When did you turn the carseat forward facing and why?

[Rachel_C]

There's really no 'safe' or 'unsafe'. Going in a car at all is always going to be more unsafe than sitting at home on the sofa and rear facing is always going to be safer than forward facing (the same goes for adults, you're better protected in an accident if you're rear facing, although that wouldn't work so well for the driver!). It's about your assessment of how low you need the increased risk to be before switching.

We will be keeping the kids rear facing until there are no more seats we can afford that will accommodate them rear facing, because any increased risk isn't worth it to me. I would go without luxuries in the grocery shop to afford it if we had to and I would stop every 45 minutes on longer journeys if the kids needed to stretch their legs. If my kids grow according to their charts, they should be RF until 6+, although I'm not sure about the heights of the seats available, they will certainly accommodate the weights though.

 

[Brieanna]

DD still is and will until she gets too big. In the US the say 2 is the youngest to turn now. Here is an article https://www.parenting.com/article/car-seats-safety I know in some countries it is hard to find erf carseats, but there are many options here (ours was from walmart) and online.

DD weighs 30 lbs and is 36 inches tall. We have a my ride 65 which can rf until 35 or 40 lbs (I can't remember which one).

She doesn't like long car rides and never has (We go on a lot of them since family lives far away). When we visited my dad for a week and used his car his carseat was ff and dd still didn't like it, lol.

If I am not driving I sit in the back with dd to entertain her. I could also breastfeed (I was still buckled in, just plopped my large boobs over to her, lol) while she was in the carseat rf which saved us TONS of time on our cross country trips. She sits with her legs crossed and it doesn't seem to bother her.

I did lots of research and even saw videos and even though there is no 100% safe way to travel, we decided rearfacing is the only way to go for us. We bought our carseats with erf in mind.

I honestly wouldn't turn her even if she was happier with forward facing. I would rather have an unhappy toddler who is alive.

 

[Charlee]

About 7 months as thats when most car seats started facing forward. My first carseat which was rearfacing and was up to 9kg so once he got to big we moved to forward facing. Never had any issues and it's more than safe.

 

[overcomer79]

dd at 15 months is still rear facing with max incline. She loves it tbh as she likes to fall asleep. When reaches 20 lbs, I will set her seat up a little but she will be rf as long as possible.

 

[bumpy_j]

Joel will being RFing in his Britax Two Way until the foreseeable future as he's still way below the weight limit. We have turned it around occasionally if needing to move the seat to another car for a short journey but we invested in an ERF as driving to my hometown requires an hour and a half on motorways.

 

[Eleanor ace]

DS was 18 months. We started facing him forward as he gets very car sick and was throwing up intensely whilst rear facing. DD will hopefully be able to rf a lot longer.

 

[lozzy21]

A month before her second birthday. She had a leg in plaster cast and could not fit in her seat rear facing.