Keep your child harnessed for as long as possible
With every graduated stage in car seats ( rear facing to forward facing, forward facing to booster seat,booster seat to lap and shoulder belt) your child is less and less protected. Less protection, means more changes for injury. Preventing injury can make the difference between life and death.
Here's why:
Here's why:
- If you booster your child at age 4, generally he's not mature enough to sit down in a seat correctly each and every ride. He may sit correctly the first few rides, or even the first few minuets of every ride. Anytime he's not in the correct seating position he's at risk of injury.
- The illiac crest is the part of the pelvis that the belt rests on in adults. It isn't developed in children until around age 6. Once that is formed, it makes boostering more safe.
- Small children also have developing, fragile, flexible neck muscles, loose ligaments to allow for growth, small rib cages, developing abdominal muscles, soft spinal columns and unprotected larger internal abdominal organs. The vertebrae does not completely ossify until close to age 6. This vulnerability allows the seat belt to do far more serious internal damage to a young child than to an adult. Seat belts are not designed for children.