Car trips

We will be taking a 10 hour road trip this July and I am wondering if those of you that have taken these longer trips have their children rear or forward facing? My lo's will be 14 months and are 24 and 22lbs. Right now we are still rear facing.

 

My guys are still rear facing, and we have taken long-ish road trips (5 hours). They do just fine! We set up our portable dual DVD system "backwards" so they can see the screens, and if they get fussy I go into the back and amuse them. I'm hoping to keep them rear-facing as long as possible. :good:

 

I wouldn't turn them just for the trip. I would pack a bunch of snacks and books for them to play with. Make sure to plan stops and it should be totally do-able! Have fun!!

 

I agree with the PP--I would not advise turning them just for the longer car trip. My lo's are still rear facing in my car. My mom has them forward facing in her car. They rode in my mom's car, forward facing, for an hour-long car trip. DD fell asleep with her head bobbing up and down while forward facing. DS got carsick while forward facing and had to ride rear facing in my car for the remainder of the trip.

 

Thanks for the advice, some of my friends think I should turn them, but I'm afraid they would'nt want to rear face again. I think i will just leave them where they are.

 

I'm just wondering...what is the issue with switching to front facing? I'm not being snarky just genuinely curious. We never even thought about it - the boys had outgrown their rear facing seats, they were a PITA to get them into anyway, and the new seats were front facing. Different angles so we can tip them back more when they fall asleep. And I prefer to be able to see their faces without aid of mirrors and I can hand them things so much more easily. And they really enjoy looking out of the windows in this direction. Is it safer to be rear facing? Sorry to be such an ignoramus.

 

Rear-facing is much safer until the child reaches the limits of their carseat. It protects more against head, neck, and spinal injuries.

Here's a link with more info:

http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html


FWIW, my 30lb 2.5 year olds are still rear-facing and perfectly content that way - they don't know any different!

 

Yeah - they just changed the recommendations in Colorado to 2 years for rear-facing, depending on height/weight, which I don't know off the top of my head, but at our rate we won't hit the weight requirement for years...LOL...but not kidding. I am going to have rear-facers forever...although I would love to see their faces, I always try to imagine how I would feel if we got in an accident and they were hurt and I might have prevented it. You never know of course but with car seat research and the laws of physics in general as a guide, I am pretty onboard with their recommendations. We made the 1,000 mile trip to Chicago three times since last November...guess we will continue to not see them - we do have mirrors though, and they work pretty good.

 

if anything, i would switch my girls back to rear-facing for a long car ride! assuming you'll be highway driving, it seems to me it would be so much safer to have them rear facing. we only switched to forward facing because our car doesn't really fit their convertible seats rear facing - DH & i were squished into the dash. we kept at it for about 6 months but DH especially was in an unsafe position if we had gotten into an accident. since the girls were over the weight & height requirements for forward facing we decided to switch them, even though i would have preferred to keep them rear facing longer.

 

Thanks guys. Now I really do feel a bit daft for not being a bit more informed. However, I will say in my defence that I am in the UK, and after doing a little research, it seems that rear facing seats for toddlers are not generally sold over here, (infant car seats are required to be rear-facing) which is probably why nobody mentioned this as an option when we were buying.

 

Don't feel daft! The AAP just recently changed their recommendations, and I have no idea what the corresponding British pediatrics association has to say about the matter.

If you do enough research you'll find that there is almost a subculture of people (extended rear-facers) who keep their kids rear-facing until like 6 or 7 years old! I've seen the pictures; it looks rather uncomfortable for the kids, but people swear they don't mind. ardon: It would be safer for adults to rear-face too, but unfortunately we have to drive.

 

[quote name='Nate and Jack's Mom' date='23 June 2010 - 08:00 AM' timestamp='1277301648' post='1654725']
Don't feel daft! The AAP just recently changed their recommendations, and I have no idea what the corresponding British pediatrics association has to say about the matter.

If you do enough research you'll find that there is almost a subculture of people (extended rear-facers) who keep their kids rear-facing until like 6 or 7 years old! I've seen the pictures; it looks rather uncomfortable for the kids, but people swear they don't mind. ardon: It would be safer for adults to rear-face too, but unfortunately we have to drive.
[/quote]

only till we get robot controlled cars! :spy: although, i'm pretty sure sitting rear facing would make me car sick. :bad:

 

I'll be the odd man out, I switched all my kids forward facing right at 1yr because we were making a long car trip. 3 days of driving to be exact. There's no way my kids would be happy sitting rear facing for 3 days in a vehicle With my oldest, I rode in the backseat to keep him happy. With my second, I had to switch my oldest to the front seat for the last day of the trip so I could sit in the back and keep my dd happy. With the twins, we're making their first trip in 10 days and we've switched them forward facing so I can help hand them stuff in the middle seats. We have a Yukon XL, my oldest kids are in the furthest back and the babies in the middle captain's chairs, there's no seat for me back there so it's not possible for me to help entertain them. We have a built in DVD player that they wouldn't be able to see if they were rf'ing, and they wouldn't be able to see out the windows. I had to do what's going to work best for us, and ff'ing is what works best, it's also much much easier for my older kids to climb into the backseat now, because they don't have to crawl on the floor underneath the rf'ing carseats, and since we'll be in/out at least a dozen times a day, this will be easier for them.

 

Just curious, but if they have never FF'd before, do they really know the difference?

I used to drive 18hours in 2 stretches from Alberta to Manitoba and kept mine RR to almost 2yrs of age - I never ever had an issue with them being bored any more than the older ones who were FF....

 

We just returned from a 14hr (each way) car trip and our girls are still rear-facing. It helped that they have a big sister who sat in the back seat and entertained them. They are not really in to videos or TV yet so we didn't try that, but I spent a lot of time turned around retrieving/switching out toys. Frequent stops helped and I took a blanket to spread out in the grass wherever we stopped so they could sit/walk around a little while while we rested.

Vacation was well worth the work of the car ride!

 

That's what always comes to my mind when someone says their kids wouldn't stand for it. I'm like "how would they know?" Anyway, we RF til 30 lbs. MUCH safer! And obviiously, they had NO IDEA that FF even existed!!

 

Mine get less bored FF'ing. ardon: I have no idea why, but when RF'ing they will grouch/fuss more than when they are looking forward. They can see more facing forward, maybe that's what it is, I have no clue but somehow they are happier, especially on long car trips, when ff'ing

 

Last summer, when our two were 17 months old, we drove to Michigan (about 12 hours) with them rear facing. They did fine in the car, we had books & toys for them to be occupied with and made a few stops so they could stretch their legs. Plus we were riding with my parents, so there were always two people in the third row of our minivan for them to look at and "chat" with.

 

Thank you everyone for your comments! I think we have decided to keep them rear facing!