Extended rear facing car seats

[Greentoytractor]

Anyone rear faced beyond aged 4? I'm tempted to buy an extended rear facing seat for my little one, but feel like I'm very much in the minority! Even if I can get another year or so of her rear facing, I think I'd be happy to suck up the cost of the car seat.

Any thoughts on the be safe stretch or axkid seats very welcome!

My neighbour’s ds is nearly 5 and is still rear facing. He absolutely hates it though.

We had axkids. Daughter until nearly 7. Son until nearly 6 as he was very car sick and we were fed up.
We were very much in the minority. It felt like by 7 many people near us had given up on car seats altogether!!

I have a 6yr old in a Besafe stretch. He does forward face in my mum’s car but that was when he outgrew his car seat. I do not have any problem with him rear facing. I can put an iPad between him and his sister and they can watch something on a long car journey, he will not get a crick in his neck if he falls asleep. I have even taken his friends out and not heard a peep from him about his car seat.

I do prefer him refacing as it is safer and will keep him doing it as long as I can

My eldest was in a minikid2 until he was almost 6. He FF at the childminder from 4.5. my 3 yo is RF in the minikid2 now but was in a BeSafe stretch which was fab but doesn't allow us to fit 3 across. They've never been fussed about being RF. Even when eldest was FF at childminders and RF at home, it didn't seem to bother him.

My 7yo still rearfaces. 7yo was prem and is very small though - he’s not much taller then the average 5yo. 3yo DN is RF as well and will be as long as possible, but he’s quite tall so I doubt it’ll be as long as DS.

We do 6 hour journeys at least once a month and I’ll keep them RF as long as possible due to the fact that if we do have an accident (they walk to school and most activities day to day) it’s more likely to be a motorway/high speed one so I’d prefer them in RF seats.

We’re still rear facing at aged 4. DD is at 102cm so hasn’t yet outgrown her car seat (goes up to 105cm). I’m hoping we can get another few months out of it and then I’ll look to move her to a high-backed booster. I’ve ummed and aahed about whether to go for an ERF car seat to last another few years but overall if we can get to 4.5 years then I think I’ll be happy to move forward facing.

5.5yo rear facing in an Axkid Minikid 4 currently. Will likely fit in it until around 7 when we’ll move to a HBB 👍🏻☺️

I'd consider your risk factors first. If you do lots of driving on high speed roads, fair enough. I realised at 4 mine spent most of their time in a car at under 30mph, and a considerable part of that under 20mph.

For long journeys I sometimes turned them round but they didn't like it as they felt ill. Youngest is 7 and in a HBB, oldest is 11 and was out of the HBB at 10 but begging since 9 as none of his friends were in one.

We use besafe stretch for almost 5 year old

My eldest stopped rear facing age 7.5. She was within the weight and height limits still but the straps were becoming too tight. She is average height, possibly on the slimmer side though. So definitely do it OP if it's working for you! Safest option.

Unfortunately her younger sister got really car sick when RF (like vomiting every journey) so we ended up FF her when she was nearly 5 - it was really hard to keep her RF when her sister had gone FF. People will say car sickness is nothing to do with RF but there's no safe medicine to prevent it at that age, and when it was safe to go FF (admittedly safer to be RF) we decided to go with that. Really stressful dealing with the constant threat or aftermath of vomit when driving and obviously unpleasant for the child too.

I really loved the Axkid Minikid for RF

We rear face 6.5 year old in a britax massage. Will continue until at least 7 and beyond if she still fits

My 4.5 year old is rear facing in a Besafe Stretch. She’s 98th centile for height and weight but is still very comfortable in it and I’m hoping she can stay RF until 6. She falls asleep in the car sometimes and having the in-situ recline is so useful.

Ours did til 7 in an axkid.

I will be rear facing my son until he outgrows his ERF seat :) im hoping to get to 5/6 at least but hes a tall boy!

Thanks for all the helpful responses!

Do you think we'd fit a besafe stretch in a kia sportage (2018)? It would go behind the passenger seat, I'm only 5 foot 4 so don't need loads of legroom, but not sure if it would be too tight?

Can't decide between the besafe and the axkid minikid 4

I would take the car to a specialist shop and get them to play around with what car seat fits best. I like the Besafe because you can tilt the seat. People will ask how do they cope with extended real facing but they are more bendy than we are and it is more comfortable than their feet dangling. I do think people are in a rush to forward face as soon as they can and not keep their child rear facing

We rear faced till 5 and a half.

had a Britax romer and didn’t like it much so changed to a BeSafe forward facing (even though he hadn’t outgrown the Britax)

I agree with trying car seats in person. DH is very tall and we have a limited number of seats that fit behind him. We had a Besafe stretch for a few weeks before we had an accident and we really liked it - it was a really solid comfortable car seat that protected DS well.

We use the Axkid one3 and absolutely love it! Genuinely wouldn’t dream of forward facing until seats fully maxed out. It’s not worth their lives. Axkid did research where children had been sadly killed in crashes, 48% would have survived if RF. It’s not worth the risk so good on you for keeping as safe as possible

My about-to-turn 6 year old is in an Axkid minikid. She's absolutely fine in it. We do a lot of long-distance motorway driving, so for me it is absolutely worth it for the risk/safety factor. We also have one of those infant car mirrors that you strap to the headrest, so she can see out the windscreen. She used to get car sick, but it was still an issue even when she faced forwards in my PIL's car, so we are confident it was nothing to do with rear facing. And she grew out of that a couple of years ago anyway. And it's much more comfortable for her if she falls asleep in the car.

My almost 5.5yo is still in an Axkid One with plenty of height and weight limit left before it's maxed out; my 3yo is in an Axkid One 2.

We (grown ups) like them, bonus as they don't need tethers and are quick to swap between cars if needed, but my 5.5yo has a very skinny bum and recently finds it a bit uncomfy on the bum on long car journeys (1hr+). My youngest still has the toddler insert in so is still quite cushioned on the bum.

They.both have plenty of growing to do before either outgrow their seats though.

Rf both mine until almost 7. Literally why would you care if you’re in the minority? Your child will be more likely to survive a crash amd less likely to have an awful neck injury. If you can afford to RF and your child isn’t distressed (sick/screaming) by it, then why wouldn’t you.

Yes, my DC is 5 and still happily rear facing. I have Axkid Pro and Max, like them both.

Ds is 7 and 130cm and we have just now forward faced him - he was in the be safe stretch and it was absolutely brill. Other child, 115cm tall is in axkid one. Loads of room. However it depends how much you can extend them and that depends on the space in your car. We have a Citroen C4 space tourer which has space for three RF car seats in the back and means I can extend them fully.