Booster seats news from the Today Show this morning

[pakin]

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26962984/

"Several car booster seats get poor marks"

Pakin

[leslieandbilly]

Thanks for posting the link. I saw the story and cringed when I saw the list. We have Parkways in one car, which are on the good list, but we have Compass Boosters in the other car. I'm not sure what to make of this.

[JBaxter]

Your fast!!! I was just watching that on TV. I have one from the best and one from the good catagory.

[alexsmommy]

Sigh. Ok, ladies - especially the techs - what do you think? I was literally going to purchase a Compass 510 today as our friend booster - knowing DS will want to use it occasionally too.
Back to the drawing board?

[mom2binsd]

www.car-seat.org (under car seat chat) has the list of seats in all categories...and a lot of opinions up already....I just wish they had taken some time to discuss the benefit of HWH and when to switch from a high back to a backless booster....and many of the seats tested have been discontinued for some time!

[o_mom]

SafeKids has a response up already:
http://www.usa.safekids.org/tier3_cd...&folder_id=300

Bottom line is that you need to check the fit of ANY booster with your car and child.

[codex57]

SafeKids makes a good point about fit. The type of car you have can really affect fit and install. I doubt the IIHS repeated their tests on a variety of cars to see if particular car seat it was installed on changed the results.

[Joolsplus2]

http://carseatblog.com/?p=340

that's a great commentary. short answer? if it fits your kid and your car, don't worry

[o_mom]

SafeKids makes a good point about fit. The type of car you have can really affect fit and install. I doubt the IIHS repeated their tests on a variety of cars to see if particular car seat it was installed on changed the results.

Here is the whole study:

http://www.iihs.org/research/topics/pdf/r1104.pdf

It is an interesting study. They basically had a test bench set up with movable anchor points for the lap and shoulder belts based on measurements from actual cars. They tested six different combinations of settings for the shoulder and lap portions.

The lap belt scores were fairly consistent across the different set ups, however the shoulderbelt scores were all over the place, especially with the backless boosters. They did use the positioning clip with backless boosters, which 99% of parents skip, so I would expect real-world performance to be even worse.

One thing to also remember is that real-world kids are not dummies

For example, look at page 23 (PDF p24) and you will see a picture of the Prospect with and without a back and they use this to show good and bad fit on the lap belt. However, look at the 'good fit' picture. The knees of the dummy stick straight out because the seat is too deep. IRL, a child is going to scoot down so their knees bend at the edge, which will cause the lap belt to ride up (this is commented on in the text).

I think the take-home message here is to make sure that the booster you are using fits your car and your child.

[cara1]

Ok, call me ignorant, but is the lap portion *really* supposed to go across the thighs? I can't imagine that happening for any child. My own seat belt goes more across my trunk, and isn't on my legs at all. I just bought a Compass B510, but I just find it hard to believe that any booster would really go across DS's legs.