Rear facing poll

rider5344 · October 2012

?[Poll]

rider5344 · October 2012

I only ask because DH is talking about turning him and I'm on the fence.

sucredee · October 2012

DD is 28 months old and still RF. I have no plans to turn her FF anytime soon either. She's is perfectly content that way and itis easy to install with a seat belt (no tether needed). Granted I haven't tried to FF it but it seems like it might be a pain to find a tether hook on rental cars (we travel a lot).

Stephanie2167 · October 2012

DD was about 18-19 months. We would have kept her rear facing for longer but we took a two day drive out to visit family for Thanksgiving last year and we didn't want her rear facing the whole drive. So we turned her around for the drive. Once we got back we rear faced her again but decided we were ready for her to be forward facing.

jf198400 · October 2012

DD is 26 months and still RFing. I would like her to stay RFing until 3yrs, we'll have to see if she outgrows her seat before then.

sara785 · October 2012

sucredee:
DD is 28 months old and still RF. I have no plans to turn her FF anytime soon either. She's is perfectly content that way and itis easy to install with a seat belt no tether needed. Granted I haven't tried to FF it but it seems like it might be a pain to find a tether hook on rental cars we travel a lot.

I never used the tether hook in my car because we took my seat out so often to use in m parent's car. I used the seatbelt for RF and FF.

jamiedsgirl · October 2012

Two of our seats go to 35lbs, and one goes to 40lbs, so I might switch them all when he gets to 35lbs. Speaking of which, I should weigh him soon because I feel like he is getting close. I'd like to switch him before new baby comes in March (he will be 2 and 9 months by then) just because I don't think we can fit two rear facing seats in our cars/truck.

mbgreenwalt · October 2012

I turned at 21 months with DD1. DH couldn't fit in the driver's seat of our old car with DD's seat RF. Our new car has even less space between seats now and I couldn't get it to work. We'll be able to keep DD2 RF for along time because it doesn't matter how far up the passenger seat is.

Leap08 · October 2012

We turned our oldest right at 2 yrs - just before her sister was born. We turned her because we couldn't comfortably fit both seats RFing in our Corolla. The driver's seat had to be moved too far forward. I'm not sure how long we'll keep the baby RFing. I'd say until at least 2 and then we'll decide.

MrsWindyCity · October 2012

I put as long as possible, but there is a bit of a caveat I guess. DS will be just about 3 when LO #2 arrives. When LO #2 has to move to a convertible from the infant seat, we will likely turn DS FF because we'll be buying a new seat, and I don't think DS would fit RF behind DH's driver's side, anyway.

ETA: I'm pretty sure he has enough room to stay in the seat RF till 3, and probably longer but obviously if he is too tall before then, we'd move him.

tarebear9891 · October 2012

My oldest was 2.5 and my youngest the week before he turned 2. DS2 outgrew the limits on his seat (he is a big boy and you can tell from the picture, he is the same size as his older brother). We would have kept him RFing longer if not for that.

Makena · October 2012

DS will be 3 on Sunday. He's 42lbs & 40", BIG! ...he's still rear facing in his Radian. & will be until he outgrows it.

BrittKav · October 2012

My daughter will be 3 in a couple weeks. We're trying to decide whether to turn her or buy a new car seat so she can RF until 4. She is currently 36 inches which is RFing height limit for her seat.

Angela814 · October 2012

I voted for as long as physically possible.

DD1 outgrew the rfing height limit of our Marathon at 2.5 years. Back then there weren't a lot of other options. The rfing weight limit of her seat was 33 lbs, and she was 32 lbs when she outgrew it.

DD2 is 27 months and rfing. The weight limit on her True Fit is 35 lbs and Radian is 45 lbs. She'll outgrow the Radian by height first but the True Fit by weight first. I play to buy the Graco My Size 70 to keep her rfing in our main vehicle. It has a 40 lbs rfing limit and extendable head rest that should get her to that weight. I estimate she'll be almost 4 years.

TriciaandSean · October 2012

My short term goal is 3 but I will re-evaluate once we get there. I see no advantage to turning him to FF. My son is small, 26 lbs 32.75" at his 2 year appointment. At the rate he's growing his car seat will expire before he outgrows the RF limits.

Shayna0182 · October 2012

We started rear facing at 12 months, however, the guidelines a few years ago were a bit different than they are now. This was 2.5 years ago, and his pedi told us it was fine to rear face. Now, I think it is RF until 2.

memali26 · October 2012

DD1 is 2.5 and still RFing. Our goal is to keep her RFing until she's 3, but she is tall and there is a very slight chance she'll outgrow her seat by height before then. When she turns 3 we'll get her a new FFing seat and give her convertible seat to DD2, who is itty bitty and still in her infant seat at 13 months.

cmhicklin · October 2012

We have to turn DD at 2 1/2, because there isn't room for RF behind the drivers seat. I hate to turn her then, because she has been in the 25th percentile for weight since 1. I wish we could afford another car!!!

racegrrl714 · October 2012

DD was about fifteen months when we FF'd her. Our Graco MyRide has five strap slots and the middle (third) slot is the highest RF slot. She was too tall at the time to continue using the third slot. She is now 26 months, and about to outgrow the very top slot. I'm wondering if the Graco Nautilus is any better for taller kids or if we'll run into the same problem if we buy it, because I don't yet want her to be out of a five point harness, but I don't want to spend that much money on one that we can't use the harness on for very long.

Angela814 · October 2012

racegrrl714:
DD was about fifteen months when we FF'd her. Our Graco MyRide has five strap slots and the middle (third) slot is the highest RF slot. She was too tall at the time to continue using the third slot. She is now 26 months, and about to outgrow the very top slot. I'm wondering if the Graco Nautilus is any better for taller kids or if we'll run into the same problem if we buy it, because I don't yet want her to be out of a five point harness, but I don't want to spend that much money on one that we can't use the harness on for very long.

The slots for rfing just have to be at or below the shoulders. I'm not sure you can outgrow the slot. Generally kids will outgrow the seat when their head is less than 1" from the top of the shell. Our TrueFit only has 2 slots for rfing; DD2's shoulders are probably 1/2"-3/4" above the top rfing slot.

I think the top shoulder slot on the Nautilus is 18". (Ours is in Grandma's car so I can't actually measure it.) DD1 was always about 1" above the charts for height (38" at 2 years, 41 1/2" at 3 years, 44" at 4 years), and she outgrew the Marathon (16" top slot) around 4.5 years. We moved her to a high back booster at 5 years, but she still had room to grow in the Nautilus if we had wanted to keep her harnessed. The thing about the Nautilus is that it doesn't make a great booster in all kids, so you won't know if it will work in booster mode.

MrsCAA · October 2012

we swithced at 20 months when DS started to get motion sickness riding backwards

sschwege · October 2012

DD is still RF and hopefully we have another year. Her car seat RF has a weight limit of I think 35lbs, but I know the height limit is when her head reaches one inch below the top of the car seat, so whenever that happens...

racegrrl714 · October 2012

Angela814:

racegrrl714:
DD was about fifteen months when we FF'd her. Our Graco MyRide has five strap slots and the middle (third) slot is the highest RF slot. She was too tall at the time to continue using the third slot. She is now 26 months, and about to outgrow the very top slot. I'm wondering if the Graco Nautilus is any better for taller kids or if we'll run into the same problem if we buy it, because I don't yet want her to be out of a five point harness, but I don't want to spend that much money on one that we can't use the harness on for very long.

The slots for rfing just have to be at or below the shoulders. I'm not sure you can outgrow the slot. Generally kids will outgrow the seat when their head is less than 1" from the top of the shell. Our TrueFit only has 2 slots for rfing; DD2's shoulders are probably 1/2"-3/4" above the top rfing slot.

I think the top shoulder slot on the Nautilus is 18". (Ours is in Grandma's car so I can't actually measure it.) DD1 was always about 1" above the charts for height (38" at 2 years, 41 1/2" at 3 years, 44" at 4 years), and she outgrew the Marathon (16" top slot) around 4.5 years. We moved her to a high back booster at 5 years, but she still had room to grow in the Nautilus if we had wanted to keep her harnessed. The thing about the Nautilus is that it doesn't make a great booster in all kids, so you won't know if it will work in booster mode.

I guess my kid has an abnormally long torso or something,which is probably the case because she's a tall kid but her pants are too long... and her shirts are too short. LOL (Her dad has the same problem...) Her head WAS within an inch of the top of the shell when RF. And her shoulders were probably two inches above that third strap at that time. I was looking at BRU's website and found a Britax Frontier that has like ten different strap positions, but of course it's about $100 more than the Nautilus too. Angry

sucredee · October 2012

sara785:
sucredee:
DD is 28 months old and still RF. I have no plans to turn her FF anytime soon either. She's is perfectly content that way and itis easy to install with a seat belt no tether needed. Granted I haven't tried to FF it but it seems like it might be a pain to find a tether hook on rental cars we travel a lot.
I never used the tether hook in my car because we took my seat out so often to use in m parent's car. I used the seatbelt for RF and FF.

I haven't looked at the instructions yet but I think my friend has hers FF using the seatbelt and the top tether so that's why I was thinking tether. I will have to look it up because it would be nice not to have to mess with that if not needed. But I won't need to worry about that for a while since she will stay RF as long as possible.

Angela814 · October 2012

racegrrl714:
Angela814:

racegrrl714:
DD was about fifteen months when we FF'd her. Our Graco MyRide has five strap slots and the middle (third) slot is the highest RF slot. She was too tall at the time to continue using the third slot. She is now 26 months, and about to outgrow the very top slot. I'm wondering if the Graco Nautilus is any better for taller kids or if we'll run into the same problem if we buy it, because I don't yet want her to be out of a five point harness, but I don't want to spend that much money on one that we can't use the harness on for very long.

The slots for rfing just have to be at or below the shoulders. I'm not sure you can outgrow the slot. Generally kids will outgrow the seat when their head is less than 1" from the top of the shell. Our TrueFit only has 2 slots for rfing; DD2's shoulders are probably 1/2"-3/4" above the top rfing slot.

I think the top shoulder slot on the Nautilus is 18". (Ours is in Grandma's car so I can't actually measure it.) DD1 was always about 1" above the charts for height (38" at 2 years, 41 1/2" at 3 years, 44" at 4 years), and she outgrew the Marathon (16" top slot) around 4.5 years. We moved her to a high back booster at 5 years, but she still had room to grow in the Nautilus if we had wanted to keep her harnessed. The thing about the Nautilus is that it doesn't make a great booster in all kids, so you won't know if it will work in booster mode.

I guess my kid has an abnormally long torso or something,which is probably the case because she's a tall kid but her pants are too long... and her shirts are too short. LOL (Her dad has the same problem...) Her head WAS within an inch of the top of the shell when RF. And her shoulders were probably two inches above that third strap at that time. I was looking at BRU's website and found a Britax Frontier that has like ten different strap positions, but of course it's about $100 more than the Nautilus too.

DD1 had a long torso as a toddler too. At 2 years she was wearing size 2T pants and size 3T shirts.

She'll start to even out a little more so her torso won't be quite as long compared to her legs. The Nautilus should get you harnessed until 5 years. At that point most kids are mature enough for a booster.

lilhockeygurlMOM · October 2012

The law in MN is 1 year and at least 20lbs before the child can face forward. Well at 12 months DD was 25lbs and 35" tall, so it was time to have her in a forward facing car seat.

pinkcallalily · October 2012

I have no idea when we'll switch to FF. My son is 30 months and only 25 pounds. Our seat goes to 45 pounds RF, so I doubt we'll wait until he outgrows it, but we have no plans to turn him anytime soon.

Angela814 · October 2012

lilhockeygurlMOM:
The law in MN is 1 year and at least 20lbs before the child can face forward. Well at 12 months DD was 25lbs and 35" tall, so it was time to have her in a forward facing car seat.

The law isn't best practice, it's the absolute minimum. The current AAP recommendation is at least 2 years or to the minimum of the seat. DD2 is 31 lbs and at least 36" and still rfing.

Ardmhs83 · October 2012

My son is 26 months and still RFing. :-) He only weighs 30lbs and isn't very tall either. We are going to measure the height again this weekend to double check everything though.

sunnydays99 · October 2012

DS was 2.5 when we turned him. I plan on keeping DD RF for that long as well.

SuperCuteBenz · October 2012

sucredee:
sara785:
sucredee:
DD is 28 months old and still RF. I have no plans to turn her FF anytime soon either. She's is perfectly content that way and itis easy to install with a seat belt no tether needed. Granted I haven't tried to FF it but it seems like it might be a pain to find a tether hook on rental cars we travel a lot.
I never used the tether hook in my car because we took my seat out so often to use in m parent's car. I used the seatbelt for RF and FF.
I haven't looked at the instructions yet but I think my friend has hers FF using the seatbelt and the top tether so that's why I was thinking tether. I will have to look it up because it would be nice not to have to mess with that if not needed. But I won't need to worry about that for a while since she will stay RF as long as possible.

I think there is some confusion in terms here.

You can use LATCH or the seat belt to install the seat.

When it is rear-facing, some seats allow for tethering while rear-facing. These are: Combi, Sunshine Kids, Diono and Britax.

When a seat is forward facing you MUST use the tether. If you don't have a tether anchor in your car, you might be able to get one retrofitted depending on the year of the car. A tether is a must for forward facing, because it helps reduce head excursion in an accident.

penguingrrl · October 2012

We made it to 33 months, then she hit the height limit on her radian (tall, long torsoed child). Had there been an option that would have lasted significantly longer RF we would have bought it, but the clek foonf wasn't out yet so we had no choice but to turn her.

Ideally #3 will stay RF until he is ready for a booster. I'm not a fan of the physics of a FF harness (it doesn't allow the spine to stay in alignment, which is not good).

Kingston54 · October 2012

DS is 34 months and still RF. Planning on keeping him RF for another month or two. We are expecting baby #2 and we are going to FF him when we install the infant seat again. He's pretty close to the weight limit so we are going to flip him around soon.

I plan to have him stay in his Britax Marathon FF until LO#2 needs to get out of the infant seat. Then I'll buy him a 5 point harness booster...

islelily · October 2012

We turned DS at 19mo. Only reasoning was that we sold our car and bought a van with captain seats so we thought it was a good transition time. We'll be keeping #2 RF for as long as possible.