Car Seats--What Is Best for Child? : Auto Safety: Experts are divided over whether booster seats or lap belts are the best way to protect the young ones in the car.

The second baby has arrived, so it’s time to play musical car seats. If you were thinking of putting junior in a booster seat so the baby can have his car safety seat, you may want to think twice about it.

Safety specialists are divided over the issue of how safe booster seats (small car seats without backs or sides) really are.

Some say the right booster seat used under the right conditions is perfectly safe. Others believe they do not provide as much protection as a simple lap belt, especially when used on children who are too small for them.

“We feel anyone putting a child who is under 40 pounds in a booster is really looking for a lot of trouble,” says Lorrie Walker, a safety trainer with the American Academy of Pediatrics.

As children reach the toddler stage, many parents make the switch from a car seat to a booster seat, thinking it is just as safe.

Under federal law, booster seats must pass the same crash standards as car seats. According to Kent Milton, a spokesman for the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, all of the booster seats on the market were tested in January and all of them passed the government-set standards. Previously, Milton says, Pride-Trimble’s Click’n Go had failed the compliance test. Pride-Trimble last year recalled at least 6,000 booster seats carrying the model numbers 890, 892 and 891. They’ve since been modified and replaced with models bearing the numbers 890-1, 891-1 and 892-1. The company’s newly designed booster seats passed the January compliance test as well, Milton says.

But the American Academy of Pediatrics says the safety level of booster seats depends on the type of booster seat and the circumstances under which they are used.

“There is no one answer. That’s the problem,” says the academy’s Walker. “A lot of it depends on the booster seat used, the size and the age of the child, the lap and shoulder belt system in the car.

“In some cases your child may be better off with just a lap belt in the back seat,” says Walker. “At least the child isn’t going to be ejected.”

Kathleen Weber, senior research associate at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, has conducted more than 100 tests on booster seats. Weber says there has never been a case in the United States where a child was ejected from a properly used booster seat.

But she agrees that a child may be better off in a simple lap belt if the alternative is a low-shield booster seat that is kept in place with a lap belt.

The problem with boosters that only require a lap belt is that there is nothing to prevent the child from moving forward on impact. A booster with a shoulder-lap belt will prevent the child from being ejected or hitting the shield.

“There have been injuries of children, abdominal injuries because their torso hasn’t been restrained,” Walker says.

The best type of booster seat to use is one with a large frontal shield that is kept in place with a shoulder-lap belt.

Although manufacturers generally say booster seats can be used for children 20 to 70 pounds, Walker says that simply isn’t the case.

Any child who can see out of the car window is too big for a booster and would be better off in the back seat with a shoulder-lap belt.

Children under 40 pounds should never be put in a booster seat, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Walker says children under 40 pounds are too small and can slide around too much during a collision. In the long run, Walker says a child under 40 pounds who sits still would be better off in a lap belt than in a booster seat if the child can properly wear a lap belt.

Anyone with questions about car seat safety can call (800) CAR-BELT, the American Academy of Pediatrics’ toll-free number.