Which is safer?

[Barbeasty]

DS(4) is currently in a rearfacing Besafe seat.

Weight wise he is heavy enough to go up to a stage 2/3, but not yet too heavy for his rearfacing seat. Height wise he is similar.

But, he falls asleep on any journey above about 10 minutes and ends up slumped in a heap.

I know that in theory rearfacing is safer. But in practice which is safer- slumped in a heap backwards, or forward facing in a seat like the Cybex Solution which would keep him sitting nicely and protected?

I believe slumped backwards is safer than not slumped forwards. But would a HBB stop him slumping when asleep? A lot of people have trouble with it in HBB's. Our besafe seat has an excellent recline I would have thought using that would be much more likely to stop it?

Why is he slumping forward? Is the harness tight and in the correct position?

If so then I guess the only thing you can do is encourage your son to look up towards the roof of the car if he feels sleepy, or tell him to rest his head to the side on the headrest. He's old enough to understand if you try and help him like that.

My daughter went into a Britax Multi Tech II at 11 months old - this seat has no recline positions (it's just fixed pretty upright) but she has always slept fine in it because she just puts her head to the side. The headrest is quite 'enclosing'. She's 4 years 9 months old now and still rear facing in this seat (doesn't even meet the 15kgs minimum for a high backed booster yet and is going to be rear facing for at least another couple of years!) but this was her as a baby.

Rear facing is safer than forward until he outgrows his rear facing seat.

Gosh I wish my kids fell asleep in the car

My dd1 never slumped when asleep, forward or rear facing. My dd2 always did. In the same carseat. It was the way she slept and weight/size of her head. Nothing to do with her carseat. Her straps were always tight enough. So i would keep him rear-facing if this is the only reason you would change.