What age did you change your DC car seat from rear to front facing?

[pinkbottle48]

The advice in the UK seems quite different to other countries. A lot of friends I know changed at about 9 months. However, Sweden, for example, recommends not till the age of 4, the US I think is 2. DD is 16 months and still rear facing people here seem to think it's strange we haven't turned it around yet. But why do other countries have such different recommendations?

4.5yrs for DS in a Britax TWE
4yrs for DD, also in the TWE.

Fab seat. They then both used the harness until 7 or 8 and then moved to HBBs.

People in the UK are slowly learning that the longer your RF the better. Until 2 is great and 4 is fabulous!

Around 1 year old for both of mine.

As long as possible. We have a britax TWE which can RF until 25kg. He's currently 2.5yrs old.

Aged 5 for DS. 18months (who then swapped back to rear facing at 2 once I'd found out about it) for DD. She then stayed rear facing until 7.

This was in the Two Way Elite. DS outgrew it on weight at 5. DD turned FF at 7 and outgrew it age 9.

Both now in Cybex HBB. DD is 9 and 128cm/28kg.
DS is age 8 and 140cm/40kg.

DS was 6.5y when we faced him forwards (now 7.5y). Dd1 is rearfacing at 5.5y and will be for some time as she's only just over 15kg (seat rf til 25kg). Dd2 is 11mo so rearfacing in a seat that rf to 18kg (approx 4y) and then she'll move into the seat dd1 is currently in.

The research that found RF to be '5 times safer' than FF has recently (Nov 17) been debunked.

Theres actually not much in it, and certainly in Which tests, my 2 Way Pearl fares better in FF than RF in the case of a side on impact.

The (happy) reality is that in the UK we have the safest roads on the planet; there are so few child deaths on the road, it is difficult to obtain a large enough sample from which to draw meaningful conclusions.

Linky to the study in the BMJ

That study seems to be in the US. I can't access it without paying. What is the p value?

Dd is 4 and is still rear facing. She's not quite 18kg yet.

Both mine were 9 months.

10 months for the youngest. They outgrew the seat

Car seats are usually designed to be outgrown in height before weight, it prevents people from using them once their kids are too heavy for the seat to work effectively which would be a safety disaster. At least when they are too tall you can physically see they obviously don't fit any more.

Most seats which fit up to 18kg, including the harness on the majority of 123 seats are designed for children up to about 104cm tall, which is the equivalent EU clothing size to age 3-4 years. So once a child has outgrown age 3-4 clothing, they are highly likely to have outgrown an 18kg car seat or harness.

DS is almost 3 and still RF. We deliberately bought a 25kg seat so he'll be 6 or so when we turn him and that point he'll go straight in to a hbb. My sister on the other hand has chosen to forward face my 1yo nephew, despite me buying her a seat that does both. Personal choice I guess.

My mum thinks I'm bonkers!

4.5 ish for all 3 of mine. Eldest is 10.
Youngest just reached the 18kg limit recently and was very sad to say goodbye to the adored erf seat because it was so comfortable.

8 months for my oldest. He was a massive baby, and ERF wasn't readily available then, you mainly had to import seats from Sweden. (He was well over 9kg at that point but the main problem was his amazing fatness and wedging him in the seat).

DS2 was 3.5 years, would have liked him to say RF a bit longer but we were given bad advice (which is the major problem with ERF actually) and we bought a Cybex Sirona which was pretty much the smallest ERF on the market at the time.

I do think the lack of independent advice on car seats is the main problem. Only people who know much about ERF seats are the specialist sellers, who obviously want to sell you the very expensive seats they have in stock. High street retailers were awful when I was looking, Mothercare 'specialist' couldn't even identify the seat I was looking at - which was the most expensive one they sold at that time!!

The UK is very behind the rest of the world in this. It's pretty damn obvious when you think about the biomechanics, and very difficult to do research given the rarity of severe car crashes involving children.

My 8 and 6 yr olds were turned forward from about a year when they outgrew their newborn seats. I didn't really hear anything about extended rear-facing until the youngest was about 2. I did look into it but the seats at the time were prohibitively expensive and hard to fit in an old, very small 3-door car. I don't intend to have any more children, but would probably look for a seat that was rear-facing for longer if I was, if they would be financially within reach.

At about four, they are big kids!

It was ages ago though, we did do the whole import the seat from Sweden or maybe Norway. Something like that. A besafe izi combo!

14 or 15 months for both of mine iirc. They stayed in the baby carrier until they outgrew it as it seemed obvious to me that that was the safest option.

It was 10+ years ago and I don't think erf was a 'thing'. If it was I certainly hadn't heard of it.

If I had a baby now I'd keep them rf as long as possible.

Still RF at 5yrs in an Axkid Minikid.

I started saving for it before he was born and it cost more than my car!

I realised that although others viewed it as too expensive, it cost less than my laptop and other possessions that are far less important.

Around 9 months because we didn't know any better, if we're ever lucky enough to have another we'll be waiting till 4

DD has just changed at 2 and a half. But we have the Cybex Sirona with the cushion.