What age for forward facing car seats?

[IwishIwasmoreorganised]

A good friend has posted a picture on FB this weekend of her dd in her forward facing car seat. Her dd is 6 months old.

Ours have been on booster seats for a good few years now, so I'm a bit out of touch but this seems quite young to me.

She's a good friend and we're hoping to meet up tomorrow. I might bring this up if I can - I'm pretty concerned that her dd would be better of staying rearward facing for a good few months longer yet.

I think it's at least 9 months? But preferably as long as pos

My own dd is 15 months and has been forward facing for a month. But tbh it's for her own safety as rear facing she goes mental trying to turn herself. She is very apt at getting limbs out of harnesses and was getting in all kinds of positions

6 months is young to forward face as their head is still very heavy in relation to their body. The minimum weight to forward face is 9kg but most infant carriers are ok until 13kgs so no need to put them in a different seat too early.

Its 9mths approx- depending on weight

Thanks. Her daughter is a good size, I don't know her weight but this has confirmed what I thought. I'll try to bring it up tomorrow.

9 months or 9kg but there's new rules (not sure when they come in) if it's a certain seat I believe. They're changing it to 15? Months?

Yes new regulations, but not until 2018 so a while away yet.

6 months is IMO too early to forward face but be careful - you're likely to offend rather than sound helpful. Lots of people turn early because they think that the minimum 9kg means that you have to turn them, or because they think that they've outgrown the seat because legs are too long - it's not true, children and babies are often more comfortable with bent legs than dangling legs anyway. But it can come across as judgemental - depends on your relationship I think?

Yes, I need to be careful about what I say and how.

I've not commented on her FB picture and am hoping that she might bring it up. She's usually pretty open and willing to rethink things so I hope it goes well. I will have to say something though. I know that the chances of her and her dd being in an accident are small, but they're significant and I would never forgive myself if I didn't say anything and her dd was to be hurt.

They should be rear facing until they have outgrown the rear facing infant carrier- so that is when they are at the upper weight limit/ head is out of the top. If the baby is less than 20lb weight she shouldn't be forward at all.

The new regs state 15 months as the earliest to turn forward.

Is it all of the head that should be over the top? Not just a small bit growing over?

for rear facing seats they are too tall when the head is just over the back of the seat. With forward facing seats they can have the head over the seat until the line of the eyes/ears

6 months is too young to be forward-facing IMO.

My daughter was a right porker but definitely hadn't outgrown her infant carrier when we decided to move on to the next stage of an extended rearfacing seat, which was higher up and made her slightly happier because she could see more. We've just put her in a forward-facing high-backed booster this month at 3 years 8 months as the straps on her ERF seat kept getting stuck, otherwise we'd have kept her rearfacing past her 4th birthday.

Dd1 was about a year when she outgrew her rear facing seat and dd2 was about nine months.

The good news is that we talked about it. She thought that she had to move her dd to a different seat once she's got to 9kgs. I explained about the weight of their heads still being very heavy relative to the rest of them which she seemed to be unaware of but interested.

The bad news is that she's not going to change her back - she looks so proud of herself sitting up apparently

Oh well, I tried. I can't say anything else without seeming pushy and at the end of the day it's not my decision to make. Thanks for your advice.

what a shame. If her dd is only 9kgs then she had plenty of time for her to stay in the infant carrier as they mostly do up to 13kgs. You have given her the info so I suppose it is up to her what she does (or doesn't) do with that info.

At least you tried

there are also new regulations coming in that means they have to rear face until 15 months old (quite a big difference between 6 and 15 months!)

That's a massive difference. A change for the better though IMO.

It's based on weight not age these days.
My DD is 21 months and is still rear facing. We plan to keep her that way until she is 18kg so will be around 4 by then.

Mummy I think they're bringing in the new regs to make sure babies are over the lowest weight possible to move to ff.
a lot of people move them too early and a blanket 15 months would hopefully cover them all being the minimum weight to switch.

I just found this about the new regulations.