"Big" kid in booster seat?

[marius97]

We leave MI for FL in 34 days. I am a bit of a booster seat snob. MI has just about the toughest booster seat laws around...through age 7 and/or 54(?) inches. I am fine with that and all three of my kids have followed that law. On our two previous drives, DS now 6 had the darndest time sleeping while we went straight through. Poor kid has no padding on his rear. This year we are leaving pre 6:00 am and will get there sometime after midnight so that he won't have to try to actually get a night's sleep in the car. It looks like in GA and FL he wouldn't need to be in the booster and this just so happens to be the two states where he would be needing to sleep as we drive. How comfortable would you be in taking your child out of the booster seat when all research says that they should be in until age 8? He is a monsterous sized kid...just passed 6th bday and height of an 8 yr old, all skin and bones though. I'd keep him in the booster until it is sleep time and we are in a state where it is legal to do. I just feel a bit dirty even thinking about it.

 

[tjmw2727]

I wouldn't, it seems to me that a child would need the protection of a car seat more while sleeping in case of the unthinkable. Maybe you could use a neck pillow for him, buy or borrow a more comfy carseat? I don't think you can/should put a pillow under him on the booster though.

I would try anything I could to keep him comfy in a seat before I would do without. Some of the low back boosters have a pretty comfy base and aren't very expensive (under $30) - maybe it would be worth investing a little $ in a other seat?

Good luck in getting him comfy!

 

[Alexander]

Fire away...but I let my 4 y/o out of his seat to lay down to sleep in the backseat. Yeah, I know the laws....yadda yadda yadda.....

When I was a kid we all slept in the back of a station wagon on the drive to FL in sleeping bags. There was no car seat or seat belt laws back then and we survived.

Yeah, seat belts have saved countless lives, but if DS doesn't get his sleep I'm going to kill him anyway.

 

[grafxgirl]

Both our kids, DS4 and DD7 are in the backless boosters. I wouldn't think of taking them out of their boosters. The seat belts lay across their necks without the boosters and I would be afraid of having their necks broken if something were to happen. We travel back and forth to Disney (14 hours) and IN (12 hours) all the time. They have these cute little travel pillows they use. My daughter has the pink pig (she calls Oinky) and my son has the frog (He calls Hoppy).

http://www.mytravelingbuddy.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/pig%20large.jpg

 

[bear_mom]

Nope, if they need to be in a booster seat, they need to be in a booster seat. I don't go by weight/ages I use the 5 point test to see if my dds were big enough to be out of their booster seat (just google 5 point booster seat test).

It varies by car. Older dd is big enough to be out of the booster in one car, but not our van. She is 11, but is the size of the average 8 year old.

The problem is that the seat belt sits across the soft part of the belly (not on the hips - which are stronger) and can cut across the neck (not rest on the clavical) when children are too small for the adult seat belts.

If you use a booster with a back on it, they are easier to sleep in or use a neck pillow.

Emily

 

[DSLRuser]

It's my kid, my car, I am the parent. In your case, in would let the child lay down in the seat with the lap belt around his waste.

I let both my kids out of their car seat a full year on 15 pounds before the "law" said I could. Me and my concious were fine.

We all grew p as children of the 70's and 80's. How many of us were sleeping on the back deck of the car or standing in the front seat of the family impalla.

Some laws are just plane stupid.

 

[bumbershoot]

Well, a child is safe to sit in a booster (vs a 5 point harness) when they are sitting up, not leaning, not slouching, and NOT falling asleep routinely on car trips.

So by definition, basically, wanting a child to fall asleep while in a booster negates the use of the booster, since once he's slouched in sleep the booster isn't going to do much for him if an accident happens.

I certainly wouldn't take him OUT of the booster.

When I was a kid we all slept in the back of a station wagon on the drive to FL in sleeping bags. There was no car seat or seat belt laws back then and we survived.

Those of us who are here today did, indeed, survive.

But there were plenty who didn't. They aren't here to speak up, though.

The father of my mom's second husband ran a service station in coastal California, and he had his son work there. So my first stepdad was helping clean up wrecks from his teenage years.

When we got a classic car in the early 80s, the FIRST thing he did was install lap belts (which was not legally necessary due to the car being grandfathered in to the belt laws), because he had seen up close and personal what happened when you do not have seatbelts.

 

[kristenrice]

Having worked as a paramedic for 13 years, I have seen first-hand the results of both properly and improperly restrained children....

...the 5-yo secured in his high-back booster who was struck in his door by a car travelling >55mph...the SUV rolled multiple times down the road...the door was impaled in the child's CAR SEAT....the child had a broken arm...had he not been in the seat, the door would have been impaled in his chest instead, resulting in a fatality.

...or the 8-yo who was "almost home" (stopped waiting to make a left turn) and dad said it was OK to unbuckle since they were at the driveway...until they were rear-ended at 45mph by a full-size pickup truck...the kid went through the windshield and landed on the hood of the car:....traumatic brain injury, spinal fracture and paralyzed from the chest down....all because they were "close enough to home" so it was OK for him to unbuckle

These, and other calls, run through my head each and every time I even consider "loosening" the rules for the kids in their boosters.

 

[Jeff_G]

Our law is 4' 9" regardless of age and weight, my 11 yo is just now getting out of the booster. Take what Kristenrice said to heart, its just not worth it...

 

[Minniemouse07]

My almost 10 yo is still in a booster because she doesn't pass the 5 step test.

In December, one of the families in our school district lost their middle schooler on a trip to Florida.

It was early in the morning and mom ran their truck off the road. Their son survived being ejected from the vehicle, their daughter did not.

The laws of physics are not suspended while you are on vacation or because you passed from one state to another (with less stringent booster seat laws).

The reason children are in booster seats is to make them fit into the safety system built into your vehicle. You don't say if your child is in a low back or high back booster seat, if he is a low back seat...maybe look at a high back (making sure it is appropriate for his height and your car) that would support his head while sleeping? Dd uses a highback in our van precisely because she likes to sleep on long rides and it is more comfortable!

 

[Pixiedust530]

Ask yourself this question...Is the comfort of your child in the short term MORE important than the rest of their life? If the answer is yes then by all means go ahead and take them out of the booster. If you value your child's life and their future then you will secure them in the way that is the MOST safe for them....REGARDLESS of comfort.

I may sound harsh, but I speak from personal experience. Almost 11 years ago my little cousin was traveling to school. He was living in GA, his mother (my aunt) was following all seatbelt/booster seat laws. He was 6 years old (average heaight and weight for his age) riding in the back seat on the passenger side of a Ford Taurus, secured by a 3 point seatbelt. My aunt was momentarily distracted and veered across the center line. She noticed her mistake and overcorrected, clipping the front passenger side on a 2 foot by 2 foot concrete mailbox which flipped the car 90 degrees onto its driver side. The car slid on its side into a tree. Reading the description of the accident and seeing the pictures, the car doesn't look very badly damaged. My aunt was killed (she was crushed by the engine when the front of the car impacted the tree) and my cousin was ejected from the car and thrown 30 feet. He had severe head trauma, was in a coma for 9 days and once he awakened he had to relearn to talk, walk, etc. When paramedics looked inside the car....the seatbelt was still fastened....HE WAS EJECTED ANYWAY because the seatbelt was designed to restrain an adult, not a small child.

We are very lucky to have not lost him and that he has recovered as well as he did. However, even 11 years later he does have some physical and mental limitations as a result of the accident.

Ultimately the choice you make is YOURS and yours alone. You will be the one that has to live with the results.

 

[NotUrsula]

What I would consider in your position is a large foam wedge and several pillows. Placed in front of him, the wedge makes it possible to sleep sitting up and leaning forward, and then the extra pillows make it possible to prop up his head and arms so that they are not dangling. You could even have the wedge custom-cut to bridge over his legs and leave them free.

Remember that kids generally can sleep OK in more contorted positions than an adult can. I think as long as you add a few extra leaning supports he should be able to sleep without a problem.

 

[greenclan67]

I have thought both ways on all off this! My youngest child was bigger built then my older! They are just over a year apart, but size wise my younger was always the bigger of the two. She could have been out of her seat way before my older daughter, but we waited until they could both be out at the same time! We were about 3 weeks away from my older daughter's birthday, whe she would have been old enough to get rid of it, and wouldn't you know, we live in a small town of 1500 people, we were turning into our driveway and had our blinker on, and somebody hit us from behind, and really hard. My daughter's side that it was hit on, had the door right in on the booster but never touched her! Scary!
I run daycare out of my house, and I have lots of parents that try to leave here without buckling their kids in, one that lives just down the street, and I always tell her about how we were turning into our own driveway and we got hit!
Not worth it, the law is there for a reason!

 

[DSLRuser]

...or the 8-yo who was "almost home" (stopped waiting to make a left turn) and dad said it was OK to unbuckle since they were at the driveway...until they were rear-ended at 45mph by a full-size pickup truck...the kid went through the windshield and landed on the hood of the car

Impossible as you described this accident. The laws of physics wont allow a child to be thrown forward when the car they ar in is rear ended. If anything, the child would have ended up on the trunk of the car.

 

[dskib]

Impossible as you described this accident. The laws of physics wont allow a child to be thrown forward when the car they ar in is rear ended. If anything, the child would have ended up on the trunk of the car.

Really?? Because when I got rear ended, I was pushed forward so hard that the seat belt left bruises on my shoulder, and my knee had a huge bruise from hitting the glove box area.

Without a seatbelt, I definitely would have been propelled forward, not backward.

 

[kristenrice]

Impossible as you described this accident. The laws of physics wont allow a child to be thrown forward when the car they ar in is rear ended. If anything, the child would have ended up on the trunk of the car.

You are correct....

This call happened over 10 years ago... The scene was dark and very chaotic and by the time we'd arrived, the first responders were securing the child to a backboard on the ground in front of the car (and reported to me where they'd found him). They may have relayed to me that the child was found "on the hood" when they actually meant the trunk. The car itself was quite mangled with what was left of the trunk pushed right into the back seat. All of the windows were broken out and the father was "pinned" in because the frame of the car was so bent up. It was a Neon-sized car that was hit by a large pick up truck that never applied the brakes (no skid marks, according to the deputy) I, personally, never saw the child on the car, but wherever he ended up, it was not INSIDE the vehicle.

Despite my error in the details (which, by the way, nice catch!), I hope the point was still made.

 

[Jaymie]

For those of you who "survived" the 70's or 80's without seat belts, carseats or boosters, I'm just wondering if you survived a major crash? Or did you just survive a leisurly drive around town or to Florida?

I too survived the 70's & 80's without a seat belt, sitting on an arm rest of a Cadi, the back up a pick up, walking around a motorhome or in a sleeping back in the back of a station wagon, but luckily we never crashed.

That's what you need to remember, will your child be safe in the event of a crash? Because that's when you're seatbelt, carseat and booster will hopefully do their job.

 

[crashbb]

Really?? Because when I got rear ended, I was pushed forward so hard that the seat belt left bruises on my shoulder, and my knee had a huge bruise from hitting the glove box area.

Without a seatbelt, I definitely would have been propelled forward, not backward.

I'm not understanding the PP's "laws of physics" either.