Are they still RF or are they FF in the car? (I'm especially interested in answers if your LO is under 30 lbs).
Sorry to be annoying. I'm just getting a different board's thoughts/opinions on the topic. DD is 24 lbs and still RF (Britax Marathon). I'm debating re-evaluating at 3 (July) and possibly turning her around but i'm unsure... Barring a miracle, I know that she will definitely not be 30 lbs by her birthday.
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Re: Clicky poll about your 3 year old (re: carseat)
We switched DD1 about a month after her third birthday. She was 28 lbs. at her 3-year check-up.
She was content RFing, but it was getting harder for me to squeeze her in there. Plus, with DD2 about to outgrow her infant seat, we needed to get a new carseat and opted to get a five-point booster for DD1 (which meant she has to FF now) and pass down the convertible seat to DD2.
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if my child was under 30lbs i'd keep him rear facing.
Griffin is 41lbs and is forward facing... he has been since 18mo. The twins will be rear facing until 2y/o at least. Gibby is 37lbs so I will likely turn him around at 2y/o, but Gray is only 24lbs right now so he might stay RF longer than 2y/o.
do what you feel is best for your child - we all know RF is safer extended... and your child is quite small for 3y/o so i see no reason to turn.
IUI- BFN IVF #1 -BFP! Allie is our 2nd IVF baby. Born at 36 1/2 weeks after pre-e again
OP, the benefit to extended RF has less to do with the child's weight and more to do with skeletal maturity. A child's skeleton doesn't completely ossify until approximately 6 years of age. At that point, you have complete vertebrae around the spinal column. The longer you can keep them RF, the less of a risk there is of there spinal cord being stretched in a crash. There are no seats on the US market that will take the average child to six RF, but a seat with a 40 lb rear facing limit [such as the Graco MyRide 65, Safety 1st Complete Air, or Sunshine Kids Radian XTSL (with a 45 lb RFlimit)] will take many to age 4.
Best practice would be to keep your child RF to the limits of her seat. If you have no compelling reason to turn her at 3, I wouldn't.
Ditto this. We only turned him when he hit 35 lbs at about 2 and 9 mos.
DD has various leg positions- crossed, straight with her feet up on the seat back in front of her (by the head rest), hanging over each side of the seat. DD is 35" tall with really long legs (3T length) for her height, and she finds a way to be comfortable.
I can't speak from experience but it's my understanding that the Britax seats off less RF leg room than other seats. We have a Graco MyRide and Safety 1st Complete Air and DS has plenty of leg room in both. He's comfortable to cross his legs or prop them on the seat back. Most children prefer to have a place to put their feet as opposed to having them hang in front of them. Also, children are flexible. They fit into positions that are comfortable for them that would never be comfortable for an adult.
My dd is 29/30 lbs depending on the day, so I put here over 30. She will be three in less than 2 months. She is forward facing.
The AAP now recommends keeping children RF until their second birthday--preferably longer. Many pediatricians are not even aware of this change and more are not car seat experts as it is. If you do a Google search you will find numerous resources explaining exactly why RF is preferred over FF. The benefits are irrefutable. Also, there are many seats on the market that RF to as high as 45 lbs--well beyond a child's first birthday.
Best practice would be to keep them RF beyond one year, to the limits of their seat. Turning a child at one year and twenty pounds is not in the best interest of the child, and it's not the requirement--it's the legal minimum for FF.
I guess maybe it is what is done in Canada. I am Canadian and everyone I know switches around 1 year to FF. A playgroup mom was talking the other day about hearing that it is better to keep them RF until 2. So I guess it may start to be the norm here soon once it catches on here.
It's not just Canada. Everyone I know IRL turns their kid at one and 20 too. Well, some, I suspect turn at one OR 20, but that's a different story. ERF is slowly catching on but the information is just starting to get out there. And, like I said, I would venture that most pediatricians are still telling parents to go ahead and turn their babies at the one and 20 mark because they're not aware of the new recommendation. I was also told that at my son's 12 month well child visit, which was after we had made the decision to keep him RF for as long as possible.