Car Seat Positions

How many have of you have turned the car seats forward?




Mine are still facing the back of my car until they are either 2 years old or 35lbs

 

nope ours are still facing backwards, and will at least until 2 yrs old. my dd is just barely 20 pounds now (at 18 months)... but we will definitely keep rear facing for a long time.

 

Mine are still rear facing, they will be two in December. We'll be moving them forward soon. In my parents car, their seats have been forward facing since they were 13-14 months.

 

Ours are still rear facing at 22 months, but they are barely 20 pounds. We'll keep them rear facing as long as we can.

 

I found this video on youtube. It's hard to watch so it's up to you if you wish to see it. it's about what happened to a child in a front facing seat. I honestly just found this after I posted this thread. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind or just scare anyone. I just found this video when searching for a comparison of the two seat positions. It hit home for me. I'll be keeping them in their seats as long as I can at least up to the weight limits of the seats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8gU9zzCGA8


This one is much less scary to watch, but it shows simply what happens to a body in both a rear facing seat and a front facing seat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKIeExpDLDA

 

Evan is still rear facing. He is just under 26 lbs.

 

Still rear facing... they're 22 and 24lbs. Will keep them that way until they outgrow the seats (in length first probably). Why take risks when they are happy and don't know better?

 

Still rear facing here too. I think we're going to turn them around in Dec for a trip, but I may switch them back when we get home.

 

Still rear facing. We are also going to turn them around for our 15+ hour trip at Christmas (they will have just turned two) just for the sake of our sanity. I'm still thinking on whether or not I will turn them back around when we get home. I need to get out the manual and see how close we are to the limits of the seat. If it's a long way from the limits I will probably put them back rear facing, though my DH will not be happy!

 

Still rear facing (16lbs and 22 lbs) I would like to turn them - but that is just out of preference and their safety is far more important!

 

Still RFing at 18 months (21 and 25 pounds). I will turn them FF for 2 weeks in December because I'm getting my boobs done and won't be able to lift them. They can crawl into the carseat by themselves if it's FFing. They will get turned around RFing as soon as I can lift them.

 

Mine are rear facing too. DS is 27 lbs & DD is 26 lbs. Our carseats say the limit on rear-facing is 30 lbs, so I'm hoping we'll make it to 2 yrs before we hit that limit.

 

I am the odd one out here that has my boys FF.
We turned forward facing for a long car trip and after that we never flipped them back. It was easier with them FF for the our extended trip for sure. I would recommend flipping them for anything more than a few hours at the most. There is no way we could have made our 14 hour trip as easily as we did if they were RF.
They ride less than a mile to daycare and back each day so DH and I decided to just leave the seats FF after we got home. They actually behave better in the car now and don't fight getting into their seats anymore for us.

 

Still rear-facing here; my guys are small (around 20 lbs) so I don't think we'll be turning them around any time soon. Luckily we don't go on very many long car trips, so they don't have much opportunity to complain about it.

 

me, too. henry might be sitting like a pretzle by then, but that's what we're doing!

 

I'm keeping the facing back as lons as possible (ds is 23 lbs and dd is 26) I got hit one day from the back, my neck was hurting
and so was my back but they did not feel a thing- just got scared with the noise. Good lesson for me!

 

I'm not really seeing the logic in putting them FF just for a trip though... wouldn't it actually be the most important time for them to be RF? We're only driving 6 hours both ways though so I guess it's not the same as 15.

Don't get me wrong, I think RF isn't convenient at all too, especially in our minivan with the sliding doors in the way, but safety goes first.

 

I don't get this either. That is the time that I am the most anal about where the kids are in the car and how they are positioned. My mom hates traveling with me because I refuse to budge on where my kids are in the car. And it's a pain for my DD or my niece (who is 5'5" at 10 years old) to get in the back of the car. But that's when I'm concerned the most about car safety. And so it's not easy to get in the car but oh well.

I'm already freaking out about the 7-10 days that my kids will need to be FFing because I can't lift them. And we won't be traveling more than about 10 miles in any direction during those days. But I can't have help 24/7 during those days.

 

Two things for me. 1) They will be over 2 which was my goal to RF to begin with. I don't know that I would have done it 6 months ago (we flew then). 2) I'm not making the 15+ hour trip with them at all if it is rear facing. 15+ hours in the car with my vocal toddlers when they can't see the DVD player, I can't hand them toys or snacks or see who's sleeping. It's just not happening in my world, we would never get there.

I do see that safety wise it may not make the most sense. I don't know that I've really tried to justify it as far as safety. I could say that most accidents happen within a mile of your home (is that statistic still good?). I also have a couple of spots on our daily drive that I am legitimely more concerned about than I am concerned about driving straight down an interstate for hours. Really though, I do feel they would be safer rear facing, but the logistics would be a nightmare. So, we are turning them around and I'll see how I feel about turning them back to RF after we get home.