car seat question

So my little Andy is not so little anymore, and within a few weeks, we'll have a 19 to 20 pound 6 1/2 month old on our hands. My dilemma is dealing with getting new car seats. I know the recommendations are for babies to be in rear-facing car seats until they are at least 1 year old. But I'm going to have a 20-pound baby soon and we HAVE to get a new car seat. My poor chunky monkey can barely fit his chubby little arms through the infant seats harness straps right now. A lot of the convertible seats we like right now are only forward-facing like the Graco Nautilus. Has anyone else had the same problem? A big baby that's not anywhere near a year old yet, but needs to move up to a bigger car seat? Would I be ok putting him in a forward-facing seat at almost 7 months old?

 

I don't know that I would put him forward facing at such a young age, however (not sure about the Graco Nautilus) but our convertible seats (Evenflo Triumph Advance) can be rear facing and can be forward facing when you are ready. I think I would go for a convertible seat that can be rear and forward facing for when he is old enough.

 

At our hospital they have free car seat safty checks. A lot of fire stations or police stations have them. You can head there and they can safely answer your question. At ours you can even purchase the right seat for 20 bucks. From doing this for 4 years and what I know, I would say, no diffently not ready to go front face. There are great ones that are for bigger babies that rear face and then turn front face that can last your for a long time.

 

For my older DD we had the Graco Comfortsport. We used it Rear facing starting at 6 months. We switched her out of the infant carrier because she was too heavy to carry. Then at a little over a year we switched it around to forward facing and used it until we switched her to a booster seat. That's the plan with the twins too - whenever they might have to switch out of the infant carriers. Good luck!

 

I definitely think it is NOT ok to put him forward facing at 7 months old. I believe it has a lot to do with neck strength, and height, etc. not just weight. In fact I think they want you to keep them rear-facing as long as possible...even beyond a year. At the very least they need to be 20lbs AND a year to go forward facing. If you go on the BabiesRUs website just look at "Convertible" car seats...they start out rear facing and then you turn them forward facing. I know Graco makes one and so does Britax. I think there's quite a few. We used the Graco for my older girls and liked it. My girls were really tall and outgrew their infant carry seats early too...like about 6 months and so they weren't sitting up yet on their own (not sure if your son is). So it was difficult because if I wanted to go in a store I would still have to bring the carry seat along for them to sit in...until they were able to sit up in the grocery cart or whatever. Good luck!

shannon

 

I'm pretty sure it's actually illegal to turn them forward facing before a year. Just like it's illegal not to buckle up. My boys outgrew their infant carriers at 5 months due to their length and have been rear facing ever since. The American Pediatrics Association now recommends keeping children rear facing until they are 2 yrs old. Mine will be rear facing until they can complain about it. At this rate they will probably still be rear facing at 3!

ETA: We have the same seats as Nancy, the Evenflow Advance DLX and love them! If you are going to get two at the same time, make sure to tell BRU to give you the twin discount (10% off).

 

Yep, agreed! Babies don't have strong enough neck muscles to face forward in carseats at such a young age. As Megan stated, it is much better to keep them rear facing as long as you can. We have the evenflo advance car seat and it is wonderful. It is a good price too! Aside from that, the graco nautilis is GREAT!!! BUT.. it is a forward facing car seat only.

 

Alabama is unfortunately not very progressive when it comes to car seat laws. The only requirement is for children up to 6 years of age be in a federally approved car or booster seat. No requirements about rear-facing or forward-facing per our state laws, just 'recommendations'. But I definitely was not excited about putting my baby in a forward-facing car seat if I didn't have to at his age. I just wasn't sure if there were many options for rear-facing seats that didn't get horrible consumer reviews. I go way overboard on reading review after review on car seats, and I have a few challenges to try to meet for a new car seat (small compact car with tiny back seat...big yet young baby). But I kept reading very bad reviews of the rear-facing seats that you can eventually convert to forward-facing. I'm probably being terribly picky but I want car seats that work in a VW Jetta (I know, horrible car choice for having twins but I got the car 6 months before finding out we were having twins...hindsight is 20/20 ) I want car seats that aren't too bad for getting babies in and out of the car fairly easily. And I would definitely prefer rear-facing if I can find it. Anyone have any suggestions along those lines?

 

We have a Jetta! The Evenflo Advance got the 2nd highest safety rating for convertibles. If you go to BRU you can actually take the car seat out to your car and see if it fits. I do have to say we don't keep the seats in the Jetta (DH won't share his fun car) but they do fit.

 

Ditto everyone else. My oldest dd was (still is) big, always in the 90+% of height and weight! By 5 months she outgrew the infant carrier, and we also got the graco comfortsport for her.

But by age 2 she was outgrowing the height on the straps of that as well. We had to go with a britax marathon because it had the highest strap height adjustment I could find. It was $300 and it hurt to shell out for it!

I looked everywhere for a cheaper seat with the same height adjustment and just couldn't, so we bought the marathon.

So now that I have one, I plan to get a second one for the babies here shortly. Right now we have liam in the marathon (it's a darker print) and rylee in the comfortsport (nice and girly!). I'll be using the marathon's until we need booster seats for them!

 

Actually that is not true according to carseat.org. HERE is the law as is applies in your state and there is a fine and points if your baby is less than one and 20 pounds and found in a forward facing seat.

The AAP now recommends that children rear face until they are at least 2 years old.

We have both the Evenflo Triumph Advance and the Britax Marathon and are very happy with both rear facing and forward facing.

 

Wow, Rachel! That was interesting! I can't believe FL has such lenient laws. Also was surprised that 2 states require booster seats until age 8. Thanks for that!

 

I have to ditto all the pp... We have the britax diplomat car seats and love them. My 5 month old weighed 17.10lbs so I know how you're feeling! There are a lot of seats out there, good luck in your search! Oh I also have a 9 year old that is finally out of his booster as of last year because he only weighs 45lbs.

 

We like the Graco Comfortsports... they've worked very well for us and were easy to use.

 

Thanks for the clarification on my state's laws, the limited information I found didn't specify any restrictions on the rear & forward facing specifications. And like I said, I definitely didn't want to use forward facing at his age if I didn't have to. I sincerely appreciate everyone's advice on this issue. Some of you folks have been very helpful.

 

I'd suggest you look at the convertibles with the higher weight limits (like the Sunshine Radian) since a 40-pound limit is likely to be hit before your child is ready for a booster seat.