Blast from past- car seats...Would you FF 3yo ?

[AngB]

DD turned 3 in March and is currently still RF'ing and mostly is fine with it. But the air vents in my Odyssey are in an obnoxious location (on the door against the window-who designed this?!) and she is SO hot when I get her out of the car these days even with air blasting. Also we are going to be driving about 10 hours in about a month and it would be really nice for her to be FF'ing so she can just watch dvd's on the player with our 6yo so the bigger kids can use the portable DVD players for their less little kid friendly movies (not to mention she pauses it and messes it up over and over and over accidentally. )

I know RF'ing until the limits of the seat is ideal, and she's not anywhere near that (average size 3yo), but I also only RF'ed my other kids until around 3-3.5 for similar practical reasons, I'm just hesitating this time I think because she's our youngest and I know it's technically not "THE safest" thing to do but I also kinda feel like 3 yo + 3 months is a relatively safe time to turn them...(If I don't turn her in June, we will for sure by late August when she starts preschool - drop off car line.)

[gymnbomb]

If you are fine with turning her in August I don’t see much difference in just turning her now since she is already 3. That is well into the range of parental discretion and doing what works for your family. I don’t think there is any reason to worry or feel bad about that decision. It is a reasonable one.

My daughter is still rear facing and will be until she turns 5 in August (like you, car drop off line next school year is a big part of why we are turning her then, she is tiny and could rear face a lot longer). But she was facing forward in my husband’s work truck for a while before he got rid of it, and we will take a forward facing seat with us when we fly and rent a car this summer because it just works better for us in those situations.


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[dylansnan]

Wow! this is us exactly. My daughter turned 3 in March and i've decided to turn her in June because we are talking a 9 hour road trip and because she gets super hot in the back seat

[AnnieW625]

Is your car safe? I would assume so based on the fact you stated you have an entertainment system in the car so the car is probably newer and has up to date advances like side curtain air bags. If you feel your car is safe and you can’t keep her rear facing by simply moving the seat to another location in the car then turn her around. NHTSA still recommends rear facing as long as possible so even if it means moving the seat for the 10 hour drive and then moving it back (after the trip) I probably would.

(FWIW: my DD1-16 didn’t rear face past 1, and DD2-12 rear faced until 2/1/2…..but that was the recommendation then (outside of the BBB of course where I still think ages 3-5 were the norm.). I still know plenty of people per social media photos who don’t read face past 2…..it is a law of 2 years old now in California, I believe).


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[georgiegirl]

I’d turn her. When I got my new Odyssey 4 years ago, I noticed they had moved the air vents from the ceiling to the front part by the door and I thought how awful it would be for rear facing kids (DS2 was 4 by then and FF).

[KpbS]

Yes, I would turn as long as she has normal development, tone, and strength it seems fine.

[AngB]

I’d turn her. When I got my new Odyssey 4 years ago, I noticed they had moved the air vents from the ceiling to the front part by the door and I thought how awful it would be for rear facing kids (DS2 was 4 by then and FF).

It really is!