When did you turn the carseat forward facing and why?

[rainbowskin]

The only recommendation I have heard is to hold off as long as possible.. but at what weight and age are they safely able to ride forward facing? My son hates riding in cars and is 24 lbs now so I am considering forward facing him but I will hold off if it's unsafe. What is everyone else doing? For those with kids who hate car rides did forward facing them help the situation at all?

 

[OmarsMum]

10 months when he outgrew his baby carrier. We didn't have extended read facing car seats 3 yrs back (they are available in the market now I guess), so the only option we had is forward facing. We wanted to go for those car seats with the impact cushion but mamas & papas was out of stock so we went for Britax evolva 123.

 

[SassyLou]

Our daughter is 18 months and is still rearward facing (erf), we have the britax maxway in our family car. We have fil car for almost 6 months a year while they're in Spain. DH has her infant carrier in there for the rare occasions that he wants to take her out when I have the family cat for work, she's well within the weight and height limit. I don't think she likes it as much as her erf seat as she can't see as much, but her safety comes first.

 

[MommyJogger]

The standard lowest recommended age to safely forward face in the US is age 2. Every passenger is much safer rear facing, even adults, which is why they recommend that you rear face as long as possible, or until the top of the head is above the carseat or until they weigh more than the highest manufacturer suggested weight for rear facing, which can be found in the text directly on the carseat in the US.

 

[RachA]

DS was around 10months. He'd grown out if his baby carrier in height and weight. Erf wasn't something recommend then so I saw no reason not to change him.

DD was over a year but I can't remember when exactly. We changed her because she hated being rear facing and also I really struggled getting her in the baby carrier. I did read about erf at this point but didn't feel that it was really that much safer-it is safer in a head on but that doesn't mean being forward facing isn't safe.


In relation to the query of did it affect an unhappy rear facing child then yes it did. Neither liked rear facing but as soon as they were forward facing they stopped crying (DD especially was a nightmare-she was a real hazard to have rear facing as she cried the whole time she was in the seat)

 

[mandarhino]

She was about 4 years, 2 months and about 35 lbs. We had a rear facing seat and she was happy to ride that way. Sometimes she'd go through phases where she didn't like the car but mostly she was ok with it.

We could have kept her rear facing for longer but decided to switch her round to make it easier to pass things back to her.

 

[Siyren]

Lyss is 4 and is still rear facing- she will be until she outgrows the seat xx

 

[hattiehippo]

Tom was 2 yrs and 7 months. He could have stayed RF up till 5 in his seat but due to the shape of the back seats in my car I couldn't install it with increased leg room and he just got more and more upset about going in it on long journeys.

 

[mommy43]

my little one is 3 n just turned her round mainly because her sister has a booster n she wanted to be the same, honestly I would of liked to leave her rear facing longer

 

[PepsiChic]

both my boys are rearfacing,

Connor is in the Graco MyRide 65 and weighs 21lbs and Barry is in the Safety 1st Guide 65, he is 35lbs. oth seats RF till 40lbs and then FF till 65lbs.

There has been points where for 4 months in a row Barry had a huge tantrum, but I didnt turn him, and he eventually stopped. They will stay RF till they reach the weight limit and then they will stay in their 5point harness FF till they outgrown that weight/height limit. ONLY then will they move to a booster or use the normal seat.

 

[kit10grl]

Tyler was 14 months ish I don't remember exactly but we held off as he was very small for his age. At his one year check he still hadn't met the 20lb weight limit for turning. He hated being rear facing. So while we wanted to turn him it just wasn't safe. We got an Evolva 123 from my sister (still in expiry date and never an accident) so have been using that. He loved it at first but now he finds it quite restrictive as we still use the 5 point harness, again he is still under the weight limit for the actual seat belt. But this week we noticed the padding on one of the straps is coming away so will be getting him a new seat very soon.

DD will need to ERF. She has hypotonia and just has nowhere near the strength needed in her neck to forward face. Whilst I was researching ERF seats I learned so much about safety and really wish we hadn't turned DS. I would love to put him back rear facing but it would just be a mega fight everytime we got in the car and its difficult as it is when I am on my own with both kids. We haven't picked a seat yet and there is no real rush as she is only 17lbs now at 13 months old so still has loads of room in her infant carrier.

 

[SteffyRae]

a year (ish) he hated not seeing us and the cars behind us would scare him, plus he had no leg room at all, he has long legs and an average torso so he was still and inch or two bellow the top of the seat but his legs were (no joke) almost folded in half. Im not sure when I will with my daughter depends on how big she is and such, I just see when the time comes

 

[lindseymw]

Jacob was around 15 months when we turned him round purely because we could no longer get him into the seat due to the shape of the roof of the car. We went with a Cybex Pallas.

 

[Scally]

My first was about 2, and my LO is still rear facing x

 

[pompeyvix]

Anabella is still rear facing. We've just bought an ERF seat (Be Safe Izi Combination) and she can stay rear facing until she's 18kg's. It has the option to be forward facing too, so we MAY ff her at some point if she becomes seriously unhappy rf, if not she will stay rf until she reaches the weight limit.

 

[Itsychik]

My DS was 17 months old and around 22 lbs. I was a supporter of ERF (it's NOT common where I live. We were the only ones that anyone knew who bought a car seat that could rear face after the infant carrier). We had the Britax First Class Plus (which I believe can RF until 13kg) but in the last month of RF'ing it became a battle every time he had to go into the car, and DH had been insisting for months that we should FF. We eventually went on a 5-week trip to visit my parents in the U.S. and the car seat they bought for their car doesn't RF, so I agreed with my DH that when DS was 17 months (a week before we went on vacation) we could FF.

Almost immediately the battles to go in the car stopped. I was uncomfortable at first but my DS has been much happier since. And as a PP mentioned, it's a lot easier to hand things back to him now, especially during long road trips.

 

[KayBea]

16 months when she reached the weight limit for her carrier (13Kg). x

 

[jessicatunnel]

Lilly is 16 months and still rearfacing. We have a graco mysize 70, it rear faces until 40lbs and forward faces until 70lbs and we PLAN to keep her rear facing until she passes the weight limit for it. She's not a huge fan of the carseat, she used to cry about 2 minutes into a car ride journey and cry the whole time and it was exhausting having to entertain her constantly. Then a few months ago she was just fine in it. We could go around town without her crying or getting fussy. Now she gets fussy again after about 10 minutes in the car. Believe me, there have been MANY times I've wanted to switch her to ff but rf is safer and we just want her to be as safe as possible for as long as possible so we just have to deal with her tantrums in the carseat.

 

[bananaz]

My LO is almost 17 months old and she's still rear-facing. I plan to keep her that way until she's too tall or exceeds the 40lb rear-facing limit for the seat, which I'm guessing will be when she's around 3 or 4 years old. She has a forward-facing seat in my mom's car and it doesn't make her any happier about going on car rides so I'm not in any hurry.

 

[dlj2]

13 months after teaching her weight limit and yes she much prefers it.x