To be confused about car seats?

[PurpleThistles84]

My baby is 8 months old and weighs around 10kg. Gov website says if you use an I size car seat you go by height and baby needs to be rear facing until 15 months. Or you can co by weight in which case my baby falls into group 1, between 9-18kg and can be either rear or front facing.

I am confused as to why if it’s height they need to be rear facing until 15 months but weight wise they don’t. My baby is growing out of his group 0 car seat so please help!

I think with babies and toddlers it’s safer to go with weight and keep them rear facing until 15 months. You can go and get some advice from knowledgeable shops too.

Rear facing as long as possible is safest. You can get rear facing car seats easily enough that go to 18kg so around 4. Like the Joie 360

It depends what seat you have. Is it an ISize seat you have? He is still too young to forward face really. What weight is your current seat ok until - it's usually 13kg if not an iSize seat

Lots of helpful info of this website and there is a Facebook group too.
www.carseatadvice-uk.com/seat-types-and-weight-and-height-limits.html

Also see
www.goodeggcarsafety.com/blog/when-is-the-infant-car-seat-outgrown.html

It is very unusual for a baby to outgrow their infant car seat at 8 months, although my son was getting cramped in his because he was around 96th centile for weight with broad shoulders, and unfortunately our infant seat was one of the less roomy ones. We bought a rear-facing group 0-1 seat for him. He is still in it now and he's just turned 3.

I recommend a visit to a specialist retailer if there is one near you.
www.carseatadvice-uk.com/specialist-retailers.html

He has not outgrown it until his head is over the headrest

As somebody who was in a 70mph fast-lane collision with a 3 year old and 6-week only int he car - please please keep your baby rear-facing as long as possible. You just never know what’s coming. (Figuratively. But also literally in my case!)

You need to find a seat that fits your car and look at the details for that seat's min and max child height and weight. Your child needs to be within both those ranges.

We chose an extended rear facing seat because our children were tall and chunky for their ages so struggled to get group 1 and 2 seats that fit and would last long enough to make their cost worthwhile.

My DD wasn't forward facing until about 2.5, by that point her legs had nowhere to go. She's just turned 4 and her legs reach into the stairwell behind the seats now from her carseat.

Non Isize seats will slowly being fazed out, we are in that inbetween stage, where there are 2 lots of advice/laws re car seats. If you have an Isize car seat you HAVE to RF until 15 mths, if you dont then you can follow the guidance to FF from 9KG although as others have said, I strongly advise you to read up on the dangers of FF at such a young age, it really isn't worth taking the risk. There are plenty of decent RF car seats, such as the Joie stages.

The guidelines are a guide.. some babies won’t be over 9kg until they’re over a year some will still be tiny. Rear facings the safest option regardless at that age, even just the flopping forward while they’re asleep if they’re upright can’t be good for them.

I wonder if theres an issue with just straight up banning forward facing until they’re bigger, if they couldn’t sell the seats there would be less confusion over what’s ok/best/safe.

Your baby might not be growing out of their car seat, make sure you look carefully at the guidance for that seat. My DS was over the 100 centile line from about 6 months (I was freaking out about this, my GP laughed at 6ft tall me being concerned about having a tall baby) and he didn't grow out of his car seat until he was 18 months old.

Non Isize seats will slowly being fazed out

They will only be making newly designed car seats that get iSize approval, old car seats without iSize will not become illegal and will still be able to be produced and sold, you just won't see any new designs, but old car seats that have had approval won't have it taken away from them.

It will be difficult for people with old cars if it was illegal not to use an ISOfix as they aren't compatible.

Do your research and rear face for as long as possible. Also agree with others are you certain baby is outgrowing the seat? My son is massive and I have only just upgraded his at 18months.