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Re-activateToddler booster car seats, sometimes also referred to as combination seats, are one option—along with forward-facing convertible seats—for children who have exceeded the height or weight limits of their rear-facing seats and are ready to transition to a forward-facing orientation. Unlike convertible seats, which are designed to be used with a harness rear facing and forward facing, toddler boosters are designed to be used forward facing only, with a harness. But as a child ages, the seat transitions to a belt-positioning booster seat: The seat's built-in harness can be removed and the vehicle's safety belts secure the child. A toddler booster should not be used too soon—children are safest riding in a rear-facing orientation through 2 years old, at least. After that time, a child can safely face forward in either a forward-facing convertible or toddler booster seat.
Like the latest infant and convertible seats that allow larger children to remain rear-facing longer for safety reasons, the newest models of combination/toddler-booster seats allow larger kids to stay in a five-point harness longer (rather than their moving on to the vehicle's three-point safety belt). That's because some models of toddler booster now have harnesses that can secure higher-weight children (those weighing more than 40 lbs.). Children are safer when using the full five-point harness in a forward-facing seat, as the harness spreads the crash forces more evenly over the child's body and better retains the child in a crash than the three-point seat belts installed in vehicles. Now parents may not have to make that transition quite so soon. The newest models of toddler-booster seats now have harness limits of 65 lbs. or more. Previously, most toddler-booster models had harness limits of 40 lbs. Our latest toddler booster seat Ratings (available to subscribers) are for seats in both categories—seats with harness weight ratings of 40 lbs., and seats with harness weight ratings greater than 40 lbs. All of the models we tested convert to belt-positioning booster car seats.
The main objective of a booster seat (the next step after a toddler booster) is to raise a child's body so that a vehicle's safety belts fit and protect the child as well as possible. A good booster seat positions the shoulder part of the vehicle's safety belt evenly between the edge of the shoulder and the child's neck; and the lap part of the safety belt low and flat across the upper thighs and hip, not the abdomen. When the safety belt is correctly positioned on the child's body, it allows the stronger parts of the child's frame (the collarbone and pelvis) to bear the forces that may occur in a crash, reducing the likelihood of injury to softer parts of the body such as like the neck and abdomen, and better limiting movement and the potential for ejection of the child passenger during a crash.
Our sled tests of toddler booster seats were conducted to evaluate each seat's performance in a simulated crash when used both forward facing with the internal five-point harness, and as a booster seat. Testing these forward-facing seats with higher harness weight limits presented interesting challenges in terms of installation. For example, two of the models we tested, the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 and the Britax Frontier 85, allow the forward-facing harness to be used up to 65 and 85 lbs., respectively.
Our testers have extensive experience as child passenger safety (CPS) technicians (the people who install car seats at free clinics nationwide), and in their work evaluating each vehicle Consumer Reports tests for how well it accommodates child car seats (those evaluations can be found in our ongoing vehicle model reviews). That experience, plus a review of the lower LATCH weight limits, by vehicle manufacturer, published in the 2009 LATCH manual, show that for more than half of all vehicle makes, the lower LATCH use is limited to 40 to 48 lbs. But average consumers may not know that their vehicle has such limits, though some child seat and vehicle owners' manuals do mention it. The owner's manual for the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 clearly indicates to "Use vehicle belt (not LATCH connectors) for installations with children weighing more than 48 pounds." But parents still may not be aware that the child seat must be reinstalled using the vehicle's safety belts after the child exceeds a certain weight.
Those limits also provide the basis for why our simulated crash tests for the higher weight seats with the larger 6-year-old-sized dummy were all conducted with belt installations only, using two-point (lap) and three-point (lap and shoulder) belts.
A second source of confusion, and one that's potentially less clear, is that most vehicle manufacturers also have weight limits for the use of the top tether anchor. Nineteen out of 45 vehicle manufacturers listed in the 2009 LATCH manual indicate top-tether limits between 40 and 48 lbs. The owner's manual for the Graco Nautilus suggests that you "Always use tether if a vehicle tether anchor is available." The manual for the Britax Frontier 85 goes even further, indicating that "Britax recommends that the tether be used at all times when installing the child seat," and that installers should "Always use the Versa-tether for children weighing 65-85 lbs." But those conflicting recommendations and requirements raise the question: Whose limits do you follow, those of the child seat manufacturer or the vehicle manufacturer?
The 2009 LATCH manual, a publication used by child passenger safety technicians as a guide to LATCH use, dedicates an entire chapter to the issues and concerns mentioned above. Key items include:
Despite all of this awareness, child restraint and vehicle manufacturers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have not yet come together to provide a consistent message for top-tether use and weight limits. Based on the points related to top tethers outlined in the LATCH manual and our test results, we believe that top-tether use for all forward-facing seats would be beneficial even for higher-weight child restraints whose harnessed limits may exceed the published top-tether anchor weight limits for the vehicle.
Each of the toddler booster car seats in our recent Ratings (available to subscribers) was tested in three areas: crash protection, ease-of-use, and fit-to-vehicle.
Crash protection was evaluated using a "sled" test to simulate the frontal crash forces exerted on each child seat, and the instrument-equipped, child-sized test dummies seated in each seat. The required crash test simulates the forces exerted on the seat in a 30 mph (48 kph) frontal crash into a rigid barrier (such as a wall). Crash data from 1988 through 1997 show that about 80 percent of drivers with serious injuries were harmed in crashes at speeds lower than 30 mph.
Our testing was conducted at an outside laboratory using the protocol of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 213 (FMVSS 213), with some additions. In some tests, the seats were installed using a three-point (lap-and-shoulder) safety belt and Hybrid III 6-year-old and 10-year-old dummies were used to meet the higher weight limits the seats claimed. The current test protocol calls for installation using only LATCH and a two-point belt (lap only), but because most current vehicles are equipped with three-point (lap-and-shoulder) belt systems, our evaluations extended to include tests where three-point safety-belt installation was used.
In each test, the outcomes of injury to the dummy, and how the dummies moved (excursion), were compared with what the standard allows in all areas:
All of the combination seat models were tested in the following test conditions:
Seats with harness weight limits of 40 lbs. or more (with the exception of the Safety 1st Go Hybrid) were tested in these additional conditions:
Note:
Ease-of-Use was evaluated and scored by Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians in the following areas:
Items with the highest safety-related potential, including labels and instructions, and the ease of performing installations (with LATCH and safety belts) received higher weight in our scoring.
Fit-to-Vehicle evaluations focus on how easy or difficult it is to correctly install each of the seats in each of the rear passenger positions of five current vehicles, and how the seat, once installed, affected other seating positions in the vehicles. Vehicles evaluated included:
Lower LATCH limit/Top tether limit (with belt)
All of the installations were made in forward-facing orientations by Certified Child Passenger Safety Technicians. Vehicles were each scored independently, with Ratings (available to subscribers) provided for LATCH and safety belt installation separately.
All toddler booster seats scored within the allowable maximum limits for injury and excursion measurements as set by FMVSS 213 in all test conditions, though with varying degrees.
Last year's tests of the Britax Frontier—installed using the two-point (lap only) belt and a Hybrid III 6-year old dummy, without the top tether—resulted in head movement ("excursion" values) exceeding the allowable non-tethered limit of 32 inches. This led us to not recommend the Frontier for older vehicles that had only two-point lap seatbelts and lacked a top tether. This year's tests of the newer Britax Frontier 85 in the same configuration resulted in head excursion values that were at—but not in excess of—the 32-inch maximum. Based on this result, and the Frontier 85's requirement for top tether use for children weighing between 65 and 85 lbs., we maintain our position that the Frontier 85 (like its predecessor) is not the best seat for older vehicles that have only a lap belt for child seat installation and likely lack a top tether attachment anchor.
In general, we believe that any forward-facing car seat should be attached to the top tether anchor, because it provides important benefits to child passengers in reducing head movement (excursion values) and dissipating crash forces, and should be attached for all.
Differences in overall score among the seats are due mainly to the seats' Ease-of-Use and Fit-to-Vehicle evaluations. Ease-of-Use and Fit-to-Vehicle are weighted more heavily than Crash Protection scores, as crash results and performance rely on seats being installed correctly. The more difficult that is to do, the less relative crash performance ratings become.
In evaluating the ability of booster seat modes of each seat to correctly fit the 6-year-old and 10-year-old dummies used for the booster tests, seats with molded shoulder-belt guides that positioned the belts between the head restraint and shell edge (such as the Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 and Britax Frontier 85)—did a better job of placing the shoulder portion of the belt correctly at mid-shoulder for both dummies.
The Evenflo Chase and Safety 1st Vantage and Summit, which had guides positioned on the outside edge of the seat shell, positioned the shoulder belts more on the outer edge of the dummy's shoulders than would be desirable for a child, even with the guides in their top-most positions. We recognize that the test dummies and sled belt represent only a limited number of child sizes and safety-belt-anchor combinations, but we encourage parents to do their own fit-to-child evaluations for booster seat use with their children in their own vehicles.
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