Booster for long-torso 9 year old

[Ahzryn]

Hi all, been forever since I've been around and I've let my CPST certification expire, but my last kiddo is giving me fits carseat wise so I am hoping you all can offer some advice/suggestions. 20+ years of carseats and there's always something, right?!?

My youngest is 9 years old, 57" and 49 lbs. Tall skinny string bean, and unfortunately his height is not in his legs, just like my older girls were (now 20 and 21!). He's currently in a Britax Pinnacle Clicktight, booster mode as his shoulders went over the top harness slots over a year ago. Now I went to move his headrest up because I noticed it was too low, and crap, it was already at the top.

His height hasn't put him over the standing limit, but torso seems to be the issue here. He in no way meets the 5 step test in our van, so I thought the answer was a backless booster, but I am seeing a lot of 57" standing height limits. I cannot recall for the life of me the rules regarding standing height limits and backless boosters; in the Chicco Gofit Plus the shoulder belt is positioned correctly and his head has plenty of vehicle headrest. Same with a Graco backless TurboBooster we use for grandma's car, though he outgrew the highback years ago.

Thoughts?

Tam

 

[SafeDad]

So sorry for the delay- I polled our expert facebook group moderators and the suggestions were the Diono Solana and possibly the Graco RightGuide.

Keep in mind that standing height limits are an artifact of the wording of the federal standards and the dummy used and not necessarily a safety concern with a backless booster, provided there is adequate head support from the vehicle head restraint as per the manual.