I know we have lots of babe who recently turned a year old. I was wodnering who is following the newer recommendations to elave babe rear until at least 2 and who has turned their one year old around already?

Samuel is just now 20 pounds, so he is still rear faing and will stay that way for a while. He likes reclining and sinc ehe still falls asleep in teh car, I think he is better off thsi way. he will be rear facing until at least October when the new baby gets here.

Definitely still rear facing. Teeny Steph is *just* 20 pounds at 19 months (today). I don't know why I was in such a hurry for Ava to get to 20 pounds so she could face the front:(

i'll admit..jackson is forward facing. he's 25 lbs and on the same setting in his marathon as his 3 year old sister..he's a big boy.

Julie, Celeste went forward right at 1 year. William, #3 babe, stayed rear facing until 18 mos or so. He was a big round kid like your Jackson, not tall though. I have found it gets so much easier when you have more kids. They entertain each other!

still rear here :) i do need to have him weighed though, we probably are going to have to turn him. I am sure hes 30, not sure if hes over 33 or not. He likes rearfacing though-- he and Liam are in captains chairs in the middle row and they talk to each other.

Julie, Celeste went forward right at 1 year. William, #3 babe, stayed rear facing until 18 mos or so. He was a big round kid like your Jackson, not tall though. I have found it gets so much easier when you have more kids. They entertain each other!
jackson's rather tall but still could easily be rear facing. we have a camry though and whoever he behind (currently the passenger) has to have their seat pulled way up b/c the marathon is so tall. my dh and i are both tall long legged people and it is very uncomfortable...so i guess it is selfish reasons. he is much happier forward facing...looking at his sister didn't keep him happy any more.

Alannah will be one in 2 days, but will stay rfing until she's 33lbs. And I don't expect that until she's over 3. Her safety is more important than convenience.

i don't think riding forward facing is "unsafe"

i don't think riding forward facing is "unsafe"


No - it's not unsafe. But rfing is "safer". And I realized after I posted that the way I said it may have (probably did) sounded snarky - and I appologize for that! I was only talking about my situation - it would be a LOT easier for us if Alannah wasn't rfing, with the seating arrangememnts we have. Right now Aislinn has to climb over or under Alannah's seat to get to hers. But keeping Alannah rfing is more important to me than Aislinn being able to just walk to her seat.

No - it's not unsafe. But rfing is "safer". And I realized after I posted that the way I said it may have (probably did) sounded snarky - and I appologize for that! I was only talking about my situation - it would be a LOT easier for us if Alannah wasn't rfing, with the seating arrangememnts we have. Right now Aislinn has to climb over or under Alannah's seat to get to hers. But keeping Alannah rfing is more important to me than Aislinn being able to just walk to her seat.
thanks...

and hmpfff....i think i'm going to go turn his seat back around.....

Katie is RF at almost 16 months and will stay that way for quite a while. She is only about 19-20 pounds, btw. I turned my son at 16 months--he was in a seat that could accomdate RF till 30 pounds and he wasn't quite there, but 16 months back in 2000 was a looooong time...it was almost unheard of where I lived! :D Now the trend is to leave them RF longer, so that works for me. Reading the reasons to keep them RF is what convinced me!

We are still rear facing for Aidra~19 months and 20 pounds. She is also short/petite but meets all the requirements(in the US ) to turn around. It is *safer* to have them rear facing for whiplash/breaking their neck. So the longer you keep the rear facing the better. .It isn't just a matter of size, but control/strength of their neck muscles~so more advanced physical development and age helps. (at least from what I understand)

Aidra seems fine with it. It is nice with the older sibling, they do talk/play/fight(lol) this way. Leah hands Aidra toys etc. Really cute.

I find it really bugs people here(in NZ) that she is rear facing~like I am being mean to Aidra that she is not facing forward. Kiwis are NOT very car seat savvy/safety at all:( They use VERY OLD carseats, put little babies facing forward all the time.

jackson's rather tall but still could easily be rear facing. we have a camry though and whoever he behind (currently the passenger) has to have their seat pulled way up b/c the marathon is so tall. my dh and i are both tall long legged people and it is very uncomfortable...so i guess it is selfish reasons. he is much happier forward facing...looking at his sister didn't keep him happy any more.
I hear ya on the space issue~lol! We purposely put Aidra's rear facing carseat behind the passanger seat because I am short(5'1") and it is RARE for dh to ever ride as a passanger.

ok...he's rear facing again. ;)

we are rearfacing still. I plan to keep her there as long as possible.

Julie have you seen the video footage of kids the same age rear facing vs forward facing in an accident? eek!

we are rearfacing still. I plan to keep her there as long as possible.

Julie have you seen the video footage of kids the same age rear facing vs forward facing in an accident? eek!
no, i don't think i have.

I'm not posting this to be snarky or anything...just for informational purposes for anyone who's lurking silently :D

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

with liam i was praying that we would make it TO one-- I was afraid I was going to have to turn him at 10-11 months. He was 28lbs 12oz at 6 months, and 32lbs 14oz at one. Simon I haven't weighed in several months (we missed our 1yr appt), but I am hoping he can make it 15-18 months. I would guess he is around 31lbs now. I wish there was a seat that went to 40 rearfacing!!! I was so thankful for the marathon and husky seats-- they kept my big kid safe! Liam was 40lbs by the time he turned 2. (I have really tall kids as well btw, lol). I can't imagine my only option for a kid who JUST turned 2 being a BPB!

Noah is still rearfacing. He is 13 months and weighs 26.5 lbs. He weighs almost as much as his brother and sister! lol! :) We'll keep him rearfacing as long as possible. He doesn't mind b/c he faces his siblings (they are in the way back of the minivan) and it's not inconvenient for us b/c we have a door right next to his seat. I'm thankful for that--I'm sure it must be a PITA for those of you with difficult seat maneuvers.

:)
Jeni

I'm not posting this to be snarky or anything...just for informational purposes for anyone who's lurking silently :D

http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/StayRearFacing.aspx
thank you for posting this. I forwarded it on to my gf who has had her 9mo forward facing since 6 months. :(

thank you for posting this. I forwarded it on to my gf who has had her 9mo forward facing since 6 months. :(
ok..that i would just feel totally guilty about!

Whem dh was deployed to Bosnia he termed the "Bosnian Car Seat"- a mom holding the baby in the passenger's seat. I feel spoiled that we can have a car seat for each car, but I'm so glad we have such safe seats. I cannot believe the number of moms I see with young children w/o car seats- I'm talking about nice vehicles and military moms...:(

I just turned Alex a month ago to forward facing. He hit 33lbs and rides in a marathon. he was 20 months old when we switched.

We turned Seth to forward facing right after he turned a year old. Dh and I are both very tall and have to have our seats back quite far (dh has to have his all the way back to drive). When Seth was rear-facing, dh's seat always hit the car seat and pushed it at an incorrect angle. As soon as we turned Seth, his carseat was finally in the correct position, which made us feel better about his safety. So, for us, we didn't have any other option. I'm all for people keeping their kids rear-facing for as long as they want, but for my baby's safety, we needed to turn him forward-facing to have a correctly installed carseat.

Actually, as a child gets older, their seat does not need to be at the 45 degree angle anymore. It can be more upright. Alannah's seat is reclined just enough so that her head doesn't flop when she's sleeping.

someone once told me that the carseat is not supposed to touch the front seat when rear facing...is this true?

Britax seats can be "braced" against the front seat. Others specifically say not to. You need to read your carseat's manual to find out for sure about your seat. HTH!

Britax seats can be "braced" against the front seat. Others specifically say not to. You need to read your carseat's manual to find out for sure about your seat. HTH!
we have marathons...but i don't see anywhere in the manual where it says anything either way.

we are rearfacing still. I plan to keep her there as long as possible.

Julie have you seen the video footage of kids the same age rear facing vs forward facing in an accident? eek!

where could i watch the video? i keep meaning to get some conviction about this issue, but always forget. ds is happy to be rear facing, we rarely take the car seat out anyway (which we would have to do to turn it around), and he's 19 lbs and something, so i have no plans to turn it around any time soon. but i want to keep him rear facing for however long i am able if it is safer...just hadn't heard of it being safer until a few months back...here.

Seth's seat was not only touching dh's seat while rear-facing, it was getting pushed up off of the seat. So, I don't think anyone here can tell me that was safe. He's definitely better off forward-facing where his seat is installed properly and safely.

because you tether a britax set it doesnt matter if the front seats are pushing on it-- the tether holds it in place. It is actually desirable to have the seat braced against the front seats. Ours was wedged between the two front seats when we had a Saturn. (DH is 6'4 and I am 5'9)

Carseat issues were actually why we had to buy the van. The roundabout (and Marathon, which is actually what Simon rides in now) only fit well rearfacing in the center position in the Saturn. Liam is so big that he has to ride in a Husky, and the Husky and Roundabout wouldnt fit side by side in the Saturn.

Bayus is still rear facing but I almost switched that this weekend. We went on a longer car ride and decided to move all 3 car seats to the back bench in the van and Bayus fit rear facing and not forward facing and dh didn't want to move him forward facing yet anyhow. So thats what we did so that we could take out the center bench seat for a 'hang out' spot during rest stops. Bayus has been 20lbs since 6months but will likely hover at 25lbs until 2 yrs and beyond if he growth continues to follow my other kids, I'm not sure what his weight is now.

Thanks for the kick in the pants reminder to keep him rear facing. He doesn't mind it and is really happy NOW with being between the two older siblings- thats fun for him.

Sarah