This Grandma was watching Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News introduce a segment on the new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety 2014 test results on child car booster seats. The segment talked about booster seats being required for the “awkward” age between four and eight, when children are too old for baby car seats and too young to wear a seat belt alone safely. They said children of this age group are 45% less likely to be injured if they use a booster seat. The recommendations include that children sit in a booster seat until they are 4′ 9″ tall and 40 pounds. The actual studies can be found at Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an independent, nonprofit organization focused on road safety, tested 41 booster seat models, 27 of which got the highest rating, and only three were not recommended. The NBC News website lists them all and of course, as a grandma, I want to make things easy for the parents of my grandchildren so have included the list here so you can pass it along:
The institute said it gives boosters a rating of BEST BET, GOOD BET, Check Fit or Not Recommended, using a protocol that involves measuring how three-point lap and shoulder belts fit a child-size test dummy seated in the device on a stationary test fixture. The evaluations don’t involve crash tests.
Prices for BEST BET boosters range from $25 to $370.
Here’s IIHS’ list of booster seat rankings:
BEST BET
Baby Trend Hybrid 3-in-1 (backless mode)
Baby Trend Hybrid No Back (backless)
Britax Frontier 90 (highback)
Britax Pinnacle 90 (highback)
Britax Pioneer 70 (highback)
BubbleBum Neon (backless)
Cybex Solution X-Fix (highback)
Diono Solana (backless)
Dream On Me Turbo Booster (highback mode)
Eddie Bauer Deluxe Belt-Positioning Booster (highback mode)
Eddie Bauer Deluxe Highback 65 (highback)
Evenflo Chase (highback)
Evenflo Symphony 65 (highback)
Graco Argos 80 Elite 3-in-1 (backless mode)
Graco Argos 80 Elite 3-in-1 (highback mode)
Graco 4Ever All-in-1 (backless mode)
Graco 4Ever All-in-1 (highback mode)
Graco Milestone All-in-1 (highback)
Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 with Safety Surround (highback mode)
Kids Embrace Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (highback)
Maxi-Cosi Rodi AP (highback mode)
Maxi-Cosi RodiFix (highback)
Peg Perego Viaggio HBB 120 (highback mode)
Recaro Performance Booster (highback)
Safety 1st Store ‘n Go (highback mode)
Safety 1st Store ‘n Go No-Back (backless)
Safety 1st Summit 65 (highback)
GOOD BET
Baby Trend Hybrid 3-in-1 (highback mode)
Cybex Solution Q-Fix (highback)
Diono Rainier (highback)
CHECK FIT
Dream On Me Coupe Booster (backless)
Dream On Me Turbo Booster (backless mode)
Eddie Bauer Deluxe Belt-Positioning Booster (backless mode)
Graco Nautilus 3-in-1 with Safety Surround (backless mode)
Harmony Folding Travel Booster (highback)
Maxi-Cosi Rodi AP (backless mode)
Peg Perego Viaggio HBB 120 (backless mode)
Safety 1st Store ‘n Go (backless mode)
NOT RECOMMENDED
Diono Olympia (highback)
Diono Pacifica (highback)
Kids Embrace Batman No Back Booster (backless)
Note the Batman booster seat which would appeal to grandmas as a special gift is a no-no!
You can watch the NBC News video segment here.
The NBC News video included two of the most adorable children in a car in booster seats, saying it is “obvious’ that they cannot wait until they are old enough not to be in booster seats. That is the point. Our grandchildren balk at being in a booster seat because it is called a booster seat! Yes, they like being tall enough in a booster seat to be able to look out of the window. However, four year olds to eight year olds want to be grown up and the “booster” seat, transitioning from a “baby” car seat, just has a bad name.
This Grandma started to think of names to rename the “booster” seat. I came up with “helicopter seat,” because it allows the child to be high enough to see everything like in a helicopter, and four to eight year olds love helicopters. However, this is a car seat. I went to the Thesaurus on line and there are actual synonyms for booster seat. None of them work to make a booster seat sound like something exciting for a child to sit in. Then I came upon “rocket booster.” “Rocket seat” might work. However, two things hit me.
First is that all grandchildren love anything electronic. I think something like “I Seat” might work.
Second, I realized that I am far from a marketing professional. We should leave this renaming to those in the know about such things.
So here it is: Booster seat manufacturers take note. We Grandmas are tired of dealing with complaining grandchildren not wanting to sit in booster seats because of their name. We want happy grandchildren. Please think about this and think of a wonderful new name for booster seats that our grandchildren will be excited about sitting in. I think this is called rebranding?
All of you grandmas out there, and all of you parents of grandchildren unite! Send emails to the top manufacturers, Baby Trend and Britax, encouraging them to have their marketing departments think of a cool and exciting name for four year olds to eight year olds to feel grown-up and special – in a new booster seat renamed for them to feel grownup and special.
Here are the email addresses and forms:
Joy,
Mema
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