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Car Seat Conundrum
Keeping Toddlers Safe on the Road
By Teri Brown
weighs 20 pounds, though it is best to keep children facing backward as long as their car seat allows.
Most convertible car seats allow parents to rear face their child to 30 pounds. When a child is facing the rear of the vehicle, they are protected by the car seat. The car seat will take the brunt of the crash and not the child's neck and spine. Children can outgrow these seats height-wise, too. When a child is forward facing, once his shoulders are above the top harness slots, he is too tall for the seat.
Combination types of car seats typically go from 20 pounds to around 40 pounds with the harness and then up to 80 to 100 pounds as a booster seat (without the harness). Children should face backward in a convertible seat as long as the car seat allows. These seats are great for those children who are too tall for their convertible seats and weigh less than 40 pounds. The longer you keep a child in a five-point harness the better. Once the 
child weighs more than 40 pounds you would remove the harness system and use the seat as a belt-positioning booster seat (with a lap and shoulder belt).
Booster seats and belt-positioning booster seats are designed for children who weigh from approximately 30 pounds to 80 pounds, sometimes over 100 pounds. It is not recommended that a child weighing less than 40 pounds be placed in a booster seat because they are much safer in a five-point harness system (two points of protection on the shoulder, two on the thighs and one in between the leg).