High Back Booster v Backless Booster Cushion
A High Back Booster has several safety benefits over a Backless Booster Cushion
- Side Impact Protection: adds protection for your child’s torso and head. In a booster cushion, there is no protective layer between your child and the car door in a side impact.
- Headrest: designed to limit side-to-side head movement in a collision and provide additional comfort for children, especially if they fall asleep.
- Shoulder Belt Guide for correct belt positioning away from the neck.
- Lap Belt Guide for keeping the belt away from the organs in the soft abdominal area (model dependent) and to help prevent submarining (child sliding out underneath the car 3 point belt).
See below crash test video from Britax demonstrating the difference between how a High Back Booster protects a child versus a Backless Booster Cushion.
A backless booster cushion is only recommended when a child has outgrown a HBB either by weight or height and does not pass the 5 point test below to sit correctly in a car with the car 3 point belt only.
New Backless Booster Cushions are now only legally suitable from 22kg or 125cm.
The car 3 point belt is approved for adults from 150cm so that is why it is so important to use a car seat restraint until age 11 / 12 approx. It is also a legal requirement in Ireland that children are in a car seat restraint until 150cm or 36kg.
High Back Booster Limits
High Back Boosters are either weight or height based, depending on which EU Regulation they are approved under.
R44 is weight based with limits from 15kg to 36kg. R129 i-Size HBB are height based and the limits are 100cm to 150cm.
See our full collection of the safest High Back Boosters and help your child travel as safe as possible and for as long as possible.
Rearfacing.ie Collection of the Safest High Back Booster Car Seats
See our full blog post on how to use a High Back Booster correctly: click here
We provide all our customers with installation support and if you did not purchase a seat from us but you are not sure if it is installed correctly, just contact us and we would be more than happy to help.