Car Seats/Booster Seats for NJ and NY Question

[Seraphine]

Hi all :)

 

We'll be travelling with our 5 year old and 18 month old in November. I've checked the car seat laws, and they specify a car seat for our youngest and a booster seat for our oldest. Okay, no problems there.

 

But... when they say "booster seat", do they mean the 1 piece ones, or the ones with a back on them? At home, our son uses one with a back on it, but it unsnaps into two pieces, a seat and a back. Travelling with only the seat piece would make life easier, but I wanted to check with people to see if there was some sort of difference in the US about this.

 

 

Our daughters' car seat weights a ton, so I'm looking for some less heavy options there. She has a rear-facing seat (one with a handle, like a bucket seat) that we stopped using a few months ago as she was allowed to face forward. She still fits it, but I don't know if it's still considered safe for her age and size.

 

Advice is gratefully received!

[6rugrats]

Booster seat without the back should be fine for your five year old.

[khm1]

Check the label on the side of the car seat for your DD. It should have and height and weight limit printed there. Ours had a weight limit of 30 lbs. We used our "bucket" infant seat (without the base)for travel long after she switched to her forward-facing seat. It was much easier to travel with. Many countries require children to be rear-facing for the fist few YEARS! As long as she meets the manufacture's height/weight requirement, there is no problem with using it.

[Seraphine]

Our rear-facing seat says "universal weight limit of 13kg" and our daughter is only 10kg! No height limit written on the seat though - I'll have to check that out. Still, that would be great news if we can take that seat instead - the one I'm using now weighs a TON. Thanks for the advice!

 

And good news about my son's booster - now that I've learned that RCI don't have laundry rooms, my hopes of keeping my packing to a minimum has suffered a bit, so every pound I can cut out of our packing counts a lot right now! (not to mention that I'm travelling alone with two kids and have a tiny baggage allowance for the baby as she's still a lap child... lots of fun!)

[NYteacher]

I do not know if this is true, but I read on another thread that car seats/boosters are not counted in the weight allowance. This makes sense to me.