When to switch preemie to front facing car seat?

New Wife · April 2010

So James will be 1 in June, I know I cant believe it. anyway, we are facing a delema. He is getting too big for his rear facing seat but i dont know if i can switch him over to a front facing at his 1st birthday or do you wait until his due date to consider him safe for the front facing seat? i really dont want to have to get a conversion seat for a couple of months and we have a forward facing seat that is new in the box and we cant exchange it at this point. any thoughts would be great! thanks ladies

Clotho! · April 2010

there is actually new new recommendation from the aap that children be rear facing until 2 or as long as possible. S isn't going to make it that long b/c his legs are already going up the back of the seat. Our pedi gave us the ok at a year since he was past 20lbs.

KellyMichelle · April 2010

The law is 1 year and 20 pounds, but like the pp said the AAP reccomends rear facing until 2. I kept Noah RF until 3. I would really consider a convertible carseat. It is so much safer for their neck and spine to be in the RF position. I have the Radian 65. I love it. It is rear facing until 35 pounds and then forward facing 5-point harness until 65 pounds.

ijack · April 2010

Ditto the others. It's actually really easy for them to just fold their legs up, they don't know any difference. There is a youtube video that explains the differences.

Emma technically could still be in her infant seat, but we moved her to a RF convertible at a year because it was easy to get her in and out of and then switched her to FF at 2.

mrsmikey · April 2010

You can get a convertible seat for pretty cheap. I would do that and keep him RF as long as possible. The Cosco Scenara is like $40.

Mrs. Destructo · April 2010

Yeah, I would also keep him rear facing as long as possible. We moved our kids out of their infant seats at 8 months because I was on the verge of seriously injuring the 3 of us when I tried to carry both of them around at the same time and I knew I'd keep on trying to do it until they were out of those seats. They've been in Britax Boulevards since then and love them. They're still rear facing at 2.5 and they will remain rear facing for at least 6 more months, longer if they're under 35 lb.

jehprb · April 2010

Ditto the "rear face as long as possible" posts! I was able to keep my son RFing until he was almost 3.5yrs old (26-ish lbs and over 40" tall) before he got too tall and had to be turned around.

meldoo2002 · April 2010

We are keeping them rear facing until at least 2 based on the current recommendations. We have a convertible and have had them in it since they were 6 months old. I won't be turning them around anytime soon.

Aidge · April 2010

We just moved Sam to FF yesterday at 22 mo old... and this was only b/c our car is small and with 2 car seats, it was getting tricky (we have the Britax as well). Sam, though, is 30 lbs and tall.

Ace1599 · April 2010

We are also going RF for as long as possible. We have a convertible carseat that goes up to 40lbs RF, so we will stick with that. I got mine (Safety first complete air) and BRU for 100 bucks with coupons/Bru bucks. also check amazon, babysupermall.com, diapers.com. They all have some good deals on carseats and good coupon codes.

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When to switch preemie to front facing car seat?

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