To tell SIL she could be putting her DC in danger?

[Teabiscuits]

SIL has just started to put her 5 month old DC into a forward facing car seat. She has a 3 door car and says its too difficult to keep him rear facing, and as he's 9kg now the instructions on the seat says its safe.

I'm no expert, and I don't know the ins and outs of the law on this, but I have been led to believe they need to be at least 9 months to be forward facing. Am I completely wrong on this one, or should I try to persuade her otherwise? She wouldn't do anything dangerous on purpose but I can't help but feel she's being willfully ignorant so she doesn't have to struggle with the seat anymore.

Til 22mth

This is why I'm confused. Ds1 and 2 were in their (different) first car seat until about 15 months. I'm going to take ds3 to Halford tomorrow and plonk him in all the 0 stage car seats until he fits in one. Failing that I'm going to bite the bullet and get one of those exorbitant rear facing beasts.

Cant you borrow one?

Lots of seats are group 0/1 so will rear face until 13kg and then forward face until 18kg.

as he's 9kg now the instructions on the seat says its safe.

It's probably fine then?

Maybe you can get her to talk to her pediatrician to see what they say on the matter.

It's ok, we have the money spare and, after today's reading, in no way begrudge, just unexpected.

£90 is all you need... Actually I stand corrected £83.99. Dd1 fitted in this seat until she was 105cm tall but obviously it was a squeeze by the end.

Thanks ihateparties.

It's worth pointing out that the stages and steadi are both bigger shells (£120-130ish) and may ultimately be better value for a larger child. Ds was huge and would have outgrown this before dd1 did because of having a longer body, bigger head etc. I'm really putting this here because it allows rf longer than an infant carrier without the price tag of a full erf seat, it's not a comparable product imo but definitely an option to take rear facing beyond 2y.. Realistically not to age 4 for most children though. Plus it's small and the only thing we could fit in our car to accommodate 3 under 5.

Littlemiss, really wish I could see your car seat! I don't have the brand you do, but I remember discovering that on my maxi cosi as well as the head hugger thing coming out, there was another foam bit that inserted into the seat cover - when that was removed you got lots more space. I'm sure you've had a good poke at yours though!

I would say something because she clearly does not have all the available information.

Can't really blame her either what with people not knowing about it, I've list count of the amount of people who have tried to insist to me that you HAVE to ff from 9 months.