobooster and takes short trips in our second car. He does fine. The seatbelt fits him really well. He doesn't wiggle out of it and knows to sit properly.


I guess in general, while I don't think kids should generallly go into a booster full time at 4, the average four year old assuming he is large enough is mature enough to start trying the booster out for little rides.

thanks ladies....I'm also not comfortable with the booster and expcially the highway travel. she listens well when it comes to that stuff so I might try it out on the down the road to grandmas place which is 1 min or less of a drive.

but now I need to know all the booster facts and proper ways of adjusting it and how the belt should sit.

this is probally only going to happen a handful of times if that. who knows it might not at all

I did. So, yes, as long as she will remain properly positioned & Grandma will follow the instructions, I would.

I would take kiddo to a store to test various boosters out (preferably only those with deep head wings) & find those that keep the lap belt on the thighs: hips are OK, but I prefer thighs for younger kids due to risk of submarining....

Then, if at all possible, I would make a visit with Grandma to a local CPST for them to teach Grandma + kiddo correct booster use.

You can also help kiddo practice correct booster use at home. I shared the booster videos with my kid (click my screen name > visit homepage > "preschool--preteen" page) & had her sit for progressively longer times in a booster in the living room ... for snack, for dinner, for hair braiding. . . . I used a scarf & a leather belt to "buckle" her in.