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A safety vest. This is a lightweight device, which comes with shoulder, hip, and crotch straps, can usually be used for children over one year of age and 25 to 40 pounds and is particularly convenient for travel; though it can be tucked into your suitcase and used in a car when you reach your destination (note that some vests may require that an additional tether strap be installed in the vehicle).
Booster seats. These restraints, available in both high- and low-backed modles, are for children over 40 pounds who have out grown their child safety seats but are still too small to properly use the vehicle's seat belt alone. This includes children whose shoulders rise above the strap slots on their safety seat or whose ears are above the back of the seat. Booster seats are nessary because they keep the vehicle lap belt low on the hips as well as position the shoulder belt properly.
High-backed boosters protect best. A child whose ears are above the seat back when in a low-backed model should be moved to a high-backed model. Some ligh-backed boosters come with a harness, which is recommended for children under 40 pounds. The harness must be removed once the child has reached 40 pounds,
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A safety vest is particularly convenient for travel and is usually designed for children over one year of age and over 25 pounds.
making it a belt-positioning booster seat.
Belt-positioning booster seats must be used with the vehicle's lap/shoulder belt;
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CHOOSING A HARNESS
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The five-point harness: This harness, which consists of a strap over each shoulder, a strap over each hip, and a strap at the crotch, is easily adjustable to fit snugly, and is considered by many safety experts the best protection for both infants and toddlers. The straps, however, tend to twist and tangle, so it is important to always be sure that they are lying flat.
The harness with T-shield: This system has straps over the shoulders that are attached to a flat pad that fits over the lower torso. The advantages are that the straps tend to lie flat and the harness can be easily buckled or unbuckled with one hand.
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But the T-shield cannot be adjusted to properly fit a tiny newborn and offers somewhat less protection than the five-point system.
The harness with tray-shield: In this system, the straps over the sholder harness are attached to a wide, padded shield that snaps into the seat at the crotch and opens by swining up over the child's head. This can becone unwieldy because the shield man not fit over the child's head without the straps being adjusted each time. In smaller cars the rough may be too low to allow the shield to be raised completely. Like the T-shield, it is not an appropriate choice for a newborn.
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