When to turn front facing?

[boilermakermom]

I have googled and keep getting conflicting info. DS turned 1 last month, weighs 24 pounds, 30 inches long. He is currently in a rear facing Britax Marathon, and its a pain in the butt to get him in and straps tight.

I remember turning DD front facing when she was 20 lbs.

Anyone know is it weight, age, length? What the guideline?

Thank you!

[SnuggleBuggles]

2 is the new recommendation. We kept ds2 rear facing to the limit of his seat. https://www.familyeducation.com/life...eat-guidelines

[Smillow]

I kept DS rear facing until he reached the rf weight limit of his seat at 45 lbs - he had just turned 4. Google internal decapitation.

[gymnbomb]

I have googled and keep getting conflicting info. DS turned 1 last month, weighs 24 pounds, 30 inches long. He is currently in a rear facing Britax Marathon, and its a pain in the butt to get him in and straps tight.

I remember turning DD front facing when she was 20 lbs.

Anyone know is it weight, age, length? What the guideline?

Thank you!

The new AAP and NHTSA guideline (and law in a few states and for a few specific car seats) is minimum of age 2. The recommendation is the limit of their convertible car seat, most of which go to somewhere between 40-50 pounds rear facing. Age is the most important factor because it has to do with spinal development, head size, etc.

Here are a couple of resources that can explain it better than I can

http://safeseats4kids.aaa.com/faqs/w...orward-facing/
http://csftl.org/why-rear-facing-the...junkies-guide/

Edit: My 3 year old son is happily rear facing, and has been able to climb in by himself for a while now which certainly makes it easier for me!

[georgiegirl]

My 36lb 3.5 year old is happily still rear facing. (He is forward facing when we travel since that seat has a 35 lb weight limit on RF). At age 1, there's no way I'd forward face yet. Wait until at least 2, but ideally when your child outgrows the rear facing limits.


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[DualvansMommy]

Look into your state laws, as there's been a lot of updates on RF since I had DS1. Back then, with the old law I turned DS1 at around 18 months old to FF. But since DS2's birth, NJ changed the minimum from 1 to 2 years old to be turned around.

So I didn't turn DS2 around till closer to 2.5 years old. NJ and Oregon were first few states to establish that new law, and I know there's few more following that since then. Look into your local laws, but personally I recommend to keep RF as much longer you can due to bones development.


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[trcy]

I kept DS rear facing until he reached the rf weight limit of his seat at 45 lbs - he had just turned 4. Google internal decapitation.

I did the the same with DD, she was just shy of 4. I plan the same for DS, though he complains a lot more in the car seat than she did.


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[123LuckyMom]

Please do educate yourself and read the links provided above. Although the legal minimum age is 2, you should rear face as long as you can, to the weight and height limits of your car seat, to protect your child from internal decapitation. My kids rear faced until just shy of age 4.


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[Liziz]

One thing to add (you may know this, but just in case) -- most (all?) seats area also outgrown by length in RF when the child's head is within 1 inch of the top shell. I mention only because so far everyone's only mentioned to RF to the weight limit of the seat (which I agree with if possible), but in my DD1's case, she outgrew one of her seats by length prior to weight. She was over 3 years old at that point, so I'm sure your 1 year old isn't there yet, but mentioning it none the less!

[gymnbomb]

One thing to add (you may know this, but just in case) -- most (all?) seats area also outgrown by length in RF when the child's head is within 1 inch of the top shell. I mention only because so far everyone's only mentioned to RF to the weight limit of the seat (which I agree with if possible), but in my DD1's case, she outgrew one of her seats by length prior to weight. She was over 3 years old at that point, so I'm sure your 1 year old isn't there yet, but mentioning it none the less!

This is a really good point -- some seats have a much more realistic chance of an average kid reaching the stated weight limit before outgrowing by height than others!! This is also true of forward facing seats, which are often first outgrown when the shoulders are above the top harness position.