Doctors recommend not turning car seats forward facing until atleast age 2 or even longer until 45 pounds.... Did you wait till age 2 to turn your little ones around ? Or why didn't you ?
DD is 19 months and still rear-facing. All the research indicates that this is by far the safest. We are actually buying a new vehicle because we can't fit 2 rear facing seats in either car but we don't feel comfortable flipping her forward yet. There is a great group on Facebook called Car Seats For The Littles that always has great info.
ETA: DD has always been greater than 95% for height and weight, but there are great seats out there now for tall kids. We have the Chicco Nextfit and it should get her to 3 or 4 rear facing.
DD just turned 2 and we're keeping her rear facing for as long as we can. Actually, during her 2 year check-up a couple of weeks ago, the doctor said the 2 year age requirement is becoming the minimum and rear facing until 4 is become the recommendation. What??!! Now, this was the first I'd heard 4 years mentioned and I definitely cannot imagine keeping a child rear facing for that long. I do know the longer they're rear facing, the better though. So, we'll try for a while longer, but will never make it to 4.
I have no experience but Car Seats For The Littles has a group on Facebook that is helpful in suggesting seats that will fit your car and little one to extend rear facing as long as you want. They are super helpful.
I waited until age 2. It does get quite tight with the convertible car seats, but is so much safer. Google 'New York Times rear facing car seat' and an article will come up that should convince anyone to wait. They often call this seat the 'orphan seat' because often times in an awful car accident the baby in the rear facing car seat is the only family member to survive. Morbid, but opened my eyes to wait!
DD is 16m old and rear facing. We have no plans of turning her around anytime soon. We'll probably keep her rear facing until she outgrows the height or weight limit for rear facing in her seat.
We ended up turning DS around at 23 months. We went to Germany for the month and use a forward facing car seat there and he was not thrilled to be backward facing when we got back. So we ended up turning him around once we got back. I was hopping to keep him a little longer. Although this is the frist I heard about the 4 year old thing.
DD will be 2 in June and we plan on keeping her rear facing until at least that point. We'll have to see how both car seats fit in the Jeep, but they should be fine in our other vehicle.
It's the safest thing to do and it's what she's used to, so why change it?
My boys are just over 3 and almost 20 months and big boys but still within the height and weight of rear facing for our car seats, so they are both still rear facing. I intend on waiting until they hit either the height or weight max to turn them around. Still have to figure out what the configuration will be in our van when the baby arrives.
DD was rear-facing until about a month after she turned 2. I had intended to leave her RFing until I needed to install the infant seat since I couldn't have them both RFing in the back seat, but she started really fighting me putting her in the seat and since we'd already made it to 2, I just decided to switch her. It made a huge difference - she's been FFing for about 2-3 months now and loves it.
Keep in mind, weight limits usually mean very little when it comes to car seats. The majority of kids outgrow seat restrictions by height first. So you (general you) may intend to keep them RFing until the weight limit or 45lbs or whatever, but if your kid is tall, that may not be possible.
DD just turned two and is still rear facing. She will stay that way until she outgrows the seat limits of 40 lb and 40 inches. She's 25 lb and 35 inches now.
I plan to turn Henry no sooner than 2 years old, but I may see if I can make it closer to 3 years old. The evidence is so compelling, I don't understand why anyone would turn their baby sooner than 2.
DS is still rear facing. He doesn't mind it at all and has no idea there is any other option. Unless he has a major growth spurt, the current plan is to keep him rear facing until baby girl needs the convertible seat, at which point DS will be a couple months shy of 4.
DD was rear facing until almost 2.5. We went on vacation and the person we stayed with had a tiny car, so to fit everyone she had to FF. When we returned home she was pissed to be RF so we decided to go ahead and turn her.
I turned my son around at 1 year old. There's no way he met the weight recommendation. If I could rewind and change that, I would. I've done MUCH more research this time and I will keep this child rear facing as long as possible.
DS1 is still rear facing at 32 months. We're going to have to turn him FF in my H's car when DS2 arrives because we can't fit a RF seat behind the driver's seat. He'll still RF in my car until he reaches the height limit on his Radian.
We went forward facing around 18 months. I waited until he hit the weight requirement. I don't know how I could have kept him rear facing any longer because his legs were so long it was uncomfortable for him to have them hitting the seat.
DS is 2 and still rear facing. I have no plans to turn him anytime soon. I'd honestly like to try to keep him rear facing until 4, but that will depend on the seat limits. I did buy an extended rear facing seat though so I'm hoping I can make it that long.
We went forward facing around 18 months. I waited until he hit the weight requirement. I don't know how I could have kept him rear facing any longer because his legs were so long it was uncomfortable for him to have them hitting the seat.
Re: Car seat question for moms with little ones already
ETA: DD has always been greater than 95% for height and weight, but there are great seats out there now for tall kids. We have the Chicco Nextfit and it should get her to 3 or 4 rear facing.
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BFP#4 8.27.13 (EDD 5.6.14) DD born 4.23.14
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It's the safest thing to do and it's what she's used to, so why change it?
LCT - 5.15.14 ~ 9lbs, 22.5 inches
LCT - 5.15.14 ~ 9lbs, 22.5 inches
I just want him to be able to climb into his seat on his own when baby is here and he can't do that rear facing.
DS1 - 7/2011, DD 12/2012, DS2 - 4/2014, MMC - 12/2015