Car seats for children are made with special care and attention to all the
possible risks a child is subjected to during travel. This makes them extremely
safe and it is no wonder that a lot of parents prefer to continue using them
even after their children have met the minimum requirements to move on to the
next stage, which is booster seats.
However, as you can imagine, it’s not possible to use a children car seat
forever as your child is bound to outgrow them at some point. But we can
totally understand you wanting to use it for as long as you can since there are
a lot of safety benefits you get. So, let’s take a look at how long is too long when it
comes to using car seats.
Obviously, you can’t change your child from a car seat to a booster without
meeting your local government’s stated minimum requirements. The minimum
requirements are not an indication of when the babies can no longer be
supported in a car seat and should be moved to boosters or a normal seat but
rather a guideline that states when it’s safe to make the switch. But
ultimately, once the child passes the minimum requirements, the decision is
entirely up to the parents to move or keep the existing system in place for
longer.
First, let’s look at the arguments from both sides on why some parents prefer
to move out of a car seat and why some prefer to keep them in for longer.
A car seat, because of its safety focused design choices contains more contact
points that are used to properly secure the baby and avoid any unnecessary
movements. This ensures the safety of the baby but also greatly restricts their
freedom to move around while in the car. This point alone is an argument for
both sides as it’s mostly people willing to eliminate any possible chance of
risks by restricting their movement or give them more freedom and trust them
with their own safety.
So, if you do not believe that your child is mature enough to properly take
care of his own safety while travelling or you just want to have that extra bit
of peace of mind while travelling, then it’s completely okay to keep him in the
car seat for longer. How much longer obviously comes down to the physical
restrictions.
There are 2 types of car seats for babies, front facing and rear facing. The
rear facing one’s are designed for infants and are usually used until the
babies are two years old or until they meet the maximum weight restriction
which happens to be between 35 and 45 pounds. The forward-facing seats are less
secure by comparison but can support up to 80 pounds and kids until almost 7
years.
By contrast, the recommended minimum limits for rear facing seats are 1 year
and 20 pounds while for rear facing it’s 4 years and 40 pounds. So, clearly the
different between the recommended and maximum supported specifications are
quite wide apart from each other giving you plenty of time in between where
you’re free to choose whether you want to make the switch and when.
So, when should you? Sure, you can always wait until the maximum limit is
reached and then switch and it is obviously good to know that your child still
has that extra layer of protection. However, you should also think about the
fact that the kid might start feeling too restricted in their current state.
The generally recommended time to move your child from a car seat to a booster
is when he meets the physical and age restrictions and also when you feel he is
mature enough to handle the responsibility of the freedom you’re giving him.
But if you can’t convince yourself that it is in fact a good time to move on
from a car seat then you can wait a bit longer but it isn’t recommended to wait
until the absolute maximum limit. Another very important thing to keep in mind
is that, the legs of the child are usually a bit cramped in the car seats.
But they don’t notice because that is what they’ve been used to from the beginning. But you can’t go to a booster, give them the free space and then go back; it would make the experience a lot more uncomfortable for the child. Try to figure out a good middle ground where you can make a leap of faith and entrust your child with their safety. For More Information you can visit Parentprime