Rear facing up to 4 yrs old or forward facing with a view?

[MyNameisAmy]

Dear All,
So I'm lost in the depths of review madness. My heart tells me that my 14 month old, 75cm tall, 9.6kg little boy wants to look forward and interact. My husbands head, thanks to Which magazine, is now adamant that little fella has to face backwards till the age of 4. Any ideas?
Thanks for all comments,
Amy

DD is 11mo and we're looking for a reasonably priced rear facer after looking at all the research. Does anyone know of a good one that's not too pricey?

We use the Dino easy view rear mirror which is a big round one and we get on well with. We bought it at halfords.

Andiyougoonie I haven't personal experience but I know the joie stages is often suggested as being a good reasonably priced rear facing seat.

We have the Stages that Velvet refers to, and it's a good seat although not as high up as the BeSafe IZi Combi in my car, which emans the view isn't quite as good. It doesn't seem to bother my son much though.

The best thing you can do is go to a shop that has plenty of display models to try in your car, as the best car seat is the one that fits your car and child properly. We've used a nursery shop just outside Wigan called Winstanleys, and I know a lot of people on here have used the In-Car Safety Centre. You can also contact the latter for advice if you can't get there.

Don't bother going to any high street baby shop or Halfords, they are useless! I recently went to Halfords to try (with no intention of buying from there!) a Joie Stages before I ordered it from www.rearfacingtoddlers.com Anyway, the 'trained fitter' looked at me like I had two heads when I said I wanted it rear facing for my 3 year old (she was with me at the time) and he didn't even know the weight limit for rear facing in it either.

www.securatot.co.uk are very helpful by email or on the phone, and I have seen posts online from people who have bought from them online without visiting the shop.

I second Securatot - they were brilliant over the phone and know a lot. We recently bought an Axkid rf seat for our one year old from them (online and then they called to talk to us about whether it would fit in the car - it does, both in our Nissan Almera and my Honda Jazz). He loves it.

Velvet, thanks for the mirror tip, that looks good (have only seen suction ones before)

Yep rear facing - my DD is 4 years 5 months and happy as Larry in her britax multi tech II
We are turning her round as of tomorrow into a group 2/3 but that is purely because my DS has outgrown his seat.
Still feel a bit twitchy about it!

Rear facing at that age without a doubt!!!!!
Dd1 is three and still rear facing quite comfortably. Far, far safer.