If you are looking at moving your kid from a 5 point harness seat to a booster seat then you need to make sure your child is ready to be switched. I am all for keeping your kids in the 5 point harness as long as possible, it is why my oldest is 10 years old and still in a 5 point in our van and uses the high back booster in our other car. I want to keep my kids as safe as I can when we are in the car because I have no control over what others are doing or how they are driving when on the road. My kids are not always thrilled with being in their 5 points this long as their friends are not still in them but they know why so they don’t fight me.
If you are looking at moving your child into a booster seat from their 5 point harness use this 10 Ways to know your child is ready for a Booster Seat list to make sure your child is really ready for the change. You want to keep your child in their 5 point as long as possible, and you don’t want your kid in the 5 point past the height and weight requirements for that seat.
Ways to know your child is ready for a Booster Seat
1. Is your child over 35 inches tall? A child needs to be taller then 35 inches to be in a booster so the seatbelt fits properly across their chest and their waist.
2. Can your child sit still in the car? A child needs to be able to sit properly in the booster seat to be safe. Leaning forward when in the car can be dangerous, moving around in their seat is dangerous, not sitting in the seat properly is dangerous. If your kid can not sit properly in the seat and sit still then they are not ready to be in a booster seat.
3. Is your child over the age of 4? While I kept mine in 5 point harness seats much longer then 4 years old, the youngest a child can be in a booster is 4 years old.
4. Is your child 40 pounds or more? To weigh enough to safely sit in the booster seat a child must be a minimum of 40 pounds.
5. Does the seatbelt sit on your child’s waist? The lower portion of the seatbelt needs to rest on the child’s waist area properly. If the child does not have the the belt in the right place they are not ready for a booster seat.
6. Does the upper part of the seatbelt sit properly on your child’s chest? The seatbelt needs to go over your child’s shoulder, and not their neck and be in the center of their chest properly. If the seatbelt goes across their neck then they are not ready for sitting in the booster seat.
7. Your child’s shoulders are above the shoulder straps on the 5 point harness. If your child’s shoulders are above the shoulder straps of the 5 point harness car seat then looking into moving them into a booster seat is the next step.
8. Is your child 40 Pounds AND over 4 years old? With boosters it is not one or the other, its BOTH that need to be meet in order for your child to be safe when riding in the booster seat.
9. Don’t feel pressured to change your child to a booster seat if they are not ready. All kids grow at different rates and they all mature at different rates so no child will be the same age when they are ready to move into a booster. My 10 year old is a lot smaller then my 8 year old and my 8 year old was size ready for a booster sooner then my daughter but because my daughter is tiny we kept them both in 5 points until my oldest was ready to be moved.
10. Don’t allow your child to feel bad that they are in a booster longer then their friends. Kids can be mean at times and sometimes they will pick on a child who is still in a carseat longer then they were. Make sure your child knows that it is because of their safety and what is best for them and has nothing to do with what their friends are or are not doing.
If you are looking for seats for your children there are a few different options to pick from and you can save money by Investing in a seat that will grow with your child. Combination car seats are forward-facing only car seats that allow you to use a harness for your child and then remove the harness to use the seat as a booster. Like the Evenflo ADVANCED Transitions 3-in-1 Combination Seat. This NEW 3-in-1 seat can be used as a harness booster, a belt-positioning booster or a no-back booster to accommodate your growing child. The new Evenflo Evolve Platinum 3–in–1 Harnessed Booster Car Seat is another option. This line of car seats is exclusively available at Babies “R” Us and features NASA-developed “Outlast” technology, which is a temperature regulating fabric that keeps children comfortable in hot weather by actively absorbing and storing hot and cold temperatures and releasing as needed.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Evenflo. All opinions are 100% my own.
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