Booster Seat research.

Well, in our quest to see if we really need to buy a van, I have been doing research on state laws and regulations on booster seats to see if we can legally drive Danica around without a booster. Well, I found that in Idaho the law says they have to be 6 years old (no weight or height regulations) In most other states we may end up the requirements are over 40 pounds and over 4'9". I don't know about you but if I remember correctly I didn't reach 4'9" until I was at least in 4th grade. Danica has about 10" more to go.

I also found that the Insurance institute for car safety just finished another booster seat study to determine if booster seats are doing their job. and they found that 10 of them did such a poor job at fitting kids they don't recommend them in the least - guess what - our booster is on that list. Yipee for us. I have pasted thier findings below so any of you that have kids in boosters can check your brand too.

Booster seat evaluations
Not Recommended
Safety Angel Ride Ryte backless
Cosco/Dorel (Eddie Bauer) Summit
Graco CarGo Zephyr
Evenflo Big Kid Confidence
Cosco/Dorel Traveler
Compass B505
Compass B510
Evenflo Generations
Dorel/Safety 1st (Eddie Bauer) Prospect
Cosco Highback Booster
Cosco/Dorel Alpha Omega
Evenflo Chase Comfort Touch
Safety 1st/Dorel Intera

Best Bets
Graco TurboBooster backless with clip
Fisher-Price Safe Voyage backless with clip
Combi Kobuk backless with clip
Fisher-Price Safe Voyage
Britax Parkway
LaRoche Bros. Teddy Bear
Safeguard Go backless with clip
Volvo booster cushion
Recaro Young Style
Britax Monarch

Good Bets
Graco TurboBooster
Safety Angel Ride Ryte
Recaro Young Sport
Combi Kobuk
Safety 1st/Dorel Apex 65

The study also said that you need to check the way the shoulder/lap belt fits your child when they are in their booster. It should go over the bony parts of their body to prevent internal injury if they are in a crash. (ie. collar bone, hip bones)

Hope this helped anyone who was interested. After more reading and looking I have figured out that seatbelts don't fit me right either (course I think I have always known that since they cut into my neck all the time, even with the adjustable ones in our car) So I guess none of us are really safe.