rear facing front facing dilema

[spaceangel1382]

I have spoke to many 'experts' about what stage my DD car use a front facing car seat. one place said when she is nine month, another said it was dependant on her weight, some where else said its about her holding her head up. What is the correct answer? and please dont say its a grey area lol. I dont think I could take that

She should stay rear facing as long as possible - upto 13kg in a maxicosi seat - she should have an inch from the top of her head to the top of the seat. If possible extended rear facing is the best option but the seats are big and cost quite a bit more.

she should stay rear facing until she is at the weight limit of the seat [group 0 is 10kgs, group 0+ is 13kgs] and until her head is at the top of the seat, rear facing to 25kgs is the safest way and seats aren't that expensive.

Definitely keep her rear facing as long as possible. To forward face, she needs to be at least 9kg, 9 months old and be able to sit unaided for half an hour. There's no way I'd turn my own daughter round before 15 months but I've actually bought seats for her to stay rear facing until 18kg.

The British Medical Journal published an article in 2009 stating the safest way for a 4 year old or younger child to travel in a car is in a rear facing car seat.

The American Association of Pediatricians have a recommendation that states that children should ride rear facing until 2 years or until they reach the limits of their seats. In practice that could be 45lbs/20kg as some of the US seats rf to those limits (approx age = 5y/o).

You can buy an extended rfing seat from Volvo dealerships for ~£130 which is a rebranded Britax Multi-Tech rf 9-25kg, ff 9-18kg or high back booster 15-25kg.

Another good seat is the Britax Two Way Elite that rf 9-25kg. ff 9-25kg or high back booster 15-25kg (though I wouldn't recomend using it as a hbb but in a pinch it's better than just a belt).

Truth sweet why wouldn't you recommend using the TWE as a HBB? i have the TWE and im going to turn it forward facing and use as a HBB when DS is 4 but am wondering if its really that good as a HBB because the side wings are not big enough. I could get another HBB with better side impact protection but it wont be harnessed so dont know whats better.

Nothing to do with the wings but rather the way the height of the shoulder portion of the seat belt is adjusted by strip of fabric with a clip on it pushed through the appropriate harness slot. There is no <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=belt+guide+booster&hl=en&sa=X&tbm=isch&tbnid=w2KPE85fWO_bwM:&imgrefurl=direct.asda.com/Graco-Junior-Maxi-Car-Seat/002657055,default,pd.html&docid=m8no-SyU2q6ECM&w=298&h=298&ei=uzUvTrm6JMeV8QOk27RC&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=454&vpy=148&dur=2750&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=125&ty=196&page=2&tbnh=148&tbnw=135&start=8&ndsp=9&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:8&biw=1024&bih=485" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">belt guide (red loops by shoulders) like you would have on a conventional high back booster nor are there 'horns' (I forget the proper word) to keep the lap portion of the seat belt from riding up off the thighs and onto the abdomen.

Have a look at your manual front page for the picture of the child in a TWE as a BPB (belt positioning booster). It's quite scary compared to how a seat belt fits on a child in a high backed booster.

If you are going to turn the seat ffing at 4 (and your DS is over 15kg) then you can still use the harness until he is ready to be booster trained. DD1 went ffing at about 4.3y and didn't go into a dedicated high back booster until she was 5 and booster trained.

oh i see. well i do plan to keep him in a harness till around age 6 in the TWE. I wouldnt really want him in a HBB with just an adult seat belt at age 4 tbh. Its just that ive seen my friends children with HBB and the side wings look so much safer and a chap at the incar safetycentre told me 50% of crashes are side impact so the side wings are quite a big deal to me especially as someone only crashed into the side of my the car the other day!

Ah, you are talking about using it as a harnessed forward facing seat not a high back booster (a hbb uses only the seat belt to restrain the child whereas a harnessed ffing seat uses the..um...harness ).

It's not as safe ffing due to crash forces, rather than the car seat itself, but the difference between rf & ff is probably fairly small at 4y (though it is safer for everyone bar the driver to rf whatever their age, I don't know by how much).