6 month old in front??

[NoSleepMum7]

My son is six months old.
My current vehicle (2006 Ford Ranger) has really short rear seat belts, to the point that no car seats I’ve tried can fit in without my son being bolt upright and literally pressed against the seat, so obviously it’s not going to work! We have a BMW 3 series that has our other car seat in but my husband will need to start using that again to get to work so I’ll need some way of transporting our son in my truck… the truck doesn’t have isofix bits so the other car seat we have in the bmw can’t go in my truck and also wouldn’t fit anyway as it’s super bulky!

If I switch the front passenger airbag off, is he okay to go there? I’ve just checked and the car seat I bought for my truck is the Joie Stages one and it does fit in the passenger seat perfectly with the seat belt reaching all the way around and still has lots of extra belt too. Is this okay for him to be in the front as long as the airbag is off? First time mum so very confused 🤦🏽‍♀️

editing to add quickly that he will most definitely be rear facing! We plan to rear face as long as possible as I know how much safer that is, I just can’t find a car seat that will fit in my truck and changing vehicles at the minute isn’t an option

presumably not front facing??!!

NOOOO definitely rear facing!!

confused why your husband can’t use the car if he’s just travelling to and from work

Yes, rear facing and with airbag off this is fine. Make sure you can see the wing mirror though.

He needs the bmw as my truck won’t fit in the parking they have at his work, it’s an underground car park and doesn’t account for vehicles that large and long unfortunately

Yes, fine rear facing in the front with the air bag off. Also worth looking at 25kg rear facing seats as the seatbelt path is much much shorter so will fit in the back.

time for a new car. when front facing will have to go in the back and that’s only a few months away

This is the seat we have for the truck, it just doesn’t fit in the back seats. The seat belts for some reason are ridiculously short!

This.

A new car isn’t possible for us financially at the minute and we need a large vehicle for our dogs too

You don't have to forward face - this harnesses rear facing for a long time yet. However, it does take up a lot of seatbelt. So something like an axkidd move might be a good cost effective option as it will last your little one till they are about six years old (plus it's much safer than forward facing). And def cheaper than a new car 😂

You could get a longer seat belt installed. We did this years ago when the rear seat belt in the car wasn't long enough to go around a RF group 0 seat.
Much cheaper than a new car.

In the front with the airbag off is fine! So long as you never forget to turn it off, does it stay permanently off once done in your car? Assuming you have a car seat that fits your car and LO doesn’t struggle with travel sickness you can leave them rear facing until they’re ready to move to a booster seat at around 4 years old, not sure why some posters think he’s only months off forward facing? Usually these car seats threads go the other way and people are horrified at the idea of a forward facing 2YO! Then when your DS is 4ish either you’ll have a new car by then or you won’t have the same issue as a booster seat doesn’t need as long of a belt.

She doesn't need a new car or a new seat. The seat that OP has can rear face up to 18kg which is YEARS away. Don't worry :)

Fords are notorious for the short belts. Since you said about it being really upright, I assume that's with the short seatbelt method? If you haven't tried the short seatbelt method, that's worth looking up. But honestly in the front is fine - some even say safer (if rear facing).

Ooooo thank you! I didn’t know this was an option!! I saw something about seat belt extenders online when I searched about it but I don’t feel like that seems safe to be honest, I’d feel like it could fail, so will look into longer seat belts! 😊

Read your post and remembered from the ERF facebook groups that there is a "short belt method" for fitting the stages in cars with short seat belts -dont know if you've already tried this but here is a link....
https://erfmission.com/joie-stages-too-short-seatbelt-syndrome-fixed-guide/

If not then as PPs have said, in the front with the airbag off is fine providing you can see the mirror.

Seatbelt extenders are no good I agree. They aren't permitted by the car seat manufacturers.

Longer belt is OK as long as it conforms to the right safety standard. If you're looking at modifying the car though, you might want to look at a proper Ford isofix kit, they do them for some of their cars. (Avoid the "universal" ones they have on amazon/ebay, not safe).

Or as others have said the Swedish type seats with tethers use much less seatbelt, because it doesn't wrap around the back of the seat. The cheapest of these is Axkid Move which is suitable from approx 10-12 months up to 6 years.

This isn't right. You can rearface a Joie Stages until 18kg which is around 3.5-4yrs for a lot of kids. Loads of time between now and then to sort out a new car if OP needs to and certainly not needed in the next few months.

Thank you guys for the help and the suggestions! I haven’t tried the short seatbelt method, I did try to wiggle it in all sorts of different ways but the seat belt wasn’t having it 😂 I will go and try that other method though once my husband comes back downstairs and see if I can get it in the back seat using that way! If not then I’m glad that having him in the front isn’t the worst thing. Thank you!!