Gadgetory

I asked our seats so many you'll go through as a parent when I was a kid car seating safety for little ones consisted of dad saying hang on when he locked up the drum brakes today of course you've got three major phases your kids are gonna start off in a rear-facing little guys seat then they're gonna graduate to a front-facing fully harnessed seat and then the one we're talking about today the booster which is often misunderstood by folks this is the one that interfaces them to the cars seating and they eventually graduate from this to sitting in the car like everybody else now when you're gonna use any of these in your kids development is gonna vary by your state's laws and regulations here in California goes like this a newborn to one year or 220 pounds uses a rear-facing seat over one year and 20 pounds a forward-facing child seat with full harnesses and tethers to the cars seating then under 8 years old or 4 foot 9 is a booster seat and make that a high-back one if the car is seating doesn't come to the child's ears then over eight years or four foot nine seatbelts as long as the kid fits in the seat properly basically a booster seat is kind of a filler panel to get your kid up so their body lines up with the shoulder and lap portions of the belt in a safe way they're basically using the vehicle seating now but with a little bit of a bump up in height and while you would think any company making this kind of product would get it right sometimes they don't that's where IIHS ratings come in handy at their labs for geometries are measured that result in four kinds of ratings different than the stars you may see for other kinds of vehicle safety they're our best bets those receipts that provide good belt fit in almost any car minivan or SUV good bets provide acceptable belt fit in most cars not recommended those seats don't provide the kind of fit you need and should be avoided and check fit applies to booster seats the Institute has tested but have found varied results depending on the child's size and the model of car bottom line there are two things to eyeball carefully to get it right any booster seat you use with your kid shoulder belt should not slide off the shoulder on one side or put force across the child's neck on the other direction lap belt not too high so it's distributing force across the top of the thighs and not the vulnerable abdomen area two things about a booster seat it pays to double check