Do you keep your children rear-facing past 1 year and 20lbs?

I know this can be a heated topic and I am NOT starting this topic to begin a debate - I am honestly just curious about the percentage of people who keep their children riding rear-facing past the 1 year and 20lbs requirements.

My kids ride rear-facing until the limits of their seats - 33lbs in their Britax Marathons. But, I am the only person in real life that I know of that keeps their kids riding rear-facing once they are over 1 and over 20lbs. It doesn't matter to me, I could be the only person on the planet that did it and I would still do it - but I'm curious if the number of people that keep their children rear-facing is as small as it is in my real life. Does that make sense?

If you want to share why you do or why you don't, other info on this topic, etc. that would be fine too. But again, I'm not posting this to start a debate - I'm just curious about the numbers.

Thanks!

 

I turn them around once they get to those limits. I think it is just easier for me and them.

 

I kept my girls rear facing well past one year because none of them were 20 pounds at one year. Now at almost 4 and almost 3 the little ones face front. They are just over 30 and 20 pounds respectively, small for their ages. It became a matter of convience to have them face the front when they finally hit the weight mark and since they were plenty old enough to turn around I turned them.

My sister just recently turned my nephew to face front and he's 18 months.

 

We turned when they hit the rear-facing height limit for their seats... about 18 months (they were barely 20 pounds!) When they hit the forward-facing height limit for their convertibles, I bought them Nautilus seats so they can stay 5pt for a loooooooong time. They've always seemed very comfortable and content in their seats.

 

I'm glad you asked!

When we got these guys their convertible car seats, we had a HECK of a time installing them properly.

Fire stations here don't help you, nor do the police.

Anyway.. it took me 4 weeks and probably close to 50 emails/phone calls all over MN to FINALLY come across a wonderful woman from the National Highway Safety Patrol.

She does car seat clinics on the weekends but had no openings for months!! I was panicky so she came TO MY HOUSE!!

She drove over an hour to help me. She installed them PERFECTLY. It took her a while and while we were waiting she told me how important it is to KEEP THEM REAR FACING UNTIL THEY REACH WEIGHT LIMIT!!

In our case, the limit rear facing is 35 lbs. We will definitely keep them rear facing until then. We really just can't afford not to.

In fact, the AAP is recommending this now as well.

She told me to tell everyone to keep them rear facing because it is a very common misconception that you switch them at one year or 20 lbs. It is not the safest thing to do. And not recommended at all anymore. If I had mine front facing, I'd switch them back right away.

Anyway, thanks for letting me share.

 

(OT- Debi, your avatar is cracking me up! So cute!)


We aren't far past the one year/20lb mark, but mine are still rear-facing. I chose the convertible seats that I did because they can be rear facing up to 35lbs. (And forward facing up to 55lbs- so they should last us a long time.)
And I am the only person I know IRL that hasn't turned them at a year.

At their year appt they were both just at 20lbs. And I don't know. I guess it doesn't bother me or them to be rear facing, so I'd just rather leave them that way for now. It makes me more comfortable. When it becomes an issue, we'll turn them.

Plus, DS is forever taking his shoes and socks off. Right now they stay mostly contained in his seat and are easy to find. I have visions of getting beaned in the head with a shoe once he faces forward! :lol:


Thanks for asking this! I wanted to, but didn't want there to be debate!

 

At 2 years old, we are still rear facing. When they outgrew their buckets at like 14 months, i purchased Britax Marathons and installed them rear facing. At one of our appointments the pedi even told us to keep them rear facing.

At their 2 year visit, Jake was 23 lbs and Becca 27 (the limit on the Marathon is 35 for rear, 65 for ff)...For now we are keeping them rear as long as we can, it's safer and we are fortunate not to drive them much. They don't know any different...in fact when we went to florida in November I even went to the hassle of installing the crappy rental seats rear facing.

If you want some good information, go to www.car-seat.org (a site I learned about on TS), but saying the kids are happier FF is not a good reason...but to each his own. As parents we all make the best decisions we can make for our family and I hope to never learn first hand *why* rear facing is safer.

Miriam

 

we were about 18 months when we turned ours

 

Mine are almost 20 months and still RF. But that's because they haven't hit the weight limit. Last time weighed they were only 18 lbs. It may be a while yet for them to FF. I would love to switch them around, but that's only because we travel so much and they would be able to see the DVD player. I will only turn them around when I think they are "big" enough. Right now, they are just too tiny!

 

My children did (for the older one) and will (for my twins) stay rear facing until the weight limit of the seat is reached. In our case it is 35 lbs. It's just not a matter of convenience for me (my children's safety). I just bought two Nautilus car seats for my 50 lb. just turned 4 year old to keep him in a five pt. harness longer.

 

QUOTE
My children did (for the older one) and will (for my twins) stay rear facing until the weight limit of the seat is reached. In our case it is 35 lbs.


I respect the decisions each parent makes when it comes to keeping their child rear-facing. But I have an honest logistics question...

My daughter is around 35 pounds, and is 42 inches. Where on earth would she keep her legs rearfacing?

 

Luckily (unluckily?!) my kids were 30 lbs at age one so I didn't have to debate it with myself.

 

QUOTE(twoin2005 @ Jan 11 2009, 09:12 AM) [snapback]1142035[/snapback]
I respect the decisions each parent makes when it comes to keeping their child rear-facing. But I have an honest logistics question...

My daughter is around 35 pounds, and is 42 inches. Where on earth would she keep her legs rearfacing?


At 35 lbs, she is probably at the upper limit of most convertible car seats, so you would turn her around.

For taller kids, some newer cars (our murano) have a recline option for the back of the actual passenger seat and kids can fold their legs.

Check out car-seat.org for more information, the folks on there are also big proponents of extended 5 pt harnassing vs. booster seats.

 

first, holy cow 30 lbs at one year? What are you feeding them?

second, how many people kids sit with their legs out straight? I would MUCH rather have them break a leg in a car accident then break their neck while Rear facing.

Lastly, I kept my boys Rear facing in their Marathons until about 2ish? They had outgrown the height limit. Funny how that works rf but ff its 49 inches?

anyways my 5 cents....

 

My girls are rear-facing still at 18 months (but only 18 pounds also). I plan to keep them rear-facing until 2 maybe ... that is if they are even 20 pounds by then! We have the Britax Decathlons and they can stay rear-facing until 35 pounds in that seat and 5-point until 65 pounds so I am loving the seat ... but in my car (XTerra) my husband's knees dig into the dashboard and he can barely drive it at all b/c he is so close to the steering wheel ... so I feel like if they are 20 pounds by 2 years old, then we will turn them then to make it better for him in the car and surely that is old enough for them to be turned. I got on here to start a post about car options ... ha!

 

yup- still RF here. They're 21 months and about 26-27 lbs. They're tall, and I'm beginning to have a hard time getting them in w/ their legs all scrunched, but I can't get past the head/neck safety. I'm going to do my best to keep them RF as long as possible. (we have MAs too..) And FWIW, most of my friends IRL also RF past the legal limits. (Except for my cousin, but she is a whole other story... )

edited- when I re-read my post, I didn't want it to seem like they RF past the legal limits of RFing, but the minimum legal requirements to turn FF- hope that made sense!

 

We just turned our girls around last week. They're 20 months old and 23 and 24 pounds. I would have kept them rear facing for a long while more, but I lost the argument to my DH and our nanny, who both wanted to turn them around. The girls are tall for their ages and their legs were definitely scrunched up while rear facing. We took a 13 hour car ride and DH turned the seats around before the trip.

I love having the girls forward facing; I had no idea how much more fun it would be. That said, I am still feeling guilty about giving in and letting DH turn the seats. I keep wondering what if something happens. Sigh.

 

QUOTE(gina_leigh @ Jan 11 2009, 11:37 AM) [snapback]1142009[/snapback]
(OT- Debi, your avatar is cracking me up! So cute!)
We aren't far past the one year/20lb mark, but mine are still rear-facing. I chose the convertible seats that I did because they can be rear facing up to 35lbs. (And forward facing up to 55lbs- so they should last us a long time.)
And I am the only person I know IRL that hasn't turned them at a year.

At their year appt they were both just at 20lbs. And I don't know. I guess it doesn't bother me or them to be rear facing, so I'd just rather leave them that way for now. It makes me more comfortable. When it becomes an issue, we'll turn them.

Plus, DS is forever taking his shoes and socks off. Right now they stay mostly contained in his seat and are easy to find. I have visions of getting beaned in the head with a shoe once he faces forward! :lol:
Thanks for asking this! I wanted to, but didn't want there to be debate!


Gina's post is us almost to a T. The girls just made 20lbs at a year, and the only reason I switched seats then was the height factor (they still had a couple of lbs to the weight limit).

At two, they're still rearfacing. DH keeps asking about their legs, and they can be challenging to get them in their seats, but once they're in, they don't complain. We'll probably switch soon, but for right now, they're good! And since they're only 27.5lbs, they've got a little while before they outgrow the weight limit on the Evenflo seats.

They do sit forward facing in the few times they've ridden with my mom. The seats she got for them were forward facing only. It's funny how much more "grown up" they look riding in those!

QUOTE(twoin2005 @ Jan 11 2009, 12:12 PM) [snapback]1142035[/snapback]
I respect the decisions each parent makes when it comes to keeping their child rear-facing. But I have an honest logistics question...

My daughter is around 35 pounds, and is 42 inches. Where on earth would she keep her legs rearfacing?


My girls are fairly tall (36 1/2 inches) they just sit with their legs bent, almost cross legged. And as Miriam mentioned, I don't think I've seen a rearfacing seat with a limit higher than 35lbs. I could be wrong though.

 

Mine are still rear-facing (convertible seats), but are just now outgrowing it. We're going to turn the seats around soon.

 

Absolutely.

They RF until they were 2 yrs & 3mths. It is much safer.

 

Ours are still rear facing because they are not 20 lbs yet. Not sure if we will turn them at 20 lbs or wait until they reach what the limit is for our car seats (33 lbs).

 

QUOTE(twoin2005 @ Jan 11 2009, 12:12 PM) [snapback]1142035[/snapback]
I respect the decisions each parent makes when it comes to keeping their child rear-facing. But I have an honest logistics question...

My daughter is around 35 pounds, and is 42 inches. Where on earth would she keep her legs rearfacing?

I was wondering the same thing. And how do you get them in the seat? My kids are also about 35 lbs, 40". I just can't see myself lifting them into rear-facing seats.

We turned them around at about 14 months I think. They were probably 25 lbs at that point. We had taken the carseats out of the car for some reason, and when we put them back in, went ahead and turned them around.

 

My girls are just a few days shy of 13 months and they were 20lbs 11oz and 21lbs 11oz last month. They are both still RF and will stay that way till their legs get a little longer and it becomes uncomfortable looking.

 

For the twins, I turned them around at 18 months when they were about 30 lbs. I turned Steven around about a month ago (at 27 lbs.) because he was fighting me so much whenever he needed to go into the carseat. I'm just not strong enough to force him to sit when he didn't want to so I turned the seat around and now he's a happier passenger - most of the time.

ETA: If their legs are too long, they can sit cross-legged in the RF position. It never seemed to be a problem for us.

 

I kept Nadia rear-facing until 18 months, and then I turned her because she's really tall, and her legs were getting scrunched. In retrospect, this was not a good decision -- she wasn't really complaining about her legs, and like a PP mentioned, it's still safer to risk a leg injury in an accident than a neck injury.

I intended to keep my little ones rear-facing for as long as possible, but I was in an accident a few months ago, and had to replace their carseats. (They were perfectly safe while rear-facing in their Britax Roundabouts, BTW.) I bought Radian 65's for them, which is a taller seat than the Roundabout, and I could *not* fit it rear-facing behind the driver's seat in my car. My DH is 6'4" and needs the seat pushed all the way back in order to drive. We tried everything, but finally gave up and decided to turn Karina around.

We did put her in her big sister's Recaro Young Sport for now, however, which is an excellent seat with a lot of head support. The kiddos are 19 months, and Karina is 36 inches and 28 pounds -- fairly big for her age. Kevan is 34 inches and 25+ pounds, and he is still rear-facing right next to his sister.

Incidentally, it's not weight that is most important in this decision. Rather, it's the proportion of the head in relation to the body. The larger the head, the more it tends to snap forward in an accident, risking greater injury for a forward-facing child. As children grow, their heads get smaller in relation to their overall body size, which is why it gets safer as they get older...

 

I did until 16 months (and close to 27lbs). I had some installment issues with 3 across, and ff it fits a little bit better and much tighter so I decided to turn them but waited longer than with my first (turned her at 12 months and 25lbs, but didn't know that much at the time).

 

I switched my bouys around 16 months when they reached the 30 lb weight limit. I will likely do the same with Becca.

 

I can't remember exactly, but theyvwere very close to 2 before we turned them. It took them forever to reach 20 lbs., and even then, I didn't switch them. I could never understand DH's arguement that they would be happier once facing foward. First off, WHY? What about facing foward would make them so much happier? Second, how would they even know the difference? FWIW, they hated the car rear facing and foward facing! Plus, once they are FF, they want you to get things for them! :lol: !

My singleton, Carys, will stay rear facing until she hits the weight limit. DH hasn't mentioned it

 

I currently have one DD forward facing because she is over the weight limit for rear facing in our Roundabouts. My other DD is still rear facing bec she hasn't yet reached the limit. They are almost 2. I wasn't sure how it would go over having one FF and one RF, but they are loving it because they look right at each other. FWIW, I actually find it easier getting my RFing DD in and out of the car - maybe bec that's what I'm used to. My two are both fairly tall (one is off the charts) and definitely tell us if something is bothering them and leg room was never a complaint (although sun in the eyes was a big one).

These boards and our local car seat clinic have both made me an advocate for RFing. I've convinced some others to do this too, but we are definitely in the minority around here.

 

Wow, I never even new this was an issue. i turned my Dd around at a year and didn't know any different. My boys are already over 20 pounds and I had planned on turning them around at a year but I guess i need to do some research and ask my Ped now.

 

Wow, I am amazed that approximately 70% of the people responding to this poll keep their kids rear-facing past the 1 year AND 20lb requirements! That's wonderful! To me this is such an important thing to advocate for - it keeps the kids so much safer. I need to send an email or something out to my friends and family that have young babies/children about extended rear-facing so maybe I won't be the only one around here who keeps her babies facing backwards when they are 2 and over!!

 

My girls are still in infant seats (and only 16 pounds), but we intend to keep them rear facing as long as possible. At the rate we're going though they'll never meet the weight limit for a rear facing convertible. :lol: I hope they are forward facing before they start junior high. Ha ha.

 

I kept mine rear-facing until about 16 months. They were about 27 pounds at the time.

 

I kept my son backwards for a few weeks after his 1st birthday, but happily turned it around as soon as his doctor's appt (I was also pregnant with the twins and we had a 2 door car I was using, until a few days later when we bought the van) said he was 20 lbs some oz. We haven't gone back since.

With the twins I turned Julianna pretty much as soon as she was 1 (she was already 21 lbs) and I did try her convertible seat backwards but she slumped forward in her seat because of the slant of the back seat, so she turned forward. My Katelyn was still in her infant carseat until she was 13 months old and then I moved her to her convertible seat and again instead of facing the same issue, she went forward facing right away

 

QUOTE(Snittens @ Jan 11 2009, 08:57 PM) [snapback]1142265[/snapback]
I was wondering the same thing. And how do you get them in the seat? My kids are also about 35 lbs, 40". I just can't see myself lifting them into rear-facing seats.

We turned them around at about 14 months I think. They were probably 25 lbs at that point. We had taken the carseats out of the car for some reason, and when we put them back in, went ahead and turned them around.

Most car seats won't rf when over approx. 32lbs (depends on seat) so a 35lbs child wouldn't be able to be rear facing in most seats.