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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
SavedByLove
member
Car Seat FF vs RF
SavedByLove
member
Apologies if this has been recently posted, I spend most of my time on the Working Mama board.
DS is 18months old. Just wondering if anyone else has turned their car seat around to forward facing. I know the recommendation is to stay Rear Facing til age 2 but (a) I think he'd be happier facing forward and seeing things and (b) his feet are hitting the back of the seat so I wonder if he's uncomfortable.
just wondering if I'll be the only mom going against the recommendation!
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Re: Car Seat FF vs RF
We are still rear-facing. I am a tech though, so I am a bit more passionate about it than the average person. I also read the blog of a family that lost their 18 month old in an accident where he was forward facing, they were hit head on, and his spine was snapped instantly.
No forward facing here. Not before 3.
This
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We are still rear facing. Our pedi says at least 2, and I am hoping to make it to at least 2.5/3.
Plus now when she has a tantrum in the car, she isn't able to kick our seats
This, it's totally OK for their feet to touch, they can fold they're legs if they want.
This. We are waiting until at least 2.
So is wearing a seatbelt. But you'd be an idiot not to wear one.
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Watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DVfqFhseo
or this
https://www.becoming-mom.net/2010/04/19/rear-facing-carseat-video-must-watch/
or just search for crash tests of FF vs. RF.
There is no good reason to turn the carseat FF. We will not be flipping anytime soon. I hope you reconsider and stay RF.I turned my son FF at 2.5 and was feeling all icky about it then. I only did it because he maxed out the height on his seat. So, yeah, we're still RF my DD and will be for as long as possible. Definitely past two.
I also think it's a decision each parent should make for themselves, however, *I* would not deem possible discomfort as a reason to turn them. In fact, it seems like it would be LESS comfortable to be FF if his legs are just dangling. Dangling legs are uncomfortable as hell.
What is your reason? Not trying to be harsh or snarky but I honestly can't think of a good reason to turn the carseat at this age especially after watching a crash tests. Please see the clicky links in my previous post.
I wouldn't do it. Just because he is kicking the seat, that doesn't mean he is uncomfortable. It could be it feels good to stretch them out.
FWIW, my DD just turned 4 and she is still RFing. She never complains about her legs hurting, even when we took an 8 hour road trip. She just sits indian style or she puts them up on the back of the seat.
Being alive > being comfortable/happier.
We are still RFing and plan to do so until he outgrows the limits for the seat. Hoping to make it another year or so.
Our family blog
We had no choice but to turn our 18 month old around, he exceeded the weight requirement of his child seat for rear facing. This made him more at risk then turning him around. My wife fought it a little until she remembered the weight limit requirement.
If your LO doesn't exceed the weight/ height requirement then you should keep LO rear facing.
As an engineer, if your child is above the weight/height requirements for RF then the child is at a greater risk of injury since you are using a safety device outside of it's design requirements.
Please don't do this. All you have to do is look on YouTube for videos of children who were too young to FF and got horrible neck injuries when they were in an accident.
I will never understand why parents are so antsy to FF.
Why in the world would you risk traumatic injury to your child and deliberately go against what is recommended?
I am a big believer in RF until at least 2 also, but for those who can't think of a single good reason, we turned DS at 16 months because he got carsick literally every time we went somewhere. Completely covered in vomit, choking on it etc. Every. single. time. I couldn't let him go through that anymore and we had exhausted all other attempts at resolving it. In my exasperation I had even sought advice on here and all the RF advocates even said in our situation, they would turn their LO around - all 30 or so people who responded and were still RFing their own toddlers.
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My goal is RFing until 3. Unfortunately, DD1 outgrew the RFing height limit of her car seat at 2y9m, so our choice was buy a new seat or FF. Since a larger RFing car seat wouldn't fit in our car, we had to go FFing. DD1 likes being able to see out the front window, but she never once complained when she was RFing. She is 90+% for height, and would cross her legs, drape them over the sides of her seat, or prop them up the back of the seat. She could see just find out the side windows, and as she got taller, even the back window. I am certain she wasn't uncomfortable, because she's a kid who will not hesitate to complain if she is!
DD2 is a peanut - only 18.5lbs at 15 months - so she will RFing until she outgrows the convertible seat. Unless she suddenly shoots up in height, I anticipate her being RFing to 3 or longer.
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I stand by my stance that if ANY parent out there did the proper research, they would never, ever put their child at that kind of risk. It's not like the choice to bedshare or not, or to breastfeed or not. It doesn't fall under that "every parent's personal decision" umbrella, IMO. I absolutely think this is a recommendation that involves life and death and I hope that it is made law soon so it can stop being a debate.
Aimee, I do understand the carsickness thing if all other alternatives were attempted. I have a friend whose daughter started getting car sick at 13m and it was bad for a while. She got sea bands for her daughter and didn't feed her within an hour and driving and while it didn't resolve immediately, she eventually outgrew it. She wasn't willing to turn her because her D happened to be very small and fragile and she wanted turning to be absolute last resort. If it was absolute last resort for you, I get it. DD has thrown up twice in the car and that shitt SUCKS, lol.
It's not illegal. My LO is FF and she's the size of most 2 year olds. She has FF carseats in both grandparents cars too. Parents get to make decisions and that's one I made.
Ditto... That's likely what the situation will be here too... We purchased a carseat for DH's car thinking it was RF only to discover it's not. My choice is DS riding in a FF or an expired by several years rear facing in DH's car... The good news in some respects is that DS will RARELY be riding in DH's car...
it also has to do with bone ossification, not just size. My 20 month old weighs 35 lbs. I bought a different seat to keep him RF.
buy a different seat.
Then you're ignorant. Sorry. It's that simple. Google "internal decapitation." Turning them at 12 months is ridiculous. Safety should be more important to you than her being " soooo much happier." The recommendations 2 years MINIMUM. It exists for a reason.
DUp
This doesn't matter though. She still has the skeleton of a child her age. Not a 2 year old. Also, 2 isn't some magic age. The longer a child can rear-face, the better chance they have of surviving an accident.
Ditto. We just bought a new seat with a higher RF limit for our 20 month old, 35 lb son. He's bigger than kids MUCH older than him but that doesn't matter in a crash.
I guess you try everything you can, and if it still isn't better, then you just hope that you are never in a terrible accident. At that point, hopefully you can have faith in knowing that you did what you could.
I don't think anyone knows what they will do in that position, unless they are faced with that situation. Thankfully, I am not.
The rec. is RF as long as possible, or until they meet the maximum height or weight for the seat (for most seats the weight is 35 lbs).
My DD was just recently turned FF, and she is 3 1/2.
We got Sea Bands too and they were actually a lifesaver. Turning him FF didn't solve the issue alone - only a combination of that and the Sea Bands together. He had been getting carsick since 7 months and it got worse and worse to the point where I truly did not leave the house with him unless I had to. I truly hated turning him around but even our pedi agreed we couldn't allow him to get sick that much anymore. He would choke on it and I couldn't always pull over as fast as I needed to. I hope our next LO doesn't have this issue because I really do believe in RFing until age 2 minimum.
DD (5 years old) from IUI in 2012
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