My 8 year old niece has reached the magical hight of 1.35 meters. However my sister has insisted I carry on using the booster seat when she is my car,, well no me personally, but you know what I mean.
But from my point of view it isa pain in the neck, the bucket seats in my MX8 make it hard to fit and then I need to move it from car to car and when not in use storing it.
So is there any advantages of keeping a child in a booster seat after they reached the required height?
Edited by Pugugly on 05/11/2009 at 20:25
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The purpose of the booster seat law is to ensure that the child is restrained in a way that minimises harm in the event of an accident. In particular to make sure that the lapbelt crosses the hips and not the abdomen.
The 1.35m limit is presumably based on the point at which most kids in most cars will be safely restrained without the assistance provided by the booster. Only you, together wit your sister can ascertain whether your niece is correctly restrained in the MX8.
The other advantage of the booster is that the kid can see our properly and is therefore less likely to be car sick all over your P&J!!!!!
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As long as the seatbelt fits properly (i.e doesn't cut across the neck), I can't see any advantage to hanging on to the booster seat. But then I am not an expert.
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My younger daughter reached 1m35 about a year ago, not long before her 9th birthday. We kept her booster seat just in case she ever got a lift with any friends' parents who might insist on its use regardless. In my car the shoulder-height seatbelt pivot adjusts for height so she is always correctly strapped in without the booster.
Through most of the "summer" she used the booster seat to raise her line of sight, not to alleviate travel sickness but to ensure the sunvisors actually blocked out the sunlight in the mornings and evenings!
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I have this image of children having to lug booster seats around with them all the time, so that they can comply with the particular seating policy of whoever happens to be giving them a lift.
And they will be given stern advice about never accepting lifts unless they have carefully inspected the seats to make sure they have the required BS number and EU compliance labels.
It all makes me yearn for the old days of riding on the metal benches in the back of a Land Rover before seat belts were ever invented.
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it isa pain in the neck the bucket seats in my MX8 make it hard to fit
There should not be any need to "fit" it. Get a "booster cushion" which you just plonk on the seat, and sit her on that, wearing the seat belt properly below the "horns" of the booster seat. You can get them for a few pounds, or even second-hand.
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The EU regulation specifies that children under 12 and less than 1.50 m require a child seat with a dispensation allowing the UK to set a lower figure of 1.35 m. I would take that to be an indication that it is safer to use a child seat until the 1.50 m height has been reached.
BIG
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