How tall need to be to not be in booster seat

Who should be in a booster seat? High back booster. Backless booster. Did you know? Booster seats are the safest choice for children who have outgrown their forward-facing car seats. Using a booster seat until the vehicle seat belt fits properly provides the safest ride. All children under the age of 13 are safest riding in the back seat.

Current as of: July 3, Home About MyHealth. Include Images Large Print. Some car seats convert from a forward-facing seat with a 5-point harness to a high back booster seat. Some high back booster seats have a head and neck support that can be adjusted as your child grows. When children outgrow their rear-facing car seats, they should be buckled in a forward-facing car seat with a harness, in the back seat.

They should stay in the forward-facing car seat until they reach the maximum weight or height limit of this seat. After outgrowing the forward-facing car seat, use a booster seat until the seat belt fits properly. When children outgrow their forward-facing car seat, they should be buckled in a belt-positioning booster seat with a seat belt, in the back seat, until the seat belt fits properly without a booster seat.

This typically does not occur until children are age 9— When the seat belt fits properly without a booster seat, use a seat belt on every trip. Children no longer need to use a booster seat when the seat belt fits them properly.

Proper seat belt fit typically does not occur until children are age 9— Seat belt fit can vary by vehicle so check fit in all vehicles to make sure the child no longer needs to use a booster seat.

It could be that a child might need a booster seat in one vehicle but not another. Keep children properly buckled in the back seat through age 12 for the best possible protection.

Buckle children in the middle seating position of the back seat when possible using a lap and shoulder belt , because it is the safest position in the vehicle. Air bags can kill young children riding in the front seat. Never place a rear-facing car seat in front of an air bag. Buckle children in car seats, booster seats, or seat belts on every trip—no matter how short the trip.

The appropriate age is generally at least 4 years old. If you can safely keep your child in a harnessed car seat for a while longer, do it. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids use a car seat until they reach the maximum height or weight for that five-point harness.

Three-year-olds are not ready to ride in a booster seat, even if they fit within the manufacturer's height and weight guidelines. To sit in a booster seat, children should:. Many convertible and harness-to-booster car seats have harnesses rated to hold kids up to 65 pounds. In fact, children in the U.

Thanks to advances in car seat safety technologies, four-year-olds that might have been moved into a booster 10 years ago can still safely ride in a rear-facing car seat. Even fairly tall children can remain rear-facing through toddler years and then switch to a forward-facing harness until kindergarten age.

Any step up in car seats—from rear-facing to forward-facing, from the harness to booster—is actually a step down in safety. The 5-point harness spreads crash forces over more points on a child's body, lessening the potential force any one part of the body must take in a crash.

While some high-back booster seats have a minimum weight of 30 pounds, kids should weigh at least 40 pounds before riding in any booster seat. From a practical standpoint, parents find that it is easier to keep the child sitting properly when in a car seat than in a booster; in a booster the child can unbuckle themselves more easily than in a car seat.

They can also lean and slouch, which is dangerous. They can't do that in a car seat when the 5-point harness is properly adjusted. The seatbelt cannot protect a child who is not in the proper position. Most children cannot be trusted to sit properly until at least five years old.

Many parents find that their child is actually much older than four before they can be expected to sit still in a booster. If your vehicle has lap-only seatbelts in the rear seats, keep your child in a harnessed car seat as long as possible.

Harnessed seats can be installed with a lap-only belt. Extended harnessing, or using a harnessed car seat with a higher weight limit, is vastly preferable to moving a child into a lap-only seatbelt. If you have a pre vehicle with a lap-only belt in the center, it is important to know that car seats can safely go there but boosters and big kids should not. Boosters and big kids need the protection of a shoulder belt. Therefore, if you need to have a kid ride in the center, make sure to use a car seat with a 5-point harness there.

If you think your child is outgrowing their harnessed car seat, first be sure that you're checking the right signs to judge the fit. Most children outgrow harnessed car seats by height long before they outgrow by weight, particularly with the pound seats. When your child is forward-facing, the harness slots should be at or above the child's shoulders.

When the shoulders are above the top slots, it's time to change seats. A forward-facing car seat is also outgrown by height when the tops of the child's ears reach the top of the car seat shell, unless the manufacturer states otherwise in the instructions. When checking the weight limits of the car seat, and be sure you're looking at the forward-facing harness weight limit, not the booster weight limit if it is a harness-to-booster seat.