When did your child move to a forward facing car seat?

[Alb1]

Just that really, I no rear facing for as long as possible is the best thing. DS is 17 months, 10kg (car seat says minimum of 9kg for forward facing, his feet are slightly cramped now rear facing so I'm debating turning the seat but not sure if he's too young so thought I'd see if I can find out what the average sort of age is?

Ds1 we turned at about a year, regret it now. DS2 is rf at 18 months in a cybex sirona and will be until he is 4.

DS was rear facing until just over 3, had to put him FF as he was too tall and heavy for any rear facing seat any more. I would rather have kept him rear facing till 4 if I could have. It is much safer, there should be no rush to turn them forwards.

One year old for both but I don't live in UK so not aware of the rear facing thing for as long as possible.

So what happens if, like me, you have to travel to U.K. and hire a car. We brought DS1s booster (he's 4) and a regular forward facing car seat for DS2 (18 months at the time).

I don't think anything happens I've seen little ones in forward facing and my youngest has been on a booster since 4.5years.

Sounds like wev got a good while then! DS's head is nowere near the top and feet don't overhang just look cramped.

We have a britax one that goes from birth to 4 years and can go rear or forwards. He goes forwards in his grandparents car and loves it, but obviously we're more interested in what's safest. Thanks for all the replies

Dd who is 3 (13kg 90cm) rear faces in a britax two way elite and will probably be well into primary school before she out grows it. We don't actually have a car so the only cars it goes in are hire cars or taxis. Can't see the issue with not erf-ing. Even if she was ff we'd be doing the same thing - taking our own car seat and installing it in another car.

I turned DD ff at 7.2 (120cm, 20kg). She was in an Axkid.

The law change is a long drawn out process of overlap, so it's not illegal to have a younger toddler in a forward facing car seat, and won't be for a while.

You might like to have a look online at the safety of backless booster seats - there is a campaign called "bin the booster" I think, as they offer very little protection.

mary do you not find the tethers a right pita with the twe? We have two one each for the dcs and i stalling the tethers is my least favourite job.

Thankfully we only have one car.

No not really, we're used to doing it and it doesn't take too long to install. As we don't have a car we can't have an isofix seat as we can't guarantee the cars we'll be putting it in will have isofix and the twe seemed the best of the belted options (especially it's lightweight as we don't have a car! )

Fasting - my 6 year old has been rear facing until a few months ago, so it was a known thing 5/6/7 years ago.

My ds was 18mo. His rf seat was up to 9kg and he was skinny but too tall for it by 18mo.
Also we have a very old car and a campervan. Neither with isofix.
And he HATED rf.
If any of those factors had been different if have tried to have him rf longer.

11m here he was licking his knees in his original baby car seat and I couldn't afford a bigger rear facing seat why do they have to make new things so expensive
Ds 1&2 were fine forward facing at this age so I've no doubt ds3 will be too, they wouldn't be allowed to sell such seats if they wasn't safe

My DS went ff at a year. He used to screams head off in the car and since he has been forward facing he's happy.

4.5 for DD and would have rear faced until 5 but DS needed her seat. Turning your child FF before 3 is mad if you know the safety stats and it should be illegal.

Had to switch my dd to a forward facing seat sooner than I felt comfortable with, at about 18 months, as she had outgrown her baby seat (she was a small child!) but we couldn't use an extended rear facing seat as we have a van which means only seats in the front and there's not enough room there for a rear-facing seat.

Did you try the Britain two way elite? Fits in a Renault clio in the front so would be amazed if it doesn't fit in a van.

Fasting mum have you looked at the research as to why people do this? Videos on you tube of safety tests were pretty convincing for me!

No but like I said when my children where little our car could barely fit the smallest infant seat. The man at mother are said we needed to buy a bigger car at the time which we pointed out if we could afford one we would have had one!

Now we don't have a car most of the time so hence just having boosters for trips with relatives.

Sorry britax not Britain!

Uhoh2016 FF is safer than nothing but much less safe than RF.

DS was turned at about 19 months because he reached the height limit on his seat (which I had been denying for a couple of months).

But his seat allows reclined options FF, so he isn't completely upright. I still don't like it so am considering getting a new seat that allows for ERF.

Oh, and I agree with PP that one of the reasons we changed him (as well as outgrowing) was that it was getting pretty difficult to get him in and out of the seat while RF.

Ds is 2.2 and still rf in his joie stages. And will remain rf until he is at least 4.

It is safer. Why would I change to something less safe?

And those saying 'oh my dc were fine ff' that's good to hear. But it doesn't mean that if, god forbid, you were in a head on collision that they would have been fine. They might have been. Thankfully you will never know. Erf is safer.

I haven't seen anyone saying that I was just saying that mine didn't have them. Mainly because I'd never heard of them.