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

I'm so against the flow!!

I actually turned them around at 11 1/2 months. Their legs were too long and they were over 30 inches at 11 months. That's my "official excuse".

The real reason I turned them around is that Alice would screech every time she was in the car facing backwards. She was so bored and hated (still does) the car seat so much, no matter how many toys, snacks, juice she has access to, car time is not a fun time for anyone involved (still). Thankfully when I turned her around her screeching now only consists of 1. Getting in the car seat and 2. The first 15 minutes of the ride unless she gets tired (then it's the rest of the trip.) I truly envy those of you that can take a trip of any amount of time and have both sleep or play nicely or entertain themselves. I've had people comment when we've arrived at our destination that "no wonder it's so loud, you have two!" and then I have to explain to people that it's not both of the babies, just Alice screaming.

Infant carrier = scream bloody murder from about 3 months on any trip.
Convertible RF = scream bloody murder from 7 months forward, any trip.
Convertible FF = scream bloody murder for first 10-15 minutes, then occasionally throughout the rest of the trip.

 

My boys are 14 months and 24ish lbs. They are still RF in the Britax Marathons, I admit it's SUCH a pain to put them in and they aren't happy RF,ing but their safety is the most importnant thing to me. I will switch them to FF when they are 30lbs.

 

QUOTE(idril @ Jan 11 2009, 11:49 AM) [snapback]1142129[/snapback]
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.


DH and I are having this debate right now, and my girls just turned one yesterday. I actually lied to him and said they had to be 26 pounds to be forward facing! (I'm thinking I should have said 30, but they are just 20 pounds right now.)

 

I voted no -- I turned them right around their first birthday (maybe 13 months). My reasoning at the time was that I had to uninstall and reinstall the seats to adjust the shoulder straps, so I might as well just turn them so I wouldn't have to install the seats again in a few months. (At the time I thought installing the seats was a huge pain -- I've gotten much better at it since then.)

If I'd known as much then as I do now about how much safer it is to be rear-facing, I might not have done it so soon. They never really minded being rear-facing, though it was getting pretty awkward to get them into the seats.

 

QUOTE(Mom2SofieAndTwins @ Jan 12 2009, 03:24 AM) [snapback]1142770[/snapback]
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.

I was asking that because someone else said she was keeping her child RF at 35 lbs. I just couldn't picture lifting my ginormous children into a RF seat at this point. Or even at 32 lbs for that matter.

 

no. the girls didn't hit 20 lbs until 18 months though!

 

Mine will definitely be over 20lb at one (DS is already, although DD might not exactly reach it), and I'm definitely keeping them rear facing as long as possible (they'll probably outgrow them in height before weight though - height requirements are just as important as weight requirements by the way, and if your kid is less than one inch from the top of the seat, he has outgrown the seat).

Yep, they're not always happy in their seat and they cry sometimes. Yep, it's a real pain in our small car to put them rear facing... But a bit of crying and inconvenience are a fair trade versus losing them as far as I'm concerned.

It's a topic I strongly feel about too, and I have to say I'm really happy with what I read in this thread overall! I don't know anyone with small children or I'd definitely explain to them why it's so much safer for young children to be RF... but unfortunately I still see a lot of one year olds forward-facing. All you can do is hope they don't get in an accident.

 

We're just now talking about switching them at 19 months since DS has reached the weight limit and is actually over the height limit.

 

I was ready to turn them around, they did so much better when they were forward facing!