Car seat at just before 9kg?

[Limy]

Hi all

Hope i've posted in the right place. My dd is just 7oz off being big enough for a ff car seat and my dh is thinking that she will be safe to be moved into the bigger car seat that we have already got (due to a sale). I was just wondering if 7oz will make that much of a difference or if it is safer to wait until she has gained this weight. Does anybody know the science behind the weight recomendations? I obviously don't want to do anything that could be dangerous for her.

Many Thanks

I think they should be at least 9kg and 9 months - it's to do with their heads being disproportionately big at that age, and their necks not being strong enough to withstand the force of a crash if they face forward, so more likely to be seriously injured/killed.

Do you need to face her forward? It's much safer to face backwards until she outgrows the seat.

9kg is the min weight. It doesn't mean she is ready. The muscles/bones in the area that take the force from the harness are still being developed

Rear facing is much safer. There is strong evidence to support rearfacing to 4 years old.

It would seem many parents are too keen to move their children into forward facing. Unless her head is over the top of infant carrier don't move her- legs sticking out are fine too.

Hi

I used to fit carseats for mothercare so hope you don't mind me butting in

it is better to keep your baby rear facing as long as possible. Their legs will dangle over the end of their infant carrier but as long as their eyes are below the level of the top the the seat they are not too big

before you consider putting your child in a forward facing seat they should be able to confidently sit up unaided for at least 10 minutes ( no cushions, play ring etc)

the recommendation of 9kg is a minimum and your infant carrier will take you way beyond 9kg -there is no rush

as sleepevader says, it is about muscle development and their ability to control their bodies as the body naturally braces but young children are not developmentally able to do this

x

I think the weight thing is to do with the locking mechanism of the seat. ie if your dd does not weigh enough for the seat then it will be ineffective in an accident.

Safest is rearfacing, until she outgrows her current seat which is when she reaches the weight limit (usually 13kg) and her head is out of the top of it.

Think about what happens to your own head in an accident. You usually end up with a sore neck from even a low speed crash, right? Your head is about 1/8 of your body length. Your muscles have developed and can easily withstand that. In a baby, her head is 1/4 her total size. Therefore her developing muscles would have to support something that is proportionately twice as heavy.

Does the car seat you have bought actually fit your car properly as well? Was it fitted by the seller?

I was instructed by my HV to move my baby to the next car seat whne she was just under 6 months because of her weight and height. I wish I had read this before as I would not have done it. We passed the rear facing seat on to a friend as soon as we did.

Fortunately we have not had an accident and she is now 8 mths and is way too big for her other seat but I wish I had held on as long as I could have.

6 months! I would report that HV - such dangerous advice.

I wouldn't.

rear-facing is really much, much, much safer and you should ideally keep her rear-facing for as long as you possibly can.

good site here for more info on rear-facing car seats and why tyhey are important

I would report hv too. There are o+/1 in extreme circumstances like those that keep baby rearfacing if you don't want to go the extended rearfacing way. Eg britax first class/maxi codi opal etc.

Smoggli that is appalling! What was her justification for that "instruction"???
OP as everyone else says, keep her RF for as long as possible. People are in far too much of a rush to turn their children around. You have your RF seat already, and your FF seat will be there when she grows out of it. There is no benefit at all to moving her now.

I wouldn't either. And haven't. DD has been over 9kg since 7 months. She has just come out of her cabrofix at 12 months because her head is now over the top of the seat. She is now around 11kg I think. There isn't any rush to get the child ff. DD was still perfectly comfortable in her rear facer, so I would hold out until she actually grows out of it.

Hmm Smoggli, I wonder if you have the same HV as me! She told me that I needed to turn DS FF at 9 months because he had turned 9kg and it was "unsafe" for him to be in the baby seat any longer. I told her I was definitely sure he could stay in it until he was 13kg and she seemed dubious but then agreed on the grounds that I was probably very conscious about car safety after being involved in a minor accident when DS was 5 months old! I honestly just had a bog standard baby car seat, nothing special. I wish I had dropped off a leaflet at the clinic as I intended to, but I never worked up the courage to and we have moved away now. DS also stayed in his infant seat until 18 months.

Please do look at rear facing for a lot longer. DD#3 is now 22months and in a rear facing seat that is suitable until she will be about 4yrs old. She has loads of space to grow still with it.