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Heads up, parents who carpool: Half those surveyed said they sometimes let kids who should be in booster seats skip them if not every kid in the car is using one.
By Stacy Lu
You set out with a crew from the birthday party, but find you’re a booster short. Do you make sure your own child gets one?
Or do you, instead, let all the kids use belts only? In a national survey published today by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), half of the 1,612 parents of 4- to 8-year-olds questioned said they sometimes let passengers – and their own kids – go booster free if not every child is using one.
Why? A third of the respondents said arranging for that extra safety seat in advance was too hard, and research suggests that many drivers just find it easier to have all the kids either in or out of booster seats.
Boosters help protect kids from serious injury, though, and just a bit of teamwork can keep everyone in the safety seat, says Debra Smiley Holtzman, a safety expert, mother of two and author of “The Safe Baby: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Home Safety and Healthy Living.” You won’t be the only parent grappling with the issue, and most will appreciate some polite initiative.
It helps to know the laws in your state. Half of the survey respondents did not, and another 20 percent guessed it incorrectly. (The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has an interactive map.) If you’re chauffeuring a child for the first time and see that she needs a booster, ask her parent to provide one – after all, the law is on your side.
“I say, ‘It’s my policy that when people ride in my car, they need to be appropriately buckled.’ Make it matter-of-fact, so that it’s unlikely to be questioned,” Holtzman says.
It’s fine to apply the same my-way-or-the-highway firmness to a finicky passenger, whether it’s someone else’s child or your own.
“It gets awkward because my older daughter is on the small side, and some of her friends have now outgrown boosters – or at least claim to have outgrown them,” says Katrina Hunt, a mom of two from Del Mar, Calif., who puts her passengers in safety seats anyway.
Holtzman said her car pool arranged for the same parent to drive round-trip, to avoid excessive seat shuffling. It doesn’t hurt to keep a spare in your trunk, either.
About 80 percent of survey respondents said they always asked that a carpool driver put their own child in a booster. So don’t feel shy about insisting, and provide a seat to make it easy. Most backless boosters are fewer than 20 inches wide and shouldn’t cause a space issue. Or try an inflatable seat: the affordable BubbleBum is just 13 inches wide.
The longer you can keep them in the seats, too, the better. For added safety beyond most state laws, the AAP encourages boosters for any child shorter than 57 inches – the average height of an 11-year-old.
Fess up: Have you ever let your kid or another child skip the required booster seat? Tell us on Facebook.
More TODAY Moms stories to help you enjoy the ride:
When is it time to fire your pediatrician?
Ten best and worst states to raise kids
Do you tattle on bad babysitters?
Homeless dad's message of hope
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Leave a Comment:
You'd actually risk a child's life because it would be too inconvenient to ask their mom hand over the seat?? srsly?
Wow, that's seriously messed up. I would never put my or anyone's child in my car without a safety seat, if they needed one.
Hoo rah for our extremely short-sighted culture. Cutting off our noses despite our face.
And now onto texting while you drive...:P
And this is why I drive MY child, and you drive yours to the play date. If you want to risk your child's safety by putting on a seat belt that's not even high enough to restrain her in case of an accident, that's your problem. You are her parent, you make the decisions about YOUR child, but I will not allow you to risk my child's safety by not putting her in a car seat, as she should be.
(That's assuming you trust this parent to not drive and text at the same time and to not drive like an idiot zig-zagging in traffic, and cutting people off in the first place...)
Heck, when I was a kid we used to sleep on the rear package shelf on long trips.
Maybe if everyone didn't ride each others bumpers like they were driving tanks there wouldn't be as many accidents?
Also, you vote. Have your congressman tell the auto industry to make all rear seats convertible into booster seats (ala Volvo) - remember, they never even put seatbelts in cars until they were forced to by Ralph Nader
(p.s. GM actually sued Ford in the 50s to get most of the safety features removed so they wouldn't have to spend more money to keep up) See how much they care!!
I'm a child of the 80s ... are things so much worse today? I stopped using a car seat when I was four. The world didn't end. The sun did not blow up. Jesus did not come back to harvest souls.
A basic backless booster is sixteen bucks at Walmart. If you tend to have guests in your car, get a spare, they don't take up that much room! We've actually bought seats for all of our kids for BOTH cars, so we don't have the risk of Daddy not having the seats, or accidentally taking one from Mommy's car, then forgetting to return it. It's not that hard, and you never know what can happen out there. A split second and a moron on the road can totally ruin your day, best not to lose your kid in the process.
and for that matter you'd hand over YOUR kid to someone else without their seat?
Me? NEVER.
How about school buses?
School buses don't have seat belts (the big ones anyways). There are many safety and practical reasons why they don't. It's actually safer for them not to wear seat belts in modern buses. Modern buses have fully padded seats, and not the old metal back ones (though as a kid I loved riding the older beasts!).
When it comes down to it, how in the world is ONE bus driver, already trying to drive and control the bus and manage 60+ noisy, rambunctious kids going to ever make sure and be responsible for 60+ seat belts are all fastened? Some people say that every bus should then have a second adult. That's a great idea, but who's going to pay them? School districts are already short on money. They can't afford it. That's the main practical reason.
The safety reasons have been hashed out in bus crash tests.
But you know, the problem with the high padded bus seats now is that the driver cannot see what the kids are doing. They can be picking on or even sexually harassing the kid next to them, and the driver could not see it.
Most school buses ride high enough that it would take a jacked up crew cab truck to do any serious damage. The major concern is a drunk/passed out bus driver knocking the dang thing over. Most buses, however, drive at in-town speeds and therefore never go fast enough for this to happen.
Wasn't there some sort of study, or series of studies, done, which basically concluded that booster seats didn't really provide any safety benefits over using the regular seat belt in the car? Assuming, of course, you're using a shoulder-strap adjuster for kids given that they're shorter...
Can't remember where I came across that...
King V-4036787, The study that you are referring to was done by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner and was published in Superfreakonomics. In addition to reviewing the historical data, the authors commissioned their own study and found that there was no difference in terms of fatalities and serious injuries between young children restrained in a booster seat and young children restrained with a lap and shoulder belt in the back seat.
Then why are we doing it?
Unlike a car seat, booster seats in and of themselves don't provide any addition restraint in and of themselves. The seat belt does the primary work in the vehicle.
The reason they are required is for proper positioning of the belt on the child's body. All new cars now typically come with 3 point harnesses in the rear seat on all positions, including the center. The shoulder belt portion needs to sit properly on the body in order to be effective. On a child, the belt usually sits too high, making it a serious hazard for the child. It could potentially choke them. That's the point of a booster seat.
My state, Washington, does not require a booster seat if the center belt is lap only, or the should belt is removable to make it lap only. You cannot legally just tuck the shoulder belt behind the kid. That's not proper belt use, and is a ticketable offense.
Bryan is right, it is all about seat positioning. My brother had a friend in college whose little sister was in just a belt when their family car crashed. Had she been in a booster, the belt would have just given her serious rope burns. Instead, because it was positioned wrong, it bruised her internal organs. The seat is all about bracing the kid in the right position so the belt can do its job.
The problem occurs when there is no room for the booster seats. I pick up 4 kids and take them for a 5 minute drive once a week. Three booster seats will not fit in the back seat of the car. Actually they do fit but not one of the kids can actually buckle their seat beat with three booster seats. The child in the middle has to go without a booster so that everyone can buckle up.
King V-4036787. Shoulder strap adjusters are actually VERY dangerous - as by connecting the shoulder & lap belt they raise the lap belt into the abdomen. Shoulder belt adjusters (that don't come with a booster) are UNREGULATED and not subject to any crash testing standards. The injuries that we see to kids who aren't in a booster are from a poorly fitting lap belt. Surprisingly, a shoulder belt that rubs the neck will NOT injure a child in a crash.
This study here - - by some of the world's leading researchers on kids in car crashes - found that 4-8 year olds in boosters were 55% LESS likely to be injured than 4-8 year olds in seat belts alone.
Tandres - Here are a few suggestions to keep ALL the kids in boosters.
1. Buckle all 3 boosters ahead of time, and leave the lap belt loose. Have the child climb into a buckled seat belt - and then just snug up the belt once they are situated.
2. Buy 3 Bubble Bums (or at least 1 or 2) - as these are only 12 inches wide - which is 4-6 inches narrower than most boosters and will fit 3 across in nearly every vehicle (I know because I tried 3 Bubble Bums in every vehicle at the NY Auto Show).
I do allow my 9 y.o. to take short rides in other people's cars without a booster even though I keep her in a booster in ours. She is over 8 and finally weighs more than 60 lbs. so it is technically legal. If it's a long ride or the driver will be going on the highway at all, I insist on her taking the booster even if the driver grumbles about the inconvenience.
I have never heard of a study saying that kids are better off in a seat belt than a booster seat. I am adament about car seats. There's a good video to describe the differences between types of car seats and safety belt usage alone...google "The Car Seat Lady" and check out her videos....the one titled "American Academy of Pediatrics Publishes New Car Seat Recommendations".
I think we should keep them in booster seats until they have their own drivers license. And we should also require them for the 4'9" "little old ladies" who can't see over the dashboard.
I'm all for safety, but the height and weight restrictions in some states are ridiculous. A lot of adults aren't 57" tall, and it can take a long time for a slender child to reach 60 lbs, let alone 80. My nephew is 54" and less than 60 lbs. It's not right to force a 15 year old to sit in a booster seat!
Your 15 year old nephew is 4 ft 4 inches tall? I highly doubt it. 57" is four foot nine and unless he has a syndrome of some sort I am sure a 15 year old is taller than 4 ft 9in. And I also would beg to differ that there are "a lot" of adults that are under 4ft 9in. Yes there are some, but not "a lot". If you choose to not properly restrain children that is your choice but then own up and live with the consequence and don't expect sympathy and pity when it goes bad quickly.
I've known some 15 year olds that were that small. One of them was in our band class in high school. He was small enough to stuff him in a half-size hallway locker and shut the door. (And no, that wasn't ME, it was the other drummers that got him.)
From the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:
Birth – 12 months: Your child under age 1 should always ride in a rear-facing car seat. There are different types of rear-facing car seats: Infant-only seats can only be used rear-facing. Convertible and 3-in-1 car seats typically have higher height and weight limits for the rear-facing position, allowing you to keep your child rear-facing for a longer period of time.
1–3years: Keep your child rear-facing as long as possible. It’s the best way to keep him or her safe. Your child should remain in a rear-facing car seat until he or she reaches the top height or weight limit allowed by your car seat’s manufacturer. Once your child outgrows the rear-facing car seat, your child is ready to travel in a forward-facing car seat with a harness.
4–7years: Keep your child in a forward-facing car seat with a harness until he or she reaches the top height or weight limit allowed by your car seat’s manufacturer. Once your child outgrows the forward-facing car seat with a harness, it’s time to travel in a booster seat, but still in the back seat.
8–12years: Keep your child in a booster seat until he or she is big enough to fit in a seat belt properly. For a seat belt to fit properly the lap belt must lie snugly across the upper thighs, not the stomach. The shoulder belt should lie snug across the shoulder and chest and not cross the neck or face. Remember: your child should still ride in the back seat because it’s safer there.
I wish I could see a study of deaths the baby in the back seat and forgotten by the parent compared to baby in the front seat killed in an airbag accident.
I'm glad that I had my babies when it was okay to have them in the front seat, as I'd forget my own head if it weren't attached to my neck.
Keep your child in a booster seat until he or she is big enough to fit in a seat belt properly? Heck, I don't even fit in a seat belt properly and I'm 5'7". Shoulder belts always cut across my neck. I have to use a special clip to get them to fit properly.
As a pediatrician AND a nationally certified child passenger safety instructor I feel the need to tell Stacy Lu, the author of this post, that the picture accompanying this article shows 2 kids at SERIOUS risk for spinal cord and abdominal organ injuries. The girl on the left, shown in a Graco Turbo Booster, is not using the booster properly. The lap belt is supposed to go UNDER the arm rests of the booster - so that in a crash the lap belt stays on the strong hip bones and doesn't go near the soft, vulnerable abdomen where it can cause spinal cord and abdominal organ injuries. This girl has the lap belt over the arm rest - which is why the lap belt is across her belly (a very dangerous spot for it). The boy on the right needs a booster - as the lap belt is also on his belly.
For a child to ride safely without a booster, he should pass the 5 step test.
The 5-Step Test ©SafetyBeltSafe USA
If you answer "no" to any of these questions, your child STILL needs a booster seat to make both the shoulder belt and the lap belt fit right and to keep them safest.
Please see my website - www.thecarseatlady.com for more info
To the mom who commented that she can't fit 3 boosters across her back seat - you need different boosters. I take 3 Bubble Bums with me to the NY Auto show every year and try them in EVERY vehicle. I found that 3 fit in >95% of the cars - and the ones where it didn't were cars that would surprise you (mostly BMWs that have made their center seat too narrow for any car seat or booster).
I saw that too! So glad you pointed out that the booster seat is ABSOLUTELY being used incorrectly and unsafely!!!!
Why, oh why, can't the media use a picture of a child in the seat properly? This isn't the first time I have seen this kind of thing.
Really? Funny, I must need a booster seat. After all, I need a pillow behind me if I want my legs to "bend comfortably" at the edge of the seat when I sit all the way back, the shoulder belt ALWAYS cuts into my neck, and the only way the lap belt is touching my thighs is if I continually push it down there. The only one of these guidelines to which I can answer "yes" is the last one, since I have been able to stay properly seated in a car since I was about 3 years old. Guess what? I'm 5 foot 4 inches tall, and I'm 42 years old!!!
By the way, when I was 3 and 4, we had 2 accidents (neither was my mother's fault). I was FINE. My worst injury in one accident was from the other driver shutting my fingers in the car door when I got out with my mom.
I do think booster seats are a useful safety device; however, my 20 year old, 94 pound daughter no longer needs to be in one, and neither do I!
My sitter assured me she had seats for all her charges. Then one day my three-year-old told me "Marcia took us to McDonalds and I sat on the floor in the front seat." Needless to say, not only did I pull him out THAT DAY, I turned her in to the daycare licensing bureau.
If you don't have the room for seats for all the children to travel safely, STAY HOME!!!!!
it's another example of government meddling in individual's life. when you're trying to pass a law using a dead child as your platform of course nobody is going to reject it, how dare you. the fact is it is often unnecessary and the risk is virtually nill but law enforcement and child services will use the law against you even as the child is a giant 120-pounder 6-year old, yeah try to fit that into a booster. you think i'm kidding? have you seen an american kid lately?
Having a six year old who is that obese is abuse in and of itself. Also, There are height and weight requirements for using booster seats. Children who are large enough do not need them.
I just don't understand how the millions of us managed to make it to adulthood for decades without booster seats (or seatbelts for that matter) C'mon people -REALLY?
But good for the all the professionals and businesses profiting from this and other "necessities" - they have alot of company. How does the rest of the world manage with out such vital accoutrements. Statistics are a wonderful thing, they can be skewed to produce sales er.. I mean results for anything.
Unfortunately, many of our peers weren't so fortunate as us. By the time I was my oldest child's age, I had already known 2 kids who died in car wrecks. Today the auto fatality rate for kids has fallen significantly even though there is a larger number of children in the population. Better use of seatbelts and car seats has contributed to that (along with stricter enforcement of DUI laws).
This is not a travesty. Can we as educated parents decide what is safe and what isn't in our own environments? Why do doctors and "specialists" need to tell us every little thing that is safe and not safe concerning our children? I will continue to make up my own mind.
My kids have always been in appropriate car seats and boosters. It's simply not a question and my kids know this. My oldest was one of a handful of her classmates to use the booster until it wasn't necessary anymore and she is on the taller side. And the other parents' excuse? "Oh my kid won't ride in that anymore, it's too much of a hassle to fight with them on it..." YOU are the parent, it's your responsibility to know the laws and regulations and your responsibility to read car manuals and car seat instruction booklets and ensure they are safe. Any child riding with me will always be in necessary constraints regardless of how inconvenient others might think it is. It's a child's life that's at stake.
As always the most important piece of safety equipment in any car is the person behind the wheel. Listen to the experts - but decide for yourself.
My daughter is almost 5, 41 pounds and very tall for her age. She does not want to switch to her new booster combo seat because she likes her cow-printed toddler seat. One day there was a family emergency and a friend had to pick her up from Kindergarten, all my friend had was a light-duty booster, and my daughter cried saying she didn't feel safe. Keep the kids in their seats, teach them about safety from the beginning and they will remind you to keep them safe.
First of all I make sure I have seats for all children. Part of the issue is the manufacturers not having a standard way to connect a seat or a child. Even though both of our cars have latch systems both of our child seats hook up differently. If you have 6 car seats to put in a car it can take upwards of 30 minutes if not longer. Also why is it every year the standards change for when a child is safe. The purposed new standards in my state would make my wife and some senior citizens required to be in a child's seat. To me it looks like a scam to get more money. Is my child less safe last year? What is this about car seats having expiration dates? You are telling me I am putting my child in something so fragile is so much safer. Something just doesn't smell right.
Perhaps they should make the cars so people don't need these devices.
One has to wonder how much the booster seat companies paid to get these laws passed. Too bad safer seat belt designs are apparently not possible!
The idea of car seats needing to be used when the children are 7 8 9 years old is absurd. Think of our childhoods. Were you in a car seat at that age? Not a chance. The reality is, the reason why the so called "studies" are done and why these sort of laws are put in to place such as the age requirements being so high is as a result of the seat makers demanding more extensive regulation surrounding car seat safety. Why do they do this? Well, they're lobbying for safety regulations not for safety but for profits. The fact is, we as children did not have to be in car seats at such an range, why should our children? I canNOT wait until my kiddo can be out of a car seat. It's a hassle and frankly, I don't see why it is any safer. Once upon a time, we didn't have car seats. The reality is, I don't mind car seats for little guys but my kid is 5. I, personally, do not see why he needs to be in a seat.
Actually, some of these studies are done by insurance companies that don't want to pay out huge bodily injury claims. See IIHS studies for reference.
My 6 y.o. weighs less than 40 lbs. and it took my oldest until she was 9 to finally crack 60 lbs. So yeah, the 6 y.o. is in a 5-pt harness and I still do put the 9 y.o. in a booster in our car & on long trips in others' cars.
It's less about age and more about size.
So, Crimson Wife, I should put my 20 year old, 94 pound daughter in a booster? She may take exception to that, as she has her own car. :)
Guess, I don't think they're picking on petite people like you and your daughter. I have a friend who is similarly small, like you, and she thinks these booster debates are hilarious. I also have a grandma who can barely see over the steering wheel, so she got a "wedge", an adult version of a booster that lets her see without looking ridiculous in a kids car seat. It's not about pride or worrying about looking stupid. It's about safety.
Yes, Catsclaw, I know "they" aren't, but the other kids at school sure would've. My girl would've been in far more danger from the kids in middle school when they saw her in a booster than she would've been from an accident. Kids are vicious when they sense "weakness" (not unlike some here on the 'vine, lol) and the teachers can't see everything at once. I had to go to work at the school to try to keep her safe. A booster (had they then been required) would've just given them one more reason to try to beat her.
I do sometimes get irritated at all these rules/laws that seem to assume that we as parents are too stupid to keep our children/teenagers safe on our own.
It's a big country and if you look hard enough you can find anything. But when I was a kid, no one had car seats, or bike helmets. And I knew no of no one who died or was seriously injured as a result.
One could argue that to be safe you shouldn't put the kids in the car at all.
My wife drives a '73 Chevy truck. Our son falls over in a car seat. Without a car seat, he'd be much safer.
When did the safety regulations suddenly recommend staying in a booster seat until you're 11? I don't remember anyone being in a booster seat around the age of 5 back when I was in kindergarten (and that was not all that long ago). I think maybe we are getting a little crazy with all the safety precautions. Next thing people won't even be allowed to ride in a car until a certain age.
The mentality these days is that even ONE fatality is too many. How many state transportation departments have a "zero fatality" program? Probably just about all of them! That having been said, the issue shouldn't be car seats. They should be focusing on stupid drivers, and cars that are made out of the equivalent of tin foil. My family had old cars growing up. Made of real metal. If someone had hit us, the car would have just shrugged, maybe lost a few chips of paint, and that's it.
I can see there are some people who are all for government regulating their life from what they eat, drink, how they drive and seat themselves and even what they watch on TV and DVD. Go freakin move to North Korea or Iran, you'll feel perfectly right at home. Leave our kids alone to what we think is best and stop the corporation from lobbying the govt to force us to spend money on unnecessary crap. Think about how much those booster seats cost and all the hassle with it. Then again they'll just print a banner of a dead child in a car crash and nothing else can be discussed. Disgusting political garbage.
Oh No! the HORROR!
Geez.. what have we turned into?
Back in the 50's and 60's we didnt have booster seats.. my daughters in the 80's went from children car seats to just being seat belted in..
And of course we can't have them sit in the front seat because of airbag decapitaion..
If the kid is seatbelted in aren't they safe?
I think it's time we quit over regulating EVERYTHING in the name of safety!
It is absurd to mandate booster seat usage by age! My 10 year-old daughter is 5'2" and 108 lbs and my 8 year-old son is 4'10" and 87 lbs. No, I do not use booster seats. Both of my children are actually taller than my best friend, who is 4'9" and are almost as tall as me (5'4"), and we both manage to drive (and be passengers) without requiring the use of a booster seat!
Both of your children are taller and heavier than the guidelines for boosters anyway. And smaller adults probably would be safer in some sort of booster seat, but their bodies are also more developed than children and better to handle the stress of an impact so it is less of an issue. That's why the guidelines are about size, weight and age.