Forward facing car seat at 4 years old.

[DontWantTheRivalry]

I have a 4.5 year old who has always been a little dink and so is still rear facing. He’s quite happy in his RF car seat but he’s started kicking against the backrest of the chair he’s facing towards which is obviously affecting the stability.

It was my understanding though that you can’t FF until a child is 18kg but he isn’t there yet.

Is this correct? Or are there forward facing car seats for a child of his weight (about 15kg) that are properly tested for safety?

Any recommendations if that is the case??

I'm sure you can forward face from 15kg

They can forward face at 9kg in a type 1 weight based seat, or at 15 months in an i-size seat.

www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules

If you had a group 123 seat it's OK from 9kg and would still have a harness if you still wanted to use one

We currently have a RF Axkid Mive with a leg support and tethers that attach to the front passenger seat. It says it can be used between 9-25kg.

Can you tell him to stop kicking the seat?
He's old enough to understand he shouldn't do it

My 4YO is in a Cybex high back booster, the solution Z I-fix, and it’s suitable from 15kg. But if yours still fits in his seat and you don’t actually want to change it then presuming no SEN he really should understand that he shouldn’t kick.

They can forward face from 9kg in a size 1 seat 🤷🏼‍♀️ My DD has been forward facing since 18 months. She’s in a Joie 360 spin. She gets severe travel sickness rear facing & nearly choked to death on vomit more than once. She doesn’t get sick forwards facing at all so that’s what we have to do.

I’m amazed your 4.5 year old rear faces. My DD1 isn’t very big but the harness was far too small for her by 4. She needs a seatbelt now. Also she’s at school now, she often gets lifts with friends & it’s SO much easier to chuck her high back booster into another car!

My understanding is it's much much safer to read face for as long as possible and if he is happy enough rf then it's safest to continue. However our 4yo was being car sick so much that we turned her round at about 2.5. I believe It is legal to do it from 9kg but not necessarily a good idea as their body doesn't cope well with the force of a collision if they are flung forward.

We moved my eldest up to a joie bold recently (so our youngest can go in the spin seat) which has a harness to 25kg and then turns into a booster, but is ff. i did some research on the e Car Seat Safety advice uk Facebook group and it seemed that was a good choice.

As others have said maybe you can ask him not to kick the seat, or get a seat protector if it's making a mess? I know the axkid move is meant to be a really good seat and you will get w lot more use out of it so if he isn't being sick or complaining I would try to stick with it!

I’m amazed your 4.5 year old rear faces. My DD1 isn’t very big but the harness was far too small for her by 4. She needs a seatbelt now. Also she’s at school now, she often gets lifts with friends & it’s SO much easier to chuck her high back booster into another car!

My son is on about the 16th percentile for both height and weight so is still comfortable in his RF seat.

He has rear facing Joie seats in both sets of grandparents cars as sometimes they do emergency childcare for us, but my son is nearly too big for those, hence why thinking about buying them both some forward facing car seats rather than pay out £100’s for more RF seats that would probably only get used 2-3 times a month.

He has an older brother (8) and because he’s FF my youngest is starting to ask if he can FF too. He’s very happy RF though, he’s never complained about his seat, but it’s not a practical one in terms of taking it out to put in other people’s cars or swapping it between mine and DH’s car.

He doesn’t start school until August this year but yes, a booster seat would definitely be easier if it came to to having lifts with friends.

It is much safer to rear face as long as possible, in parts of Europe rear facing until 7 is common and illegal before 4! Have a Google about benefits of extended rear facing - I was so shocked when I found out and now won’t considering forward facing until I have to!

I intend to keep him RF in our AxKid Move in our own car as he spends a lot of time in the car with us, but I need to buy 3 new seats for those who sometimes have to collect him from the childminders for us or take him on short journeys and I definitely can’t afford to buy three ERF Seats

That’s why I’m just looking for some good quality FF seats so that I can afford to buy three new seats (which will hardly get used) in one go