XP: Car seat question for mom's already with a LO

tessab2515 · April 2010

DD is just over 17 months, and I still have her rear facing for her carseat. DH is arguing with me about turning her around because she is really tall so her legs are scrunched up. Other parents with children around her age have them facing forward. I originally had planned to turn her at 1, but then heard about it getting pushed back to 2. I have a feeling we'll turn her in a couple of months when LO comes so that the car seats fit in together better but then she'll be a little older and closer to 2. I'm just curious if most others are turning their LO's when they are 1 or waiting until closer to 2. What are you doing?

summer_aka_chewchew · April 2010

ive never heard of waiting until 2.. i turned her around 1 or so.

KristenBtobe · April 2010

We turned her at 21 months when we installed the infant base. My husband wouldn't be able to drive otherwise. I wanted to make it to age 2 rear facing. I'd take a broken leg over a head or neck injury any day.

jessie55 · April 2010

DS is 25 months and still rearfacing..i really don't want to turn him but will probably have to when we install the baby seat. I'm waiting until then. As long as shes not complaining about her legs I wouldn't worry about it, kids like to sit like that- DS never complains. Also we have the seat reclined a bit (had it installed at the fire station and thats how they did it) so he has more room

lkf041 · April 2010

I was torn about this too. We just turned my DS's carseat to front facing. He is also very tall for his age and is roughly the size of a 2 yr old so I felt like it was ok to turn him. I wanted to wait as long as possible so making it to 16 months was pretty good.

tessab2515 · April 2010

I feel like people think I'm crazy for keeping her rear facing so it's good to hear others are doing it too. DH turned her in his vehicle Angry

, but he really only drives her to daycare and back (which is right down the road). If we go anywhere, especially longer distances, we almost always take my care.

Bride2b2004 · April 2010

There are a lot of people that don't turn until two (or even older) and everything I have researched indicates that rear facing is the safest position. The scrunched legs is no big deal at all and it doesn't reflect on safety. If it were me and she was happy rear facing, I would keep her that way. The baby will be rear facing anyway, so it might be good to have them both the same way. For us, we turned DS pretty much as soon as we could because he was always a NIGHTMARE in the car. He hated it and only became bearable when we finally turned him forward so he could see everything. I wish we could have kept him rear facing longer.

Kelly-renee · April 2010

Here are 2 links from my peds website about it

https://infant-toddler-health.suite101.com/article.cfm/keeping_toddlers_rear_facing_until_age_2

https://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/30/4/12-a

I plan on keeping mine rear facing until they no longer fit in the carseat this way.

calico77 · April 2010

I kept DS rear facing until he reached the Marathon's RF weight limits. He was a few months before age 2. He never knew the difference and we had a mirror so he could see us which made it bearable for him. He is 89%tile for length/height at 3 years old so he is a tall guy. I will do it again as long as I can with #2. I think our newer Marathon actually goes a few pounds heavier for rear facing.

MontrealWing · April 2010

I turned DS around a few days after his second birthday. I feel it is better for their legs to get scrunched/broken in an accident then what would happen if they were front facing too early. The reason I decided to turn him was because he is tall and I keep smashing his head into the door frame. I will keep #2 RF until 2 as well.

asned · April 2010

Extended RFing is *extremely* better: soooooo much safer.

With that said, I would never try to tell you what to do. If DD#1 will stay RFing I would continue to do it as long as possible. But know that you have done it a lot longer than a lot of parents so turning her around would be ok too.

Court0026 · April 2010

We are RFing until 2 if it works out that way. Safer and he doesn't know any different and is great in the car. Many people do not know about the safety issues and the new recommendations. It is too bad.

ToBeMrsT · April 2010

we turned ds at 14 months because he was really terrible in the car. He would cry hysterically and then make himself sick. I would have kept him RF until 2 if he wasn't that way. You're right it is recommended you keep them RF until 2 yrs now.

CarolinaKatie · April 2010

I was going to wait till after 12 months, but DS's pedi said it was fine to turn him. He was in the 90th percentile for height and 70th for weight so he was well over the minimum requirements. He LOVED being turned around where he could see more.

I have a friend whose first son was tiny and was not big enough to get turned till around 16 months. She kept him turned for a couple more months just because. Her second little boy has drawfism. He's just over 2 and will probably be turned around till he's like 4 and he HATES it seeing his big brother turned around!

BlueRidgeMama · April 2010

I turned DD a while ago. I like being able to see her in the mirror, and she is more comfortable. I would have liked to wait til 2 in theory, but it was too hard.

schnappycat · April 2010

We just turned DS last week at almost 27 months. I would have liked to have kept him RFing longer, but we had to install the infant seat and he was getting close to the RFing height limit. I guess it's good we made it as long as we did!

KeepingItLowKey · April 2010

DD is 18.5 months and is still rear facing. We'll keep her that was as long as possible, but she's 95% for height so we may wind up having to switch her when the baby is here (at 21 months) because I am not sure the carseat will fit rear facing in my car when it's not in the middle anymore.

lisaroo · April 2010

We turned DD at 17 months, which I felt really guilty about because I really wanted to wait until age 2. BUT, she was such a nightmare in the car that her screams and tantrums were such a distraction while I was driving that DH and I decided it was probably more dangerous than turning her. Life has been much easier since!

jays_bride · April 2010

I switched her at 21 months. We visited ILs and took the spare seat which was FF only. When we got back, she whined to ride in DH's car because that is where the spare one is. So, though I had wanted to hold off until 2, I did give in to her...That being said, at her 2 year well check up, the pedi paper finally mentioned the change in recommendation to 2 years.

CD+AL · April 2010

DS is still RFing, and he's just now w/in about 1/4in of the height limit (weight is still ok). Plus, he's big for his age. We're turning him around when we move his seat to the driver side to install the infant seat for DD b/c he's so close, but for me, until they hit either the height or weight limit, it's best to leave them RFing...far safer. Better safe than sorry IMO.

lep712 · April 2010

I turned my DD around when she was probably about 14 months. I know the benefits of staying rear facing longer, but car rides were becoming pretty miserable for us because she was getting so cranky.

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