Extended rear facing car seats

We have the be safe stretch. My dd is 4 but shes 91 on percentile so I'll be lucky if she hasn't out grown by the age of 6 but we'll definitely be rear facing as long as we can.

its a really comfy car seat, it can recline and you can extend the leg but my dd isn't fussed about that. She also likes seeing out the back window when we're driving long distances x

The Besafe takes up a lot more room than the Axkid seats. Axkid or Avionaut are the most compact. I think Britax is in the middle? Besafe notoriously enormous, though.

If you put in your postcode on the Axkid website stockist finder, you might have a local ERF specialist who can try different seats in the car. The problem with doing this on other brand seats is that there are a lot of normal car seat retailers who don't stock ERF seats, but all Axkid stockists do, and most of them have other brands to compare, not just Axkid.

Yep! Both of mine rear face (5 and 3) and both sets of grandparents have erf car seats for their cars at my request. Because of this, my niece and nephew also erf. Totally fine rear facing, my oldest has asked why he does and I've explained it's safer but adults have to face forward as they won't fit in the car otherwise, but if I could drive the car facing backwards I would! Mine are large but I'm still hoping to get to at least six before they face forwards.

My almost 5 year old and 2.5 year old both rf. We have axkid mini 2s and a britax maxway plus. I get annoyed with the britax as the clips that hold the seatbelt slip so have to faff about tightening it quite a bit whereas the axkids dont move at all.

I will probably get a hbb for 1 car from Sept for eldest for local journeys as no-one else in her class is in a hbb. She had a party for her 3rd birthday and I was suprised that even then all her friends were ff.

6yo in an axkid one 2, he loves it. We bought another for grandparents car but his sister is in that now so he ff in their car. If you asked him he'd say he preferred ff but he's not really bothered. My dd has a besafe twist in our car. And our smaller ds in a cybex. Everyone will probably move up this summer and big ds will ff in our car too.

Car seat manufacturers have lists of what cars they fit in. You can find them online- they're very detailed down to year a d model of car. The axkid one 2 fits in a mini.

Axkid minikid is amazing. I can’t remember which number we were on but both mine RF until 5yo

Ds is 7 and 130cm and we have just now forward faced him - he was in the be safe stretch and it was absolutely brill. Other child, 115cm tall is in axkid one. Loads of room. However it depends how much you can extend them and that depends on the space in your car. We have a Citroen C4 space tourer which has space for three RF car seats in the back and means I can extend them fully.

Yes, my DC is 5 and still happily rear facing. I have Axkid Pro and Max, like them both.

Rf both mine until almost 7. Literally why would you care if you’re in the minority? Your child will be more likely to survive a crash amd less likely to have an awful neck injury. If you can afford to RF and your child isn’t distressed (sick/screaming) by it, then why wouldn’t you.

My almost 5.5yo is still in an Axkid One with plenty of height and weight limit left before it's maxed out; my 3yo is in an Axkid One 2.

We (grown ups) like them, bonus as they don't need tethers and are quick to swap between cars if needed, but my 5.5yo has a very skinny bum and recently finds it a bit uncomfy on the bum on long car journeys (1hr+). My youngest still has the toddler insert in so is still quite cushioned on the bum.

They.both have plenty of growing to do before either outgrow their seats though.

My about-to-turn 6 year old is in an Axkid minikid. She's absolutely fine in it. We do a lot of long-distance motorway driving, so for me it is absolutely worth it for the risk/safety factor. We also have one of those infant car mirrors that you strap to the headrest, so she can see out the windscreen. She used to get car sick, but it was still an issue even when she faced forwards in my PIL's car, so we are confident it was nothing to do with rear facing. And she grew out of that a couple of years ago anyway. And it's much more comfortable for her if she falls asleep in the car.

We use the Axkid one3 and absolutely love it! Genuinely wouldn’t dream of forward facing until seats fully maxed out. It’s not worth their lives. Axkid did research where children had been sadly killed in crashes, 48% would have survived if RF. It’s not worth the risk so good on you for keeping as safe as possible

I agree with trying car seats in person. DH is very tall and we have a limited number of seats that fit behind him. We had a Besafe stretch for a few weeks before we had an accident and we really liked it - it was a really solid comfortable car seat that protected DS well.

We rear faced till 5 and a half.

had a Britax romer and didn’t like it much so changed to a BeSafe forward facing (even though he hadn’t outgrown the Britax)

I would take the car to a specialist shop and get them to play around with what car seat fits best. I like the Besafe because you can tilt the seat. People will ask how do they cope with extended real facing but they are more bendy than we are and it is more comfortable than their feet dangling. I do think people are in a rush to forward face as soon as they can and not keep their child rear facing

I will be rear facing my son until he outgrows his ERF seat :) im hoping to get to 5/6 at least but hes a tall boy!

Ours did til 7 in an axkid.

My 4.5 year old is rear facing in a Besafe Stretch. She’s 98th centile for height and weight but is still very comfortable in it and I’m hoping she can stay RF until 6. She falls asleep in the car sometimes and having the in-situ recline is so useful.

We rear face 6.5 year old in a britax massage. Will continue until at least 7 and beyond if she still fits

My eldest stopped rear facing age 7.5. She was within the weight and height limits still but the straps were becoming too tight. She is average height, possibly on the slimmer side though. So definitely do it OP if it's working for you! Safest option.

Unfortunately her younger sister got really car sick when RF (like vomiting every journey) so we ended up FF her when she was nearly 5 - it was really hard to keep her RF when her sister had gone FF. People will say car sickness is nothing to do with RF but there's no safe medicine to prevent it at that age, and when it was safe to go FF (admittedly safer to be RF) we decided to go with that. Really stressful dealing with the constant threat or aftermath of vomit when driving and obviously unpleasant for the child too.

I really loved the Axkid Minikid for RF

We use besafe stretch for almost 5 year old

I'd consider your risk factors first. If you do lots of driving on high speed roads, fair enough. I realised at 4 mine spent most of their time in a car at under 30mph, and a considerable part of that under 20mph.

For long journeys I sometimes turned them round but they didn't like it as they felt ill. Youngest is 7 and in a HBB, oldest is 11 and was out of the HBB at 10 but begging since 9 as none of his friends were in one.

5.5yo rear facing in an Axkid Minikid 4 currently. Will likely fit in it until around 7 when we’ll move to a HBB 👍🏻☺️