How long did you rear face your child's carseat?

[waltskids]

DD is 19 months and weighs just about 22lbs and is almost 31 inches tall. She still rides rear facing as she is still very tiny for her age. To those who extend rear facing, how long did you rear face your child? She is in a Graco ComfortSport car seat which I believe goes to 30 lbs (maybe??) rear facing. We turned DS around right after his first birthday (he was much bigger then her) but we have read alot of research since then and have decided this is best for our family. Did you wait till the weight of the seat? Is the height a consideration for this? Did you turn at a certain age (say 2?)? Just curious how others handled this. Thanks!

 

[MSSANDRA]

We rear faced DGS till he hit the 30 lb limit of his seat, he was maybe 20 months old. DS is 18 now and I can not remember how long but it was not long enough! He too was tiny and could have rear faced forever.

 

[LuLuO]

DD was about 2 years 7 months and weighed 32.5 pounds (RF limit on her seat was 33 pounds). She was also about 36 inches when we turned her around. DS is 22 months old and is still rear facing at 25.5 pounds. He is almost 33 inches tall. His RFing seat limit is 34 pounds so he'll be RFing for a while yet.

Our pediatricain began suggesting keeping them rear facing until at least 2 years old but we were already doing that with DD.

 

[robinb]

In the spirit of the other thread ... the bare minimum. I think it was 12 months and 20 lbs. Bring on the flames!

 

[kohlby]

Our first seat was a Britax Marathon with a rf limit of 33 lbs. My oldest hit that at a mere 16 months, so he had to be switched then to ff. My second child was put ff in the month before her 3rd b-day. My third child is almost 2 years old and rf-ing and will be easily until 4 years old. We bought a Radian with a 40lb limit and he's only 27 lbs so we have quite a while for him.

Even adults would be safer rf-ing so I keep my kids rf-ing as long as possible. I will likely have a rf-ing four year old in a couple of years and see no issue with it.

 

[brymolmom]

In the spirit of the other thread ... the bare minimum. I think it was 12 months and 20 lbs. Bring on the flames!

I'm with you. Both my kids were way too long for the carseat carrier we had and went to forward facing at 1 year.

 

[effervescent]

DS2 rearfaced until he was 2, and then DD came along and we couldn't fit a rear facing seat behind the driver's seat of our car at the time so we went ahead and turned him. He was within 5 lbs of exceeding the weight limit anyway. DD was 3 yrs 2mos when we turned her. She still had about 8lbs to go, but she was starting to undo the chest clip while we were driving so we felt it was safer to turn her to be able to keep an eye on her. She has not felt the need to unclip her harness since she's been turned.

The best thing for any family is to do their own research on car seat safety and do what is best for them.

 

[pixiedustmomma]

I think I turned our DD around when she turned 1. (She is 3 now) I don't remember her weight at the time but when they said she could turn around I did it. We now have another DD and she will be rear facing as long as possible. BUT they are now suggesting you keep them rear facing as long as possible. It is safer to be rear facing!!! So look at your car seat and see what the weight limit is for rear facing and go by what it says. Don't turn them just because you can. You want to keep them as safe as possible.

 

[lovetheduck]

We turned our DD around at about age two. She hadn't reached the weight requirement yet, but her legs were long and she was uncomfortable with them scrunched up against the back seat.

 

[Ava]

My DD is 20 months old and is still rear facing, and will ride rear facing for as long as possible. We have the Radian XTSL, which rear faces to 45 lbs and forward faces to 80 lbs (one of the highest limits on the market right now). She only weighs about 22 pounds now but is almost 3 ft tall, so she'll probably out grow rear-facing by height before she hits the weight limit of her seat. As others have said, the recommendation now is to rear-face as long as possible, it's safer.

 

[lady_bug_888]

Don't know how long my DS was rear facing (I wasn't his mom until he was 3 so I missed all the baby stuff ) I do know I kept him in a 5-point harness until he was 5 1/2 and he is currently still in a booster (he's 7.5).

DD is 9 months and the guidelines here are at least 12 months AND 22 pounds. She currently weighs 16 pounds so my guess is she won't hit the 22 pound guideline until some time after her 1st bday. We haven't decided exactly when to go front-facing, however I will look at the guidelines of my seat first. I will probably switch her sometime between 12-24 months.

 

[Colleen27]

With the older two, they stayed rear-facing until they hit the weight limit for their infant seat, but those were inexpensive Gracos a decade ago and IIRC they both had 25lb limits. For DS, that right around his first birthday. For older DD, that was about a month shy of her second.

The youngest stayed rear-facing until she was uncomfortable that way. Her seat had a higher (35lb) rear facing weight limit but she was scrunched up and hating every minute of being in the car by the time she was 27mo so we transitioned her to a toddler seat for the sake of our sanity.

 

[p&tbrown]

We had our son rear facing until 15 mths. He was already 27 lbs then!

 

[Derby]

My DD is 33 months old, 36" tall, and 28 lbs. She is stilll rear-facing. I would like to rear-face her to the limits of the seat (33 lbs).

 

[Derby]

I'm with you. Both my kids were way too long for the carseat carrier we had and went to forward facing at 1 year.

If you are posting here to get flamed, what's the point? The OP wanted specific opinions of people who rear faced their kids for an extended amount of time.

 

[robinb]

If you are posting here to get flamed, what's the point? The OP wanted specific opinions of people who rear faced their kids for an extended amount of time.

I was flamed on the other thread because I didn't leave my kid in the booster seat long enough for some people.

BTW, doesn't your nearly 3 year old hate facing the back of the car seat?

 

[Derby]

I was flamed on the other thread because I didn't leave my kid in the booster seat long enough for some people.

BTW, doesn't your nearly 3 year old hate facing the back of the car seat?

Nope, she loves it and is completely comfortable. You didn't answer my question, though.

 

[robinb]

Nope, she loves it and is completely comfortable. You didn't answer my question, though.

I'm happy to hear that your nearly 3 year old loves looking at the back of the seat . I guess mine was more interested in the rest of the world.

I was simply answering the question the same as you were.

 

[poohbear luvs grumpy]

Not looking for it here, but I too was flamed on the other thread because I wanted to turn my child around when she reached the weight limit for our state. My point was that my doctor advised against it because if there were an accident the insurance could refuse to pay because all requirements were not met. I turned all of my children around when they were a year and 20 lbs. which was the bare minimum. It became nice to no longer have to clean up after them getting car sick once they were turned around.

 

[Kat77]

In the spirit of the other thread ... the bare minimum. I think it was 12 months and 20 lbs. Bring on the flames!

That's what we went with. I think that was the standard when ours were little though. IDK what it is now days.