Forward & Rearfacing Car Seats

[tommyg]

Not interested in a debate over which is safer.

Do you have issues (tantrums) with 15mths plus child being forward facing in one car and rear facing in another?

We have 2 cars when DS was a baby DH would swap the base from my car to his for the weekend and back again. Which we will probably do again for the first 6 mths until baby in car seat becomes too heavy for me to lift.

Beyond that I am thinking keeping the Pebble then forward facing Pearl seat in one car the one that does mainly town driving and a new group 0+/1 ERFing in the other. Saving DH from moving the base and seat from one car to the other.

I can't really justify the cost of buying 2 brand new seats esp since DS was almost 18 mths before he outgrew the baby seat.

Those who have ERF what age / height was your child when you turned them?

 

[Lil mole]

My three year old switches happily between rear and forward facing. She first forward faced at 2 years 8 months. She forward faces in our second car for the 1/2 mile trip to nursery once a week, in granddad's car one day a week and is forward facing in the family car whenever I have my nephew with us as it is the only way I can fit all the required car seats in.

She, honestly, doesn't even comment on which way she is facing. She gets giddy when we have my nephew because she gets to sit in the third row and faces her sister and cousin and loves entertaining them

 

[tommyg]

Thanks just what I was looking to hear.

 

[_Nell]

Not different cars but we have the 2 way pearl and i decide which way my 2 year old faces.
99% of the time she rear faces but if we go on the motorway i switch her to forward facing, otherwise she vomits. (Yes i know it seems crazy to forward face on a motorway but an upset child vomiting on herself is horrid)

I think it's one of those things that regardless of liking they have to just accept.

 

[MindUtopia]

We have one ERF seat and honestly, it's no big deal to switch between cars and we do it several times a week. My only concern would be if one of us had to do the nursery drop off and one of us had to do the pick up, we would have to meet somewhere to exchange them, which would be a faff. But otherwise, to save on the cost of having two seats, for us at least it's been no big deal and we've been doing it for nearly 2 years now since our daughter was about 13 months.

Our seat is RF until 18 kilos. Our daughter is just barely 15 kilos now, so we'll keep her rearfacing probably until she maxes it out, which I don't anticipate will be before about 4.5, which is when she'll start school and we'll likely have another, so that seems like a good time to change things around.

 

[tommyg]

Nell, I totally get that if RF makes her sick then actually it is safer to be FFing. Nothing is more dangerous than a driver being distracted by a child being sick. Great to know that she swaps between FF and RF without too many issues.

Mind swapping between cars is what we planned for DS but on 2 separate occasions I found myself stuck with a sick child while DH was off with the car seat. After the second time we decided that seats in each car was needed. This time esp having an older sibling with clubs various pickups / drop offs often with baby in tow. Once we are beyond the initial stages we don't want to be having to always work round the logistics of who has the seat.

 

[tommyg]

I should say my options for seats are keeping the pebble / pearl combination in one car. And something like the britax First Class or a newer ERF 0+/1.

 

[SpringCrane]

My 3 y/o is RF 95% of the time, but FF occasionally in different cars/seats we have.

One of his seats is only FF, and it has arm rests he gets excited about. Our travel cart seat does both RF and FF, and if I can safely install either way, I let him choose. Last trip he wanted to FF, trip two weeks prior he wanted to RF.

However, he didn't FF for the first time until he was 2y8m, so he was old enough to fully communicate and understand. He'll be full time FF when baby brother outgrows the infant seat... based on height, that'll likely be in another 5-6 months.

 

[morri]

my kid is 105cm, and we already got a group 2/3 seat for her, and we'll giver her still used erf seat to friends in south africa. So shell use her 2/3 seat then.

My kid prefers putting up her legs i car seats which is a bit harder in FF seats.

 

[lau86]

Mine all rear face in mine and hubbies car but forward face in nanny and grandmas (apart from baby). They're all fine.
We have the joie stages which was quite reasonable around £120 when we got it, not sure if they still make it but ds2 easily rear faces in that.

 

[SarahBear]

Violet outgrew her rear facing car-seat at just over 2 years old. Leo is 17 months and is rear facing. I'm not sure how long he'll last that way, but I'm hoping to get him to 2. When Violet was 19 months old, we took a trip and she had to be forward facing. She was excited by the new position until it was no longer a novelty. Then she was just as resistant to the carseat as before. I don't recall any reactions to going back to rear facing when we got back home. The trip was also a month long, so she was 20 months when we returned. If your child is good in the car, I suspect they'll be good in the car regardless. If your child is difficult in the car, I suspect they'll be difficult in the car regardless. I wouldn't worry about switching between forward and rear facing.