To put my daughter in a forward facing car seat before she's 15 months?

[LoveItWhenYouCall]

So my daughter will be 15 months at the end of this month. A few days before she is "officially" 15 months, we will be doing a long distance car journey (around 9 hours). We will be staying at the location for 3 weeks and then be doing the long journey home.

She only just fits her current car seat and really needs to be moving into the bigger one but it's forward facing.

What should I do? Should I squeeze her into her smaller car seat and have her use that the full 3 weeks we are away and then for the journey back down? Or should I just put her in the more comfortable seat as she'll turn 15 months 3 days after we arrive?

Please help!

This thread is bizarre! In real life I only know of 1 person that didn't move their child to front facing as soon as they were tall enough. My DS used to travel 4 hours a day with me on the motorways and then travel around in his childminder's car all with a front facing seat.

I understand that they are safer, however if we all walked around wearing a crash helmet, wrapped in bubble wrap we'd probably be safer too, but that doesn't mean that we'd do it!

OP - do what you feel most comfortable with and what your DD will be most comfortable with

Because the increase in safety between using no seatbelt and a seatbelt is large. The increase between front facing and rear facing seats for a 2 year old is small.

weasel i thought the 1 in 640 included pedestrians killed by cars?

Hulababy, I drive a Freelander 2. Not exactly small. I'm 6'2 with a 37in inside leg. It was a squeeze for the front passenger when ds was rearfacing as a baby. At 4 plus? Lol....

That's just being facetious though mia. The seat OP is using at the moment is safer, so it's less effort than changing it. Hardly going the bubble wrap route!

(For comparison I never make the kids wear helmets when scooting on on their bikes so am not safety-mad at all!)

Hula if you have a small car, I really recommend the two way elite (only available from the incarsafetycentre.com or a Finnish website - where I got mine) rf to 25kgs, very, very safe and very compact - fits in my honda jazz with oodles of room in the front for me (who is 5ft 7) or DH (who is 6ft1).

barbarian no it doesn't. You're actually (very slightly) less likely to be killed as a pedestrian.

Given that rear facing seats can be bought for the same price as a FF seat now, and absolutely reduce the chance of death or serious injury (or even minor injury, whiplash in a child is pretty debilitating) I just don't understand why so many people are against the idea? It honestly baffles me.

DS's ERF seat is less bulky than baby seats and does not actually take up more space

Welsh, no one has said they're against the idea.

www.britax.co.uk/car-seats/max-way/

We use this seat for our 4 year old in the back of a tiny Hyundai. She has lots of room and is comfortable in it. I'm in no rush to turn her.

I am the only person I know in real life to use a rear facing seat past 15 months. I know several people who have put their babies forward facing at 9-12 months.

For some reason 'graduating' to forward facing is seen as a milestone to achieve as soon as possible.

Lots of people are ignorant to the risks and I agree they are not publicised enough. Just like the no coats in car seats thing.

manglethedangle - thanks, but I was just commenting on what some people have mentioned when we've talked about ERF. DD is a teen now so way beyond car seats of any form. Though I do have a tiny car :)

I throught they recommended till 4 so as long as you can. Theres some new rules op so check if your seat is legal. Sorry not helpful. Not read all the cooments so hopefully someone knowledgable has answered x

Tbh my daughter finds her new booster more uncomfortable than rf because her legs dangle. In her rf seat she crossed her legs or splayed them over the sides.

I know lots of people who erf, tbh they outnumber those who turn earlier in our circle.

My husband is very tall (6'5" plus a tad) and whilst he had his seat an inch or so maybe in front of his ideal while there was a rear facer behind him, he was quite comfortable.

In an X trail. Not small but not mahoosive.

DS went to forward facing at about 15 months. He was A LOT happier. We decided that it was safer to drive without him screaming in the back- the screaming was extremely offputting and distracting!

Same Baked.. I average 1500 miles a month driving (fuck knows how, I'm a sahm 🤔) and ds is a lot more tolerant of long journeys FF. A lot less stressful and distracting for me.

I don't really get the sneering. Sure it was exotic some time ago (like car seats in general a bit earlier than that), but you do need to buy some kind of a seat, and nowadays ERF seats are available and not necessarily more expensive, but they are safer. Unless you really have a child that pukes all over when RF, why the urgency to turn them around?

I haven't rtft but when my DH was using patient transport we shared an ambulance with a couple who had been in a serious car accident (airlifted to hospital serious) they both had bad leg injuries. The only reason their children survived with minimal injuries was because they were in appropriate car seats (I think high backed boosters). They had said because of the children's ages they didn't use them every trip but they had on that journey. I think the worst injury for the children was a broken arm.

It's up to you how you have your child in the car but do your own research on statistics and reasons for and against then you can make a decision you will be happy with.

Just a question......where would kids legs go if they are say 2 + and rear facing?

It is safer rear facing if you have a front impact. Other parameters can also influence safety. For example, if you have a 4 by 4, it will be higher on the road and more likely to turn over in an accident so less safe.
Length and make of car make for different behaviours on impact (will mostly decide if front passengers get crusshed or not). Lots to think about, it is a compromise depending on your circumstances.

Have a Google Lizzy, lots of pics.

Frontal or offset frontal vehicle crashes make up the majority of all collisions. Rear-end crashes represent about 30% of total crashes, however, they comprise only about 5% of all serious and fatal crashes, suggesting that while numerous, rear-end crashes are not especially lethal.

Katharina the only sneering I can see is from the erf-ers, by implying that they're superior parents who care more about their kids than those who FF theirs.

I rearfaced my DAD until 4 and thought it was fine and she was perfectly comfy. And it does make sense that RF would be safer from a physics point of view.

However, I am a bit dubious about the 'five times safer' claim from.....whoever actually made that claim. What does 'five times safer' even mean? Are they talking about minor injury? Major injury? Death?

I know that certain claims have been made about child.deaths in Scandinavian countries compared to Britain, but there are far less cars on the road in those countries and the ones that are driven are more of the big fuck off Volvo variety.

Having said all that, I think if you can it is better to keep your little one rearfaced for as long as possible if you can.

Orange guess we must be reading it from our own perspectives, as I certainly noticed the 'bubble wrap' and 'old enough to shave' comments.

DD not DAD!