“If you have a latch system you don’t have to worry about seats moving out of place,” he said. Using LATCH with a booster has no known safety advantage, though Aditya Belwadi, PhD, the biomechanics research scientist who leads the Child Passenger Safety research team at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told us he believes that the booster’s LATCH makes a difference in getting the seat correctly positioned. Unlike with infant or convertible car seats, LATCH is for positioning a booster, and is not a restraint. (Infant, convertible, and forward-facing five-point harness seats require a child to weigh under 40 pounds to use the LATCH restraint, otherwise the car seat should be secured using a seat belt). All infant, convertible, and forward-facing five-point harness car seats manufactured after Sept 1, 2002, include the LATCH option but for booster seats, LATCH is optional, and the usual weight limit of 40 pounds does not apply. For more information, see “ When is a child ready for a booster seat?” Show lessĬome with a LATCH option: LATCH stands for “lower anchors and tethers for children,” a system that allows you to install a car or booster seat with metal clips or hooks that attach to hooks built into the car. But experts recommend using car seats with harnesses as long as possible. According to ProPublica, the box, label, and manuals accompanying some Big Kid seats still claim suitability for children who weigh as little as 30 pounds.

In The competition, we note that the Evenflo Big Kid Amp-a variant of the seat that is the focus of ProPublica’s report-is a low-cost, LATCH-less option. Concern about this was why we commissioned independent lab testing in 2018.īased on the results of that testing, and our own long-term use, we stand by our booster car seat recommendations, including the Graco TurboBooster LX as a budget option. The redesign of the Diono Monterey XT includes a narrower build and new headrest, among other changes.Īn investigation by ProPublica highlights that there is no federal standard for side-impact crash testing of booster seats. We’re looking into the new Diono Monterey XT, and for now continue to recommend our other picks. Show moreĭiono has redesigned our pick, the Monterey XT, and the previous version is unavailable.

Diono has redesigned our pick, the Monterey XT, and the previous version is unavailable.

Booster seat