When will you decide your child no longer needs a car seat?

[american_mama]

I have a DD who will soon be 8 years old and is tall, and I am wondering when she will be out of car seats entirely. She currently rides in a booster. DH also just bought a car, so we are a two-car family for essentially the first time since we had kids. This makes me think about the potential need for seats for that car (I think kids will ride in it very infrequently, perhaps two times a month) and the difficulty of fitting three kids into the back seat. If three kids ever did need to ride there, it would be much easier if DD was in no seat at all.

So, all this begs the question, when will you decice your child no longer needs a car seat of any kind, including a booster? I have no immediate plans to take DD out of her current booster, but I am leaning towards no booster ffor DD1 in the second car if all three kids are in there at the same time. If it is just DD1 or DD2 in the second car, I think I'll have backless boosters for them.

[Fairy]

That is a really good question. I dunno, actually. I have no intentions of getting him out of a harness anytime soon, let alone a booster, tho your guy has three years on mine. I think for the tall ones, and mine is taaalll, the social stigma may lead the way when my guy hits the tween years. I see him in a seat thru age 7 for sure. Not, at age 10. I feel like 8 and 9 are the fuzzy gray period years. We'll see how it goes. That's about as good as I can do on a speculative basis for my 51lb, 47in 5yo.

[Joolsplus2]

My 12 year old has only recently graduated from boosters (except he still fits in the Frontier and he *chooses* to use it when possible).
My 10 yo still is mostly in a booster in the van with big captain's chairs, but in a seatbelt in dh's smaller Escape.

The fact is, they can't use the adult seatbelt till it actually fits them safely. It has to fit as if they are an adult: Butt all the way back in the seat, lapbelt low on the thighs, feet flat on the floor, shoulderbelt on the shoulder, and they have to sit that way the entire time. It's vanishingly rare for an 8 year old to be big enough to go without a booster (very small third rows, very large kids, that sort of thing), AND you want their hips to be fairly developed to help hold that belt low and protect the internal organs in a crash. That's why Germany and other northern EU countries have laws that kids be age 12 or 4'11" before they can be out of boosters.

[bubbaray]

Minimum legally where I live is age 9. So, won't even consider it until then. After that, it will be based on fit.

[Katigre]

So, all this begs the question, when will you decice your child no longer needs a car seat of any kind, including a booster?
When my child passes the 5 Step Test :). If a child still requires a booster after age 8, I will let them use a backless booster instead of a high back booster. But no booster at all is not an option until they pass the 5 step test.

[AnnieW625]

When my child passes the 5 Step Test :). If a child still requires a booster after age 8, I will let them use a backless booster instead of a high back booster. But no booster at all is not an option until they pass the 5 step test.

I can see us doing something like this. DD's Frontiers will expire when she is 11 (pending on the fact that we get in zero accidents) so we plan to keep DD in those until she is at least 7 or 8 (depending on what convertables we decide to get for #2) and then they will go to #2 to use until they expire, #2 will be 6 or 7 then. Once #2 is in the Frontiers I imagine that DD will be okay to start using backless boosters as long as she has good manners in the car.

ETA: in California your child must be in some kind of booster until they are 6, and or 60lbs, but I was talking to a co worker who said that her 9 year just graduated from backless booster to a regular seatbelt. My DD is a slow weight gainer so I can't really see her getting to 60lbs by the time she is 6, so I can't see her having the option of being out of a booster until she is at least 8.

[Joolsplus2]

CA is 6 OR 60, but when people think it's 'and' I rarely correct them, because that's usually a 9 year old and a 9 year old is a lot closer to passing the 5 step test than any 6 year old ever would be. There's also the 'proper use clause', which means a child must fit properly in the seatbelt, which would be the 5 step test, which is usually 4'9"-5'0", which is usually age 10-12.

I like the 5 step test, but also always add the sixth step of feet flat on the floor, because a kid who has dangling feet will slouch down to get some support and the lapbelt will promptly ride up onto the abdomen and then there's the risk of seatbelt syndrome. A highback booster provides *substantial* head protection in side impacts, so I prefer to make my kids ride in highbacks in our van with no curtain airbags as long as possible. (and in a car without good head restraints, a highback is necessary for preventing whiplash injury in a rear crash, too. Most cars have crummy ratings on their head restraints, even adults could benefit from the head protection a booster provides, lol).

[tarahsolazy]

I totally agree with the five step test, but there are some cars that MY feet don't reach the floor on, particularly the big trucks my guy co-workers drive!

My short niece is still in a backless at 11, and I suspect my DD will be too, she's super short like me.