Car Seats

Right now, when you look in the back seat of my car, all you see are car seats. My 6 year old is in a booster seat which, is not that bad to get in and out of the car. It also doesn't require a lot of space. The other three are still in the forward facing harness style car seats. I love the safety of these car seats, but I will be excited the day I can toss them out. My four-year-old asked me the other day when she could get a big girl car seat, and I said she had to wait another year. But, then it dawned on me that I really didn't know the exact requirements for when to switch over to a booster seat, so I went online to check.

I thought that this would be a fairly easy process, but it turned out to be a little confusing. There are different guidelines for each state, and even then some information is not always the same. This page shows Missouri's rules for children and safety seats. I found it to be the most helpful. It states that all children, 8 years old or younger are to be in a child restraint system. In general, for a child to be safe in a booster seat, they need to be 4 years old, or more than 40 pounds. My daughter is 4, but hasn't quite hit the 40 pound mark yet so it looks like age 5 will be good for her.

I found it interesting the major differences in age groups amongst the states. You can see it more in depth here. Some examples though are Alabama. The age a child has to be restrained in a seat is age 6. On the other hand, Nebraska's required age is 18. As a parent I think that it is our responsibility to keep our children safe. We need to find the best fit, and make them use it until it is absolutely certain that they can use just a lap and shoulder belt. I know that I don't ever want to be the cause of my child getting injured just because I didn't buckle them properly.