To ask if you would forward face an 11 month old baby

[NastyPeace]

Mil wants a car seat. She bought one I was not happy with without asking me. I've checked the ADAC and I would prefer an i-size isofix seat (basically the same as what I have) and have agreed to cover the cost difference as it is huge! Anyway, I'm half wondering, with the driving they are likely to be doing any impact would, hopefully, not be too bad. A forward facing seat would be cheaper and last longer but tbh I think I'd rather just go with my gut on this and not worry about the money element.

Wwyd?

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

Ok now I’m confused- I drive a Vauxhall cross, my 3 yr old is 1metre long and her car seat is secured by the seat belt- how would that rear face?

Not all cat seats are rear facing, but you can get rear facing seats that are secured by seat belt

Ahhh for regular weekly journeys I would definitely choose rear facing

We have the sirona and it's fabulous

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

Yes I would because my baby got too tall to face backwards and had to be turned around before a yr

My son is in the 97th percentile for height, he was rearfacing until he turned 4.5

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

Ok now I’m confused- I drive a Vauxhall cross, my 3 yr old is 1metre long and her car seat is secured by the seat belt- how would that rear face?

Your car seat is not valid for rear facing. However there are others in the market which are rear facing and go up to 25kg (or 18 with isofix )

For those asking about how older kids rear face, there are specific seats which are designed to rear face for longer.

Legs are tucked down into a gap or crossed or slung over the sides of the seat etc.

My almost 6 year old rear faces and has plenty of room left - the seat will fit up to 25kg. I’ve a polo, standard seats. The seat belt goes under/over/under at the crotch and then there are catches at the back that join on to tether straps that loop around the driver’s seat.

@OnlyFoolsnMothers

Yes I would because my baby got too tall to face backwards and had to be turned around before a yr

Many many car seats are now made to rear face until 4. There no way an under 1 year old is too tall for rear facing. Have a look on rear facing toddlers website - it’s really handy and explains it in a much better way than we can here, and gives examples of where and how older babies and toddlers can comfortable fit rear facing. It’s about 5x safer than forward facing too which is always good to know :)

[quote NastyPeace]@TheFormerPorpentinaScamander this particular seat is from birth. My DS is a chubby soul and I doubt would fit in a baby carrier [/quote]
To be fair my youngest is 14 now. Car seats have changed a lot!

No I wouldn't. I got two of the RF Joie at the same time (stages?) and both seats together came to less than £300, and you would pay about that for a mid range FF seat.

Have a google of internal decapitation then decide

To answer your question - no I wouldn’t be happy with my child rear facing, especially at 11 months. There are some relatively cheap rear facing seats (although they aren’t i-size/Isofix) but still seatbelt tether with a rear facing seat. My parents bought one for the rare occasion they have my DD in the car - they wouldn’t be taking her in the car if she wasn’t rear facing (she’s almost 2).

I bought the joie stages for £100 for the grandparents’ car when they drive DD.

It’s belted rather than isofix but that means it’s a lot lighter.

DD’s main seat is a GB Vaya which is basically the same as the Cybex swivel seat. It is bulky and heavy and I wouldn’t want to be taking it in and out of cars often but if it can live permanently in your DM’s car it’ll be perfect.

It’s such a shame that rear-facing is still such a difficult subject despite the clear evidence that it is so much safer.

DD will rear face until she grows out of the Vaya by which time I reckon she’ll be 4.5.

She has done a handful of very short journeys forward facing in London in my SIL’s car which is tiny and can’t take a RF seat.

Absolutely not at 11 months, that's insane. My grandson is nearly 4 and I'm only just, this month, using his 360 Spin seat facing forwards rather than rear-facing, and that's only in the village. If I was driving anywhere that I might go out of a 30mph zone he would be rear facing. His parents both moved him to forward-facing by 18 months in their cars, I'm more cautious.

Safety is very important and you can get some safe forward facing seats, however, DS is far to young/little for FF. Will stick to my guns on the RF. Thanks all for making me realise I'm really not being precious on this.

You should definitely get a rear-facing seat but you don't need an isofix I-size one. You can get cheaper rear facing seats which are still very safe. Joie do good value seats. If you want a rotating seat there's the Joie 360 Spin (£200) or they have other rear facing seats that are cheaper.
See erfmission.com/extended-rear-facing-car-seats-that-wont-break-the-bank-seatbelt-install/

I remember when my FIL bought a FF car seat for my 14 month old, to use in his car, that was on sale in ASDA

Telling him that I wasn’t happy for my child to be in that seat was the most awkward conversation ever, but it had to be done.

In the end I bought him a RF seat that I was happy with and put it in his car.

My daughter is currently just over 3 years and happily rear faces. The seat is designed for RF until then child hits 18kg and then it FF. My daughter is a little dink, probably not even 12kg so I think I will get some use out of it for a fair while yet.

YANBU at all.

@nastypeace The Joie tilt which rear faces and has decent testing (is given the ok on car seat groups from what I’ve seen) is £40 at the moment in argos. I’ve bought one for our second seat

Yes, both DC faced forward from around 10 months

Look into extended rear facing. we rear faced till at least 4yrs.
Lots of options for extended rear facing. Better to get a seat that will last.

God no. Sorry, it’s so dangerous.

My ds is nearly 2 and is still rf. I have managed it with a lot of backlash from family and a few cheapy 123 seats purchased by family on both sides for their own cars. He will be rf until he’s 4 because he doesn’t know any difference and it’s way safer! I bought a Britax rf toddler seat for our car and then bought the toddler seat to go on the maxi Cosi ISOFIX base (which we had been using for the infant seat) for my mum’s car.

Yes, I did, but I know most wouldn't.

@NastyPeace

What centile in the red book is your DC on approx?

There is no difference in the performance of seats between isofix and seatbelt. The only difference is user friendliness and reduction in fitting errors. Isofix is limited to 18kg which is why all the erf seats that have 25kg limits are fitted with a seatbelt.

If you are keen on keeping rear facing for as long as possible and your DC is over the 50th percentile you might be better going straight to a 25kg seat. That will definitely see you until DC is at least 4 and they are not actually that expensive (the britax Maxway can usually be found for about £180).

If you have a higher centile DC the risk is that they outgrow the 18kg seat fairly early and then you either have to turn them earlier than you might like or buy a 25kg seat at that point.

Otherwise something like the Joie Stages or spin 360 would be fine for what you need.

My eldest is 4.5 and has just turned to forward facing. My youngest is 18 months and will rear face until at least 4 too. I would agree with the majority that 11 months is too young to FF by quite a long way.

I would really recommend looking at the In Car Safety Centre. They have a great selection of seats and are really knowledgeable so can advise you by phone and email.

Technically it is legal to forward face if DC of over 9KG, that doesn’t mean it’s safe! Also worth bearing in mind that a decent FF seat is the same price as ones that can rear face too—Joie tilt regularly goes on sale down to approx £60.

Which seat is the cybex that you’ve looked at? If it’s the Sirona, as it’s only once a week it’d be rather expensive for how often you use it! Isofix isn’t safer than seatbelt fitting, it just makes it less likely for there to be human error. If it’s the Pallas you saw—AVOID! Impact shields have been said to not be safe at all lately so avoid.

Although saying that, I haven’t actually met many people who do ERF in real life either! Used to know someone but their DC forward faces now as older, many of my relatives with one/two year olds have them forward facing which is rather baffling especially since there are so many rearward facing seats that don’t break the bank these days.

Also other ones to take a look at:

Joie Steadi ~ £60-100
Joie stages ~ price can differ depending on where you get it from
Britax first class ~ only rear faces to 13kg, but is £90 on uber kids

@teaandlotusbiscoff

Most child car seats have impact shields now. I know both by Joie ones have them