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Austin Babies
when did you turn your car seat FF?
Pedi got onto me today for still having DD RF in the car. I thought the recommendation (new) was to RF until 2 yo. He's going by the old standards.
Should I listen to the pedi and consider it?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: when did you turn your car seat FF?
With Ben, we went FF at 12 months. Then when he was about 19 months old, the new recommendations were coming out and we turned him back to rear-facing. We kept him RF until about 2.5 years old.
With Molly, we'll keep her rear-facing until she is at least two. Her pediatrician advised RF at Molly's last appointment, but we had planned to anyway.
For the record, Ben is super tall and he did just fine with his legs crisscross while he was RF.
I thought so too. I think he's a great pedi aside from this blunder. I thought I'd double check w/ you all.
May I suggest that you politely inform him of the new standards? RF'ing is a pretty big deal, and the idea that he's going out of his way to tell his patients bad information scares the heck out of me.
I am shocked that your pedi chided you about that!! DD is still RF. She's on the tall end of the spectrum (80% for height) and is totally fine RF. We plan on keeping her that way as long as she'll tolerate it or until she hits the height limit, whichever comes first.
Tell your DH, MIL, and pedi that the new recommendations are for 2 as a minimum, and that really RF is the absolute safest way to drive in a car, so why switch if you don't have to?
I *just* turned the boys around like last month or so because, well, for stupid reasons. I wish I'd kept them RF longer (they were a little over 2.5 when I turned them), but whatever.
My reasons, as lame as they may be:
Jay turned the boys FF when I went to NYC (I was gone almost a week) and he said they really loved it.
They're almost at the height limit for their carseat.
I hit Cooper's head on the car every.single.time I put him in his carseat due to the way I had to finagle him into it.
This. We didn't keep DS facing until he hit the limit, but we moved him at around 21 months.
I may be splitting hairs here but because it's the law to keep them rearfacing until age 1 and you *can* turn them forward facing after that, it's often mistakenly assumed to be equal to recommending that they be forward facing at 1.
Obviously even pediatricians have made that mistake for years, even before the new AAP recommendations. Safety experts have been recommending extended rear facing for years but they only got most states to agree to rear facing to age 1 yr and even now it's still only a *recommendation* for rearfacing till 2 yrs, not a law. I'm glad to hear you're keeping the baby rear facing.
And for folks who worry that the child's legs will break in a collision while rear facing- the safety folks have a morbid saying: "Broken legs, cast it. Broken neck, casket"
no judgement here. this is exactly why i turned lily on her exact 365th day of life. for the love of all that is holy i might have gone insane if i'd had to listen to her screaming for one more day. every moment she was in the car awake = screaming.
With that situation, driving distracted as a parent is probably putting the child in a lot more danger than the risks associated with being FF in a collision. Anyone who judges you for that has clearly never had a screams-til-he-pukes kid.
seriously it is easy to laugh about it now but she once cried all the way from dallas to austin. that is three hours. i remember being in tears pulling over like 5 times trying to console her and calling my husband saying 'i just want to drive off the road into a tree!' and i meant it. it was absolutely horrendous.
Kate is still rear facing and she's 2 1/2. She's in the 90% for height. She jusShchirosses her legs or dangles them over the side.
She has ridden FF once in my mom's car because she exceeded the RFing limits in my mom's carseat. She had no problems going back to RFing in my car. We will keep her RFing until she exceeds the limits for her seat which will be awhile. I deliberately bought the largest shell I could fine. (Sunshine Radion).
I agree with PPs recommending that you consider changing pediatricians. I would be very concerned with what else he was not up to date with.
In response to the posts recommending that you find another doctor, I really don't think this is an issue that is worth changing pediatricians over. You know the information about rear-facing until two, so do that. Pediatricians are very busy people. Recommendations on a lot of things come out all the time and they are always changing so it can take a little while to catch up. Cut the guy a little slack. Unless this was the straw that broke the camel's back with regard to unsound recommendations, just keep your kid RF and help educate your pedi.
DITTO.
And even before the change, it was never recommended that babies automatically be put to FF at age 1 year. It was just that ya could.
You only lose safety as you go from one step to the next. The longer you can stay RF in a 5 point harness or FF in a 5 point, the better. SOOO many people get their kids on the scale at work and by some magic number go "Oh good, now they can go in a booster". Booster is a dirty word. Such a false sense of security =( It's not a weight based goal, it's a fit. I wonder if your pedi chides folks who have kids 50+ pounds"still" in their 5 point harness.
UHG. I won't deny it I am looking forward to turning Emily and she is not the least bit on the small side. It's one of those irrational "next step, big girl" things. However she's fine RF and so am I with having her that way. M_and_m sends me these articles all the time of kids in car accidents in European countries where the only one to survive was the RF kiddo. Eh. Call it a guilt trip but I'm not turning her Thursday just because she'll be 2. Now screaming? I think I'd have to compromise a little