Carseats: Would you turn DS, 21 months?

veloelle

DS (will be 2 in late March) is RF behind the driver seat and DD is FF behind the passenger seat (5 yrs old). DD is in a Graco 5-point high back booster, DS in a Britax Marathon.

Lately DS has been crying after about 30 min in the car; he tugs on his harness like he wants out of the seat. When the car is in the garage, he'll jump in DD's FF carseat and be all excited.

I'm wondering if I should turn him. We drive a.lot. and it's been tough having him crying for 30+ min on my drive home.  If I do turn him, would you swap seats so he's on the passenger side? DD's only about 38 lbs, so she's still in a harness and will be in a harness for quite some time. I'm thinking about all those videos on YouTube of crash dummies, thinking since he's smaller he should be on the statistically safer side of the car. DS is about 27 lbs.

 

shopgirl78

If its a bigger distraction and puts your driving at risk, I would.

I just changed DS2 for a few reasons:  we had two long well 2+ hour trips, he is turning his head funny to watch the TV when the kids have it on, and we eat in the car on Monday evenings...I hate not seeing him. 

ccm1203

Yes, I would turn him.  I don't really know if I would switch sides though...

lsufan

I turned all of mine between 14-16 months.  I would turn him if he were screaming for 30 minutes, as I figure it's not safe to have that distraction while you're driving.

penguingrrl

You can definitely try it and see if it helps. Emma went through a stage like that at 22 months, so I turned her around. Not only did it not stop the screaming, but it ended up making her angry because when she dropped stuff it fell out of reach so she would lose her blankie, toys and water cup, but she also couldn't sleep because any time she fell asleep her head would slump at that would wake her up. We ended up turning her back to RF and she was far happier, so she's still RF and will be to the limits of the seat because after her fuss FF I'm afraid she'll be miserable again!

Jena503

LOL! That was how dd reacted too when we sat her ffing in a rental car around that age. Ds loves to run for dd's seat too, but he's still rfing for now (26mo 30lb). I guess i might try it if there are no other options. Right now ds can usually be soothed with "dora music" which is actually a diego cd.