It’s Road Safety Week (17th-23rd November) and it has got me thinking about car seats for children. I’d like to think that all parents are now aware of the child car seat law that they must follow, however watching parents on the school run I am still so surprised by the numbers of parents who do not adhere to the law.
Child Car Seat Law
The law requires all children travelling in the front or rear seat of any car, van or goods vehicle must use the correct child car seat until they are either 135 cm in height or 12 years old (which ever they reach first) – after this they must use an adult seat belt.
Why my children have highback booster seats
Children can cruel, they don’t often mean to be it is sometimes down to ignorance. Take Roo’s school friends who have teased her about why she sits in a baby seat. You see both Roo and Tigger have highback booster seats, in fact their car seats are designed to go from 9 months through to 12 years.
Whilst Tigger still has the protective impact cushion on his style of car seat as although he is 4 years old he does not meet the minimum weight for it to be removed and for him to have the adult seat belt across him within the car seat. Roo being eight has the adult belt to restrain her within her car seat.
We have two different makes of car seats, however they are both highback booster seats with side and head protection, something we looked for when we came to purchase them. There are more and more cars on the roads than there ever was and car accidents are a daily occurrence. I want to make sure that should we be one of the unfortunate people to have a car accident that Roo and Tigger are safe. The deep side protection and head rests provide not only extra comfort when we are off on our travels (they must be comfortable as they fall asleep in them often enough) but support for their little bodies should anything happen.
A booster cushion does nothing more than raise a child up so that an adult seat belt fits better on them – even then the seat belt isn’t correctly aligned for smaller children and would be next to useless come an accident.
So when we have had Roo’s school friends over for tea and they have mentioned her baby car seat I explain why she has a highback booster and that I want her to be as safe as possible in the car – Roo on the other hand tells them it is like having her our armchair but in the car (I guess that’s one way of thinking about it).
Highback booster vs booster cushions
Britax UK car seat safety expert
Kiddicare recently asked Britax UK car seat safety expert, Mark Bennett, to offer his advice on the following:
- Re-using and recycling car seats
- Rear-facing seats
- Safety and considerations
- Installation
- ISOFIX
- Securing car seats
They have written up his advice on the Kiddicare blog here and it is well worth a read as child car safety is something we should all know more about.
What types of child car seats do you use?
Disclosure: This post is brought to you in collaboration with Kiddicare
No Comments