Car seat rules for baby, help please..

[Newbabynewhouse]

So my 8month old baby is very tall and heavy for her age and has outgrown her 1st stage rear facing car seat...

Bought a new one for weight 9kg+ but it is only forward facing.

GOV website says babies have to be 15 months to be forward facing but then goes onto say, once they are 9kg+ they can be forward facing (my baby is over 9kg)

Im sooo confused, i called health visitor she was absolutely useless and said she didnt know, i asked her where i can confirm it, she said she didnt know (with an attitude) had justa bout enough of the HV's but that's a different story.

I cant see to get the clarity i need and dont know where to turn when i have questions like this and its getting me down to be honest

Safety wise she is far too young to forward face incarsafetycentre.co.uk/safety-centre/when-can-baby-face-forward

You need to get a seat that rear faces until 18kg. Joie do several good, reasonably priced ones.

This isn’t what you want yo hear but I think you’ve made a poor choice of car seat - no way would I front face an 8 month old. For a big/tall baby you need one that does ERF - Extended Rear Facing. It’s so much safer in an accident. My DS is 90th centile for height and only started front facing several months after his 2nd birthday, and I know kids still rear facing at 3 and 4. It’s legal for your front face your baby but it really isn’t wise.

It's 500% safer to rear face. She's way way too young to forward face. Look at Joie tilt if you want a budget option for rear facing or for longer term safety look at Axkid that can rear face for a much longer time.

Also has she 100% outgrown her 1st stage seat? Or are you judging it by how she looks? I'd be very surprised to see an 8 month girl outgrow a 1st stage seat.

Definitely don't forward face at that age. Return the forward facing seat and get a rear-facing one. Many go up to 18kg (around age 4); some go up to 25kg and last a bit longer. It doesn't need to be expensive but choose a major brand you've heard of.

Also bear in mind the legal requirements are the bare minimum you can get away with by law, not the safest way to transport your child.

From this page www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules it sounds to me as though height-based (iSize) seats can only be used forward facing from 15 months, but weight-based seats can be used forward facing from 9kg. However, I'm not a lawyer!

Whatever the law says, there's no way I would be forward-facing an 8 month old. It's so much safer to be rear-facing as long as possible, but especially for such a young baby.

Thanks everyone... if it is safer, i will get a rear facing one... x

Have you taken the newborn inserts out of the infant seat? There’s usually 2 newborn inserts and one is underneath the cover which you remove and it gives more space. What car seat is it? I’ve had 3 tall DC (all 91st centile and above for height) and they’ve all been in infant seats until 16-18months. It’s not outgrown until their head is over the top of the seat.

Other than that, definitely get a ERF, far safer. I bought the cybex sirona and it did my DC until age 4 rear facing.

Have you pushed her bum all the way to the back of the seat? If it's a maxi cosi have you moved the shoulder straps up?8

My DS seemed to outgrow his first baby seat quite early too at 9 months even thought it said it went up to 15kg.
The country I live in don't seem to do a lot of extended rear facing car seats, so I had one sent from the UK!
Please do some research and change your carseat to one that rear faces until at least 18kg. It's so much safer for baby and certainly at 8mo baby should definitely still be rear facing.

ERF is much safer, we still have DS age 3, but he's in age 4 clothing and tall for his age rear facing in a britax seat, its great.

If your DD is a high centile then a better etted purchase would be ERF seat up to 25kg, you'll get more wear out of it.