Following on from the thread about rear facing child seats.....

[Letsallscreamatthesistene]

How do people manage with tall/older children? I see most on the other post rear faced until roughly 4ish, but practically how does this work? How do you fit legs in? Do you just accept their knees are around their nipples?

My son is 8 months old and I have no plans to face him forward anytime soon. He is a tall boy though (currently 76cm) so I think my hand is going to be forced to forward face him before I want too.

DS is 20 months and is forward facing. He’d have his knees round his chin if he was rear facing. I haven’t read the other thread so I’m sure I’ll be immediately fired from parenting.

Weve got an extended rear doing seat for our 95th centile 2 year old and there's so much more leg room on it for him. His legs are still bent, but only a little, it looks was better than his prev seat, a joie 360.

I'm not sure he'll last till 4 rear facing, but we'll keep him as long as possible RF.

As with everything parenting its a choice you make after reading the guidelines. We decided to RF because of the guilt I'd feel if anything happened during a crash. Its every individual parents decision though.

Yes I want to keep him RF for as long as poss. We also have a joie 360 but I dont think he'll get passed 18months tbh, he'll be far too big. I cant really afford another car seat either, so I just wandered if there was a trick to it.

@Abouttimemum

DS is 20 months and is forward facing. He’d have his knees round his chin if he was rear facing. I haven’t read the other thread so I’m sure I’ll be immediately fired from parenting.

This is entirely your choice, but for the benefit of anybody else reading, this is incorrect. There is no way a 20 month old is too tall to rear face. That's just not possible.

Also, the debate is generally around extended rearfacing, which is for older children. At 20 months, it would be standard to be still be rearfacing.

There is plenty of info out there for anybody who is interested in rear facing an older child. Just google rearfacing toddlers or car seat advice UK. These should bring up some good sources and experts.

We've got an Axkid Move. It's an excellent option if you want to move on from the joie 360 as it's not too expensive and goes up to age 4 ish. (25kg) and Swedish plus tested. There's enough room for longer legs as you sort of shift the seat further towards the back of the seat of the car itself and use the tilt to take their legs back. Not sure if that makes sense?

We've got the Axkid Minikid and it has more leg room than when she was in her baby seat. The sides are pretty low which is a big plus for the seat.

@Biggerloudermoreteeth in your experience it's not true but there are many shapes of car and people and our combo did not work. The joie 360 is huge and bulky my DS has long legs and so does his parents so the front seats are as far back as they can be in my Seat ibiza, there just wasn't the wiggle room needed. I sincerely thought he'd break his legs facing backwards like you would if your seat were on the dash in a crash. But I'm glad everything is so easy in your black and white world.

We also have an Axkid Minikid and our 25 month olds has masses of room - her feet are nowhere near touching the back of the seat. She’s not a huge child but her legs are pretty long (I don’t actually know how tall she is- really should have a go at measuring!). Bigger kids just sit with their legs crossed anyway.

I have to say I was slightly put off initially by the perceived faff of fitted an extended rear facing seat with the seat belt and tether straps, instead of using isofix, but it is actually really easy if you follow one of the instruction videos on YouTube- there’s an account called Rear Facing Toddlers and the lady who runs that does really nice, clear videos with instructions and information about seats.

my nearly 3 year old still puts them straight against the seat. if not he crosses them

[quote SuddenArborealStop]@Biggerloudermoreteeth in your experience it's not true but there are many shapes of car and people and our combo did not work. The joie 360 is huge and bulky my DS has long legs and so does his parents so the front seats are as far back as they can be in my Seat ibiza, there just wasn't the wiggle room needed. I sincerely thought he'd break his legs facing backwards like you would if your seat were on the dash in a crash. But I'm glad everything is so easy in your black and white world.[/quote]
Sorry you took offence, that wasn't my intention.

It's not about everything being rosy in my black and white world. It's about making the point, as I said, to others who may be reading, that there are experts who can help find an appropriate rearfacing seat to fit your car and circumstances.

For example, have you considered the Britax TWE? It is designed to sit pressed against the driver or passenger seat in front, so it is a lot more space efficient than many forward facing car seats.

However, as I also said, this is entirely your decision. This is a public forum and I am simply pointing out that there is no need, in any car, for a 20month old to have to forward face due to space restrictions.

[quote SuddenArborealStop]@Biggerloudermoreteeth in your experience it's not true but there are many shapes of car and people and our combo did not work. The joie 360 is huge and bulky my DS has long legs and so does his parents so the front seats are as far back as they can be in my Seat ibiza, there just wasn't the wiggle room needed. I sincerely thought he'd break his legs facing backwards like you would if your seat were on the dash in a crash. But I'm glad everything is so easy in your black and white world.[/quote]
I had a seat ibiza , even with the newborn seat the front passenger sit couldn't be barely used as it wasn't leaving enough space. no way I'd have been able to use my current extended rear facing seat in that car...

It really does depend a lot on the car you have. Those thinking that they fit fine might not be driving a smaller car, and bare in mind even my kids forward facing high backed boosters did not fit in my mums Peugeot due to the seat moulding, and that was a people carrier! There was no such thing as extended rear facing when my kids were small but because they were light and petite they stayed rear facing until nearly 2, my dd had a high speed crash forward facing at 2 and the fire service said it saved her life because it was properly fitted - do not underestimate the need to properly install, rear facing is not an advantage if it isn't able to be installed properly! Unfortunately babies r us doesn't exist anymore but they installed ours that saved her life with no ill effects (70mph rear ended)

My almost 3 year old has plenty of room, and that’s in three different seats in our/grandparents car. He puts his legs up, folds them, or hangs them over either side. There’s plenty of room in an ERF seat (though whether there’s room for a front passenger is another question), kids don’t need to just sit with their legs straight and together in front of them. From what I’ve read, a kid forward facing is more likely to receive a head/neck injury than a rear facing kid is likely to receive a leg injury. If you can afford it, and physically fit the seat in, I personally can’t see that there is any excuse for not rear facing until four.

I had axxikid for both my boys who are 4 and 6

We are a tall family I had to give up and change them at around 3.5 years old as both boys complained of being uncomfortable

Strictly speaking they could of lasted till 6 years old but practically I can't see how that was possible they both complained about not being able to stretch legs etc

I'd hoped to get to 4 years old but we didn't quite make it that long.

We had to switch to forward facing earlier than I hoped as dd was an escape artist and no matter what we did she would get out of her rear facing seat. I tried absolutely everything.

I had to admit defeat and got her a forward facing seat I think it’s a cybex with the bit that goes over them so she couldn’t get out. It has good safety ratings. We got the absolute best seat we could get and it cost a fortune.

I couldn’t justify the risk of her climbing out from her rear facing seat and the distraction was likely to cause a crash. I couldn’t just stop driving (live rural and have to drive or be trapped at home and lose my job and therefore home etc) and I didn’t have anyone who could always sit next to her on every drive.

So those saying there’s no excuse to not rear face until 4 can piss off. In my case it was much safer to sit her ff!

There's a Facebook group I'm on for ERF and it's full of people rear facing older children. There's pictures of children with legs all over the place but they're comfy. I have a maxway which rear faces to 25kg DS is only 1 but he has loads of room. I hope to make it to 4 before he maxes out the seat because he's high percentile.

Well no, she never did escape the ff one I bought, after escaping absolutely everything in 10min or less up to that point. And I tried everything.

It has a wedge that means she was pinned in so securely she couldn’t wriggle out. It was NOT that she was happier, it was physically impossible for her!

I would rather have a ff safely secured child than a rf escape artist next to me in the front distracting me. That sounds really dangerous to me!

Oh and she didn’t sit in her rf seat once escaped, she roamed the car until I could safely pull over. So, no, she’s much safer secure in a ff seat than loose in the car.

My nearly 3 year old is in a Joie360. Today she requested to rear face which she hasn't for a while.

She crosses her legs and they fall to the sides. No knees anywhere up high.

I was probably forward facing from birth (idk I was a baby!) but when I was bigger I sat cross legged in the back of the cars (Porsche and family estates), think I would have been more comfortable in a ERF because otherwise my long legs dangled which wasn't comfortable

[quote SuddenArborealStop]@Biggerloudermoreteeth in your experience it's not true but there are many shapes of car and people and our combo did not work. The joie 360 is huge and bulky my DS has long legs and so does his parents so the front seats are as far back as they can be in my Seat ibiza, there just wasn't the wiggle room needed. I sincerely thought he'd break his legs facing backwards like you would if your seat were on the dash in a crash. But I'm glad everything is so easy in your black and white world.[/quote]
I'd rather broken legs than spinal cord. You should read up on the risks of leg breakage vs spine in rear facing toddlers.

@EasterIssland

my nearly 3 year old still puts them straight against the seat. if not he crosses them

Same here, she's never complained even on very long journeys

Kids just cross their legs, its not hard 🤷‍♀️