if your back seat does not have shoulder belts, see if your dealer can retrofit your vehicle with them.
Booster seats with shields, once recommended when no shoulder belt was available, do not meet federal safety standards for children over 40 pounds and should not be used.
Children who have outgrown their child safety seats, but are still too small to properly use the vehicle's seat belt alone, should graduate to a belt-positioning booster seat.
Vehicle seat belts. Children are ready to ride protected by just the vehicle's lap/shoulder belt when they meet the following criteria: They are mature enough to sit without slouching and tall enough to sit with knees bent at the edge of the seat; the shoulder belt fits comfortably (staying close to shoulder and chest with no slack, and not cutting across the child's face or neck); the lap belt fits snugly across the thighs and doesn't slide up over the tummy. Some children may not reach this milestone until 8 years of age or even older. Note: Widely mar-
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keted devices designed to improve seat belt fit for older children are not regulated by government standards and may not be safe. A lap-only belt (found in the center rear seat of most vehicles and on all rear seats of many older vehicles) is better than no belt at all for older children and adults. Many cars without three-point shoulder belts can be retrofitted with them by the dealer.
The right location. The middle of the back seat is, statistically, the safest seat in the car (front and side seats are more vulnerable to impact) and usually has a lep belt (which is easier to use for installinga child safety seat than is a belt with a shoulder harness). If you have only one child in the car, the moddle back seat is the seat to use, unless the child is in a belt-positioning booster seat that requires the vehicle's lap/shoulder belt. The front passenger seat, on the other hand, is the most dangerous location in the car; it can become even more dangerous to young children when there is a front or side passenger air bag. So whenever possible, seat children under the age of 13 and under 5 feet tall in the rear of the car. If it is absolutely necessary for a child who is old enough to face foward to ride in the front seat (the vehicle doesn't have a back seat or all back seats are occupied with other children), the seat should be upright and set back as far as possible. The child should be appropriately restrained according to size and age and should not be allowed to lean foward. Under no circumstances should a baby in a rear-facing child safety seat be placed in a front seat that is equipped with a passenger air bag, unless that air bag is deactivated. Because the baby's head is near the air bag, the force of the inflating air bag could seriously, even fatally, injure the infant.
The right installation. Autos built since 1996 provide seat belts that hold child safety seats securely; older models often require the use of clips or other special
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