When did you move your LO into their forward facing car seat?

[AlmondFrangipani]

I know all the advice but just wondered when everyone actually did it. We've got a 10kg 9 mo who hates his rear facing car seat. Tempting to change him into the other seat but holding out as long as poss!

It was the Britax Multitech and can be used up to about six years, so was planning to use it ff on vacations when DS moves out of his current seat at 4-5 years and start using a booster seat. Obviously will not do this now.

the seats are generous height wise, they are designed for the Swedish market

yes... swedes tend to be tall... if they can make big enough seats (and evidently get their kids to use them) then beats me why we can't.

The guilt trip should belong to car seat manufacturers. Parents do the best they can - if there aren't seats which fit the car/child and are affordable that's not their fault.

DD is 3.2 and still RF in her Britax 2-way elite. She will probably have to FF at about age 4 because she is rather tall and running out of leg room.

Most people FF from about 1 year onwards I suspect. Mumsnetters (or at least the MNers who post on car seat threads) are not representative.

We RF until 16 mo (c.11 kg I think) and then switched. DD has been so much happier since she faced forward. She wasn't uncomfortable in the RF seat as far as I could tell, just totally bored.

Well we do make them, Britax is a british company I think? They just make that model for Sweden as it is law there to be rear facing until 4. I don't understand why we don't have the same here, if you watch the safety films, and read the stats for car crashes with fatalities in children in Sweden, it is very clear that rear facing for longer saves lives. I read a while back that Britain was going to make rf until two the law, but I haven't heard any more about it. Oh and softsheen, my dd is tallish, but was still fine until seven as she was well within the weight range and her head was still within the safe limit. She didn't seem to mind that her legs were curled up, apart from really long journeys in the last year of her being rf. So you might get a bit longer than you imagine out of the seat. They cost so much, at least we have had our money's worth!

My 15 month old was forward facing since he was 10 months.

Hellymelly, the new i-size regulations are bringing in longer rear facing though the back door, but they won't apply retrospectively. So from last July, all stage 0 seats have had to be suitable to allow rear facing until at least 15 months (I think).

It feels like the tide is turning - the Joie stages seat is much more affordable, and Mamas and Papas have recently started promoting ERF as a safer option. I think in 10 years time it will be very much more normal to have toddlers RF.

Emotional bullying?! . How is it emotional bullying to point out that Sweden has virtually eliminated fatalities in RTAs for under 5s?! If you can't afford the seat, or the seat won't fit in the car, fine, but pointing out that RF is infinitely safer for a 9mo is hardly controversial. According to that argument, it would have been emotional bullying 25 years ago to suggest that seatbelts in the back seats were a good idea. Some people might not have had them fitted, but that doesn't alter the fact it was safer to have them!

Though even expensive RF seats are equivalent in cost to about 4 tanks of petrol, so not that much in the grand scheme of how expensive it is to own a car - the problem is cultural as much as anything, it's still seen as a 'milestone' to move your baby to a FF seat, and therefore - for some - to be done as soon as possible.

The cost may 'only' be about as much as 4 tanks of petrol but that doesn't make it any easier for a lot of people to be able to find the money to pay for one

DS1 outgrew his infant seat at about 17-18 months I think.

A lot of people do find the money to buy very expensive travel systems/prams but don't seem to make the same investment in a car seat, in my experience.

I have never ever seen a toddler or older in a rear facing seàt, I live in NI. Also I never even heard of it until I joined MN.

I think if it is so much safer then people in the UK need educated about it.

Running a car is expensive, no doubt about it. If someone can afford the insurance, tax, mot, petrol, service, repairs, etc etc, which amount to thousands every year, then paying a one-off 200 instead of 90 for a car seat, with rare exceptions, is likely a question of priorities.

I would love to have my DCs in ERF seats but sadly our car is just too small to fit them in, the drivers seat would have to be so far forward it would be impossible to me or DH to drive. We would have to buy a new car. So IME it is not just about the cost of the seat.

Dds 2 & 4 are both still rf, though the 4 yr old is approaching 18kg so will then ff in her trio fix.

I wish I had had more information on RF seats when I was picking my Group 0 seat. That way I could have selected one that would have lasted until 4. Rather than now and feel like we've chosen the wrong seat. When picking it we went to all the big stores to do our research on seats (Kiddicare/Mothercare/JL) and not one of them mentioned the rear facing seats and I think they only had the Maxi Cosi Pearl 2 way (v expensive) on display (that I can remember). So education is needed of both consumers and retailers.

I'm going to try and leave my DS in his RF seat as long as poss but he's a big boy and screams/arches his back when I open the car door as he knows he's about to get wedged in his seat! I have to use the dummy to placate him which isn't ideal as trying not rely on it for that reason.

I agree that the car issue is a huge one. ERF seats are bigger. We had to sell my car and get another one so we could fit an ERF seat in. This is not an option for everyone.

The Joie Stages is a pretty cheap rear facer - about £130 I think.

It's not about being sanctimonious or emotional with the FF/ or ERF debate.

It's about physics. And the effect of physics (force/mass = momentum) on a small human body with a large heavy head.

I agree with fourlegs. Rear facing is proven to reduce fatalities in small children. It is a basic fact. The seats available here are expensive, yes. And they don't fit into all cars. But they are still far safer. Surely it is better to have that information than not? Personally, having done the research, we changed our brand new carseat for rear-facing and I didn't take my toddler out in the car until it arrived. We were very lucky in that my in laws bought the first seat. I don't feel smug to have this seat, I don't feel superior to other parents who put babies ff, i feel bloody annoyed that it isn't law in this country as it is in Sweden. Not all Swedes are affluent, and they don't all drive Volvos, but they have to conform to the law, so I assume there is a wider choice of car seat over there. We should have the same here.

How many fatalities in car accidents among children under 5 are there in the UK? I have no idea how much of a risk it actually is.