Shield Booster Brochure

The Safest Options LESS THAN 40 LBS. 1. Put the child in a convertible car seat facing forward. The harness MUST be in the top slots and the harness MUST come out of the slots AT or ABOVE the child's shoulders; the tops of the child's ears should be below the top of the seat shell. 2. Put the child in a forward-facing only seat (or a combination seat). Use the fivepoint harness until child is 40 lbs, then use as a beltpositioning booster with car's lap-shoulder belt.

MORE THAN 40 LBS. 1.Put the child in a highback belt-positioning booster and use the car’s lap/shoulder belt to restrain them. 2.Put the child in a low-back beltpositioning booster seat and use the car’s lap/shoulder belt to restrain them (only in vehicles with high seat backs or head restraints)

VEHICLES WITH NO REARSEAT SHOULDER BELTS (OR CHILDREN UNABLE TO SIT PROPERLY IN A BELT-POSITIONING BOOSTER)

1.Tethered vest with low-back booster from E-Z-On products. 1-800-323-6598 www.ezonpro.com 2.Safeguard Child Seat (to 65 lbs) and Go (to 60 lbs, converts to booster) www.safeguardseat.com 3. Britax Marathon, Boulevard and Decathlon (to 65 lbs) and the Regent (to 80 lbs) 1-888-4BRITAX or www.britaxusa.com st

4. Safety 1 /Alpha Elite Apex 65 (to 65 lbs, converts to booster). www.djgusa.com 5.Sunshine Kids Radian 65 and Radian 80. www.skjp.com 6.For long-term use, shoulder belts should be fitted into vehicle, or a different vehicle with shoulder belts should be bought. A lap only belt does not provide adequate protection for any belted individual.. Lap belts are safe, however, for securing child safety seats.

A Parent’s Guide to

Shield Booster Dangers

WHAT EXPERTS SAY Kathleen Weber (U of Michigan Transportation Research Institute): Shield boosters are no longer considered appropriate crash protection for children. Crash investigations have documented ejections, excessive excursions, and shield-contact injuries in rollover, side, and frontal crashes, resulting in severe head, spinal, abdominal, and extremity injuries. http://www.umtri.umich.edu

American Academy of Pediatrics: Shield boosters are used with lap belts. However, they do not provide enough upper body protection to be recommended. Shield boosters cannot be used for children over 40 pounds. Children less than 40 pounds should remain in a convertible or forward-facing seat. Shield boosters should only be used without their shields as belt-positioning boosters. While manufacturers may recommend use of shield boosters at lower weights, children less than 40 pounds are at risk of ejection from the booster in the event of a rollover crash. http://www.aap.org

University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center Shield boosters are used with lap belts. However, they do not provide enough upper body protection to be recommended for general use. Older models of shield boosters listed weight ranges as high as 65 pounds, but current models of shield boosters cannot be used for children over 40 pounds. Current models of shield boosters can be used without the shield for use as a belt-positioning booster with a lap/shoulder belt and should only be used in this manner if at all possible. While MANUFACTURERS may recommend use of shield boosters at lower weights, children under 40 pounds are at risk of ejection from the booster in the event of a rollover crash and should remain in a convertible or other forward-facing harness seat until 40 pounds. http://www.hsrc.unc.edu

WHAT IT MEANS The most important thing to understand is that the only test these seats have to pass is a frontal collision test. There are no tests that show how it would perform in a side impact, rear-impact or rollover crash. This seat has been responsible for head injuries (when a child’s head hits the shield or vehicle interior) neck/spinal cord injuries (from being stretched when the head

is thrown forward too far) and ejections (when the child is thrown out of the seat). This seat is NOT approved for airline use. Currently, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 213 (that regulates car seats) only requires a static rollover test to be performed with the CRS for aircraft certification (put a dummy in the seat and turn the seat upside down). These don't pass - the dummy FALLS OUT!!! Here are the problems with the shield boosters:

1. These booster seats were designed back when cars only had lap belts in back. They were the only option for use after a regular car seat was outgrown. That is no longer the case. Better protection is now offered in the form of belt-positioning boosters.

2.They provide no upper-body protection. The injuries from this type of seat include: •

Getting thrown too far forward, resulting in serious head and/or spinal cord injuries

•

Submarining UNDER the shield and receiving spinal/neck injuries

•

Being thrown OUT in a side-impact or rollover collision, then crushed by the moving vehicle.