How old was your little one when you switched to a forward facing car seat?

[meganm94]

DD is 15 months and still rearward facing. Her car seat rearward faces for up to approx 4 years but she's not the biggest fan of the car. I don't know one other mum with a child over 12 months who still rear faces and I feel like I'm just being over dramatic and paranoid but I've delved too deeply into the internet to be feel comfortable with it now 😂

Not much point to this post really, just interested to see if anyone else feels the same as me as I feel like I'm the only mum out of all my friends/family who feels this way 🙈

My daughter was 4 and quite a large child. can you attach toys to the back seat or to the straps with toy ties? It's 5 times safer to face backwords.

We turned DS around when he was 5. DD will be 5 in a few weeks and still rear-facing and will be for as long as possible.

Stick with it. It's the safest thing to do.

Kept DS rear facing until 4 and DD who is 3 is still rear facing.

I'm definitely going to keep her rear facing as personally I just don't feel comfortable with her forward facing, but no judgement to those who do, each to their own!

I just wish there was more information widely available in the UK about car seat safety, a lot of parents I've spoken to don't know anything about it and it just seems wrong to me when it's the norm in so many other countries and obviously so much safer to be rear facing. 🤷 (again no hate on parents that don't!)

@Ymlaen we try and time longer journeys with her nap so she just sleeps but if she's awake we do give her toys and books but they only do so much, she's got a tablet for Christmas so hoping if we stick some Peppa pig on in the back for her it will keep her quiet haha x

DS was almost 5 but locally I'm in the minority. The safety information is out there and easily accessible but I think a lot of people assume that if the seats are being sold in places like Halfords it must be fine.

I'm more concerned that your 1 year old is getting a tablet for Christmas than which way her car seat faces tbh... although, yes, rear facing is best for as long as possible.

DD1 would scream ALL THE TIME in the car!!! As soon as possible she turned forward and was much better!!

DD2 was slightly over 2. Also started complaining a lot when being put in the car. Tbh turning the car seat around didn't help but once you do it they don't like facing backwards again....

Tablet in the car would be an idea. We swear by the Dave and Ava app. Worth the money 100 fold!!!

I think mines will probably be around 7 when we forward face but I know we are in the minority but I give zero fucks. It’s safer.

Ds was five when we got a forward facing seat. It's much safer to rear face for little kids.

We aimed to keep DD rear facing as long as possible. Got to just before her 3rd birthday and in an emergency a friend had to driver her with her car seat in her car. She automatically fit it forward facing and DD was enthralled. Refused point blank to get in rear facing when it was back in our car and screamed the whole journey. I gave in and turned it the next day; it’s not perfect but she’s so much more engaged with me now she can see more; we’re driving less miles at the moment anyway and the tantrums are gone so no distractions.

Getting to 4+ is ideal, and I’ll definitely aim for that with the next one; but I think each circumstance is a judgment call after 18 months or so.

DD1 was about 14 months. RF past baby age was very rare then (she's now 9.5)

DD2 is a year and a half younger (she's approaching 8 years old). Rear facing becoming more wide known. I got a Joie Stages when she was a year old when she 8.5kg and the baby seat broke. She rear faced until 2.5years. I was considered crazy.

Unfortunately, when her sister started school, she started to scream blue murder until she struggled to breathe if she was 'abandoned' in the rear facing seat alone in the back of the car. So we turned it around, and the screaming stopped.

91st centile eldest DD still RF at 4 and a half in 25kg limit seat and no intentions to turn her round yet... Youngest will probably stay RF even longer as she’s only ~50th centile. We are also in the minority but feel like the message is (slowly) getting through. And quite frankly what everyone else is doing has zero bearing on my children’s safety...

Aiming for 5/6/7 depends on when they outgrow their 25kg rear facing seats

About two with both of them.

We have a seat that spins both ways but my DS doesn't really fit when it's rear facing so he has been forward facing since he was about 18 months. There isn't enough room for his legs - have we just chosen the wrong seat or do people just make their 5 year olds scrunch up?

Around 12-13 months ish I think, could have been 14 as they were both small. But ERF wasn't really a thing then. And if it was I hadn't heard of it. Most of my friends turned their babies at 9/10 months so I was later than most.

About 4.

I agree that people seem to ignore or be unaware of the advice on rearward facing. Whilst most are very cautious about things like putting baby to sleep on their back, etc. It’s strange.

@grumpytoddler1

We have a seat that spins both ways but my DS doesn't really fit when it's rear facing so he has been forward facing since he was about 18 months. There isn't enough room for his legs - have we just chosen the wrong seat or do people just make their 5 year olds scrunch up?

This - DD is 13m and her legs are really squished rear-facing. We've got a secondhand maxi cozi somethingorother and it is HUGE but there just isn't any room for her legs! She's not even that big, 65cm.

My 17 month old is rear facing and hates car journeys, always has. She becomes most agitated if we're sitting in a queue of traffic, so I've recently started spinning her round to face forward for those times. She is a lot happier.

I would always have her rear facing for any other times, especially longer or faster journeys, even though she wails constantly.

He was four, hes in the 98 percentile for height and had plenty room.

DD1 switched to FF at 5 years. DD2 was smaller and switched at 6 years.

Ds -- 4
DD -- 18m and still rear facing. Will be at least 4 until she FF.

DS is only 1 but he's in a 25kg ERF seat and won't turn until he doesn't fit it any more he's on a high percentile and if he stays on his line he'll be 4 when he turns.

We switched dd at just before 2 I think. Whenever we had to do a journey longer than 20mins she without fail would throw up whilst rear facing. All over the seat and herself. Hasn’t happened once since we turned her round and she’s 3.5 now.

I know it’s safer to rear face but couldn’t deal with the sick anymore and it wasn’t fair on her for her to be sick then have to wait, covered in it until we could pull over and clean her up.

DS was 3, would have liked to go longer, but he's big for his age and 18kg was the top weigh for our high street RF seat (joie). We did look at bigger RF seats, but they all needed anchor bars or tethers and at the time we were moving the seat between cars so it would have been impractical, and above our price range to get two seats.

DD is now 16 months and will be RF for the next few years, if she sticks to her current percentile she should be at least 4 when she out grows the seat.