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

[mamaLori05]

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

same here!

 

[bas71873]

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

How does this work? Where are the kiddos legs & feet? No flames, just curiousity. I'd love to see a pic.

My DD was in a front facing seat before she was a year, but she was over the weight limit. She was soooo uncomfy in a rear facing, her legs & knees all in her face. But then again, she was 24 inches, yes that's 2 feet, at birth, so she's alwasy been LONG. Still is almost 8 years later . I'm just really curious how an almost 3 year old is comfortable

 

[scottish mum]

How does this work? Where are the kiddos legs & feet? No flames, just curiousity. I'd love to see a pic.

My DD was in a front facing seat before she was a year, but she was over the weight limit. She was soooo uncomfy in a rear facing, her legs & knees all in her face. But then again, she was 24 inches, yes that's 2 feet, at birth, so she's alwasy been LONG. Still is almost 8 years later . I'm just really curious how an almost 3 year old is comfortable

I must admit that I am also curious as to where there legs and feet go . My 3 kids have always been very tall, oldest ds is 13 and is 6ft 1" right now, and there is no way they would have fitted RF for much longer than there 1st birthday, their legs were already scrunched up.

Its also very interesting that the most common advise is to keep them Rf for as long as possible, as far as I know over here in the UK w eare not given that advise.

I am not flaming anyone just interested as its not something I have come across before.

 

[RadioFanatic]

I did it to 16 months but only bc DS got too long to keep it that way. If he hadn't, I would have kept it rear facing until he became too long.

I just had a carseat installed this week by a certified carseat tech from the PD. We actually had a conversation on this issue; and he said to keep it rear facing as long as you can until the child becomes too tall for it. And he defined too tall as when the legs have to be bent more than just a little in order be able to fit facing backwards.

 

[deegack]

She was 15 or 16 months. When she started screaming and thrashing around everytime we put her in her car seat. Her legs were all squished up and uncomfortable. She was also over 20 pounds and 30 inches long at one year. 33 inches long at 15 months so it was time.

 

[brymolmom]

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'm guessing you meant to quote the response I quoted, I didn't want to get flamed. And did provide the information that I turned my child as they turned 1 to answer the question.

 

[hmacmahony]

I guess I had a really smart kid, that was able to turn their head to look out the window, and gasp, look out the back seat when rear facing.
Sorry, clearly that couldn't happen in your car.

I guess mine was more interested in staying alive, than sitting forwards.

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.

 

[robinb]

I guess mine was more interested in staying alive, than sitting forwards.

Oooo! *snap* . You *do* have an smart child! Mine obviously wanted to die. Poor thing.

 

[luckylady131]

I did it to 16 months but only bc DS got too long to keep it that way. If he hadn't, I would have kept it rear facing until he became too long.

I just had a carseat installed this week by a certified carseat tech from the PD. We actually had a conversation on this issue; and he said to keep it rear facing as long as you can until the child becomes too tall for it. And he defined too tall as when the legs have to be bent more than just a little in order be able to fit facing backwards.

A certified tech does not always know the correct answer. "Too tall" means that the head is within 1" of the top of the shell of the car seat - or whatever your car seat manual states is the height limit of the car seat.

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.

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?

How does this work? Where are the kiddos legs & feet? No flames, just curiousity. I'd love to see a pic.

My DD was in a front facing seat before she was a year, but she was over the weight limit. She was soooo uncomfy in a rear facing, her legs & knees all in her face. But then again, she was 24 inches, yes that's 2 feet, at birth, so she's alwasy been LONG. Still is almost 8 years later . I'm just really curious how an almost 3 year old is comfortable

I must admit that I am also curious as to where there legs and feet go . My 3 kids have always been very tall, oldest ds is 13 and is 6ft 1" right now, and there is no way they would have fitted RF for much longer than there 1st birthday, their legs were already scrunched up.

Its also very interesting that the most common advise is to keep them Rf for as long as possible, as far as I know over here in the UK w eare not given that advise.

I am not flaming anyone just interested as its not something I have come across before.

Lots of kids ride RRing just fine. They sit with their legs crossed. And many kids prefer this way of sitting vs the dangling of the feet when FFing in the car seat. It's really easy to google some pics of this.

http://0.tqn.com/d/babyproducts/1/0/r/C/tw-erf-2.JPG

http://0.tqn.com/d/babyproducts/1/0/o/C/ls-1-rear-facing.jpg

http://0.tqn.com/d/babyproducts/1/0/p/C/ls-2-rear-facing.jpg


Actually the new recommendations are to keep them RRing (minimally) until they are 2 years old, not 1. It is also recommended that you keep them RRing until they reach the weight/height limits of the seat (which ever comes first).

It's interesting that you say in the UK, they don't push for extended rear facing of children. Usually when I hear about it, it seems to stem from European standards. Now in Europe, they are recommending that the rear facing age limit be 4 years old. http://kidsincars.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-european-research-children-should.html

 

[LKMang]

DS is 25 months today and we are still rear facing. He is definitely on the smaller side, so no issues with long legs yet. Since this is all he knows, he is perfectly content with it. He actually loves looking out the back and side windows and has never complained about it. I'm guessing we will make it to close to 3 years old unless he has a big growth spurt between now and then!

 

[~Kristina~]

We typically turn them around 2yrs.

 

[~Kristina~]

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?

My kids never knew the difference and thought facing backwards was normal.

 

[jodifla]

I turned my child around at 1 and would do it again.

I couldn't STAND not to be able to see my child when I was driving. I think IT"S NOT SAFE! None of the mirror gizmos worked. They all fell down and became potential hazards.


Also, we did many long car trips, and we used portable videos on them, which is hard to do if you are facing the back of the seat.

 

[lilkitty819]

My grandaughter is 21 months and still is facing the rear, but she is very tiny... she is still wearing 18 months clothes. So I guess she will be facing the rear for a little longer....Now her 4 month old brother will probablely be facing the front a lot earlier then she for he is going to be a lot bigger then her since he's already in 9 month's clothes....As for what the babies think, since they don't know the difference it should not bother them if their facing backwards

 

[scottish mum]

It's interesting that you say in the UK, they don't push for extended rear facing of children. Usually when I hear about it, it seems to stem from European standards. Now in Europe, they are recommending that the rear facing age limit be 4 years old. http://kidsincars.blogspot.com/2008/06/new-european-research-children-should.html

It appears the Uk is lagging behind the rest of Europe, I have just been researching on the web and it now appears that they are starting to think about changing the recommendations here. You are right that most of Europe suggests that they RF until they are 4. However here in the UK i have just looked online at various onlite shops and I would say about 90% of the car seats state that they are only suitable to RF upto 28lbs.

Hopefully as this appears to be the safest way to travel for little ones the guidelines will soon be changed and hopefully the carseat manufacturers will also give us some new options as to what seats we can buy.

Thankfully my little ones are all older now so its not something that I will have to worry about, I just find it interesting how each country has different policies/guidelines on car seats, when I'm sure that every parent just wants their kids to travel the safest way possible.

 

[laughinplace199]

I turned my oldest 2 kids (now 11 & 9) forward facing right around their 1st b-days. At that time, I had never heard of extended rear-facing.

My youngest is 4. By the time he was born, I had read about extended rear-facing and my ped agreed that it's a good idea. He was rear-facing until he was 3.5. He still could be rear-facing right now as he is only 30 lbs, but we turned him around for a few different reasons: his legs were getting too long, he couldn't climb into his seat by himself, and my other kids couldn't enter or exit the car on his side because the RFing car seat blocked the way.

He never had a problem with being RFing though. Our car has 3 rows and one of the older kids is always in the 3rd row, so DS always had someone to see and talk to when he was RFing.

 

[SarahJN]

We kept our girls rear facing until their 3rd birthday. And yes, they were still within the height/weight requirements for RFing in their car seats. My girls are peanuts.

 

[Colleen27]

My kids never knew the difference and thought facing backwards was normal.

That worked with the first child child, but not the 2nd and 3rd in my experience. The younger kids knew the difference because they saw how their siblings sat!

I'm sure the reason my youngest hated being rear facing is that both her brother and sister got to face front. Add in the fact that we have an in-car VCR that she couldn't see because she was facing backwards, and that being in the middle seat of the middle row of a minivan facing the rear offers zero view of anything interesting, and we reached a point where she hated car rides to the point of crying before we even got her buckled in. It may not sit well with the folks who follow every safety recommendation as gospel, but at that point the hazard of a constant screaming/complaining distraction in the backseat was a much more immediate issue than the potential safety risks of allowing her to face forward at 2.

 

[Bren's Mom]

My ds, who was the 90th pctile for height, rear-faced until age 3. He was just under the 35lbs rear-facing limit on the seat we had. He is 5 now, and still asks to sit rear-facing again. Most kids love it. Once they're forward facing they lose the 'lap' on which to put books, etc.

Here are some more extended rear-facing pics:

http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum.aspx

Just for the record, there is no state in the union which says children SHOULD turn forward-facing at one, only some that specify how long they MUST stay rear-facing. (Minimum of 1 year and 20lbs.)

Rear-facing for longer than the minimum has been recommended by the AAP since at least 2002. This is not a new concept, just one for which the the info was slow in getting out.

Most convertibles on the market rear-face to 35lbs. There are a few 'stragglers' like the 30lbs rear-facing Comfort Sport, but that seat is not generally ever recommended by a good CPST. The equally as affordable Cosco Scenera now rear-faces to 40lbs. Graco just hasn't kept up with the Comfort Sport! There are also now other affordable seats that rear-face to 40lbs with higher shells (so they're not outgrown by height first) like the Graco My Ride. More and more seats are now being made with longer seat bases to give toddlers more leg room when rear-facing. But even with an older style seat a child can rear-face to 2, or 3, or even 4 comfortably.

The information about how MUCH safer rear-facing is is very compelling. I'd encourage any parent with a child still rear-facing who is considering WHEN to turn to do their research. The Dis would NOT be the best place to do this. Read the studies on rear-facing, read the recommendations. All can be found by googling, and even easier by going to car-seat.org and searching there.

Coleen
CPST

 

[amylynne01]

I just turned my DD FFing around her 3rd bday in December. She knows the difference between RFing and FFing and prefered RFing. She would sit crisscross applesauce or prop her legs up on th seat back. She would look out the window while we drove, or play with the toys in her lap. The toys didn't typically fall out unless she purposefully dropped them. Now that she's FFing, the toys do fall from her lap because they're not fully contained. She is 37 months, 32lbs, and 38" tall.

DD2 will be RFing until her 3rd bday as well. She is a little thing at 20 months, 23lbs, and 32" tall. She is a car sleeper, so she is perfectly reclined in her seat. They think it's totally normal to RF, and it is safer for them.