Front facing car seats?

[202130x]

So in March my son is 15 months and he is definitely 9kg! Lol

so I did want to forward face him then (we have the Joie spin one so we can face it forward etc) as he gets so upset alone if no one sits next to him in the back, making solo trips with him very uneasy. I think he’d be happier when he can face us.

however I’ve seen a few people say rear face until 4? He’s also quite tall I’d worry if I did it to 4 his legs would get so squashed even now I think it’s be better to stretch his legs

when did you forward face???

Have you tried getting a mirror that attaches to the rear headrest? It might make it easier for him to see you and keep him calm.

Agree with the above poster get a larger safety mirror and he’ll probably be ok with rear facing.

People rear face until 4 (or beyond if within the safety limits of the car seat) because it has been proven to be five times safer for your child than forward facing.

The legs being squashed thing doesn’t really trouble them and there is usually more room than you think.

The squashed legs thing doesn't make sense. My ds is 75th centile for height and rear faced until the weight limit on his seat, he was around 4 and a half. He was definitely more comfortable rear facing as he would usually cross his legs. Now he is forward facing, his legs dangle and he has nothing to put his feet on, he gets pins and needles in his feet, kicks the back of the chair in front etc. So height should not be a consideration at all, in my opinion.
So that leaves it as a safety Vs child happiness argument. Obviously, it is significantly safer to rear face. But if the child is crying and shouting, is that impacting on the concentration of the driver?
15months is very young to forward face though I would think. Ds1 rear faced until over 4 and ds2 is still rear facing now at 3y9m. He is nowhere near the weight limit yet so will continue.

My son's nearly four and still rear-facing. He's quite happy, legs aren't squashed. He is quite short for his age but definitely not as short as an 18 month old 😂

It is so much safer rear facing. The options arr growing...

Rear facing in an accident is safer than forward facing, which is why they say that. You're supposed to rear face as long as possible, as long as they will fit in that position.

Mine is 17 months and we have the same carseat as you. Still rear facing, but we have occasionally faced him forwards on a very short journey (if his boots were particularly muddy)

I don't know if we'll stay like this until he's 4, but definitely going to continue in the near future.

Mine are super tall so we had to get extended rearfacing seats that go upto 6 years but we did move them forward facing between 3-4 years.

Mine will rear face to 25kg or 125cm - limits of her seat! So 5 at the youngest, probably longer.

get a mirror and an iPad holder, remove the back head rest so they can see out the back.

google the British medical journal and rear facing - it’s not worth the risk!

My daughter is almost 8 and still rear-facing in up to 25kg Scandinavian seats. She crosses her legs. We have bought a forward-facing high-backed booster as she's 2cm away from outgrowing her rear-facing seats and she doesn't want it - she says her legs hurt when they dangle down in friends' cars and she likes seeing out the back windscreen.

My toddler also rear-faces.

15 months is better than 9 months which is what used to be advised. When it was the norm to forward face at 9 months, if you looked at child accident deaths across Europe, there was a spike in number of deaths at around 1 year old. This is because younger children were in rear facing seats, which are much more protective, and older children are more able to withstand the impact of a car accident even though they are forward facing. This is why the newer car seats have a ban on forward facing younger than 15 months, but it does continue to have a benefit for children 1-4 years (and beyond) - it's just that when you look at large numbers statistically it is harder to see because there aren't many children still rear facing at these ages outside of the Nordic countries, where it has always been the norm simply because when they first started making car seats (before Europe had a centralised safety standard so every country made their own) their first ones happened to be rear facing, the designer was apparently inspired by rear-facing astronaut seats. Incidentally if you do compare with Sweden, they have very good accident death statistics for children, the lowest in the world. Their accident deaths for children 1-4 years are lower than across the rest of Europe where it is the norm to forward face after about a year still.

Ultimately it's your choice, but personally I would keep rear facing at least until either your child is uncomfortable, you need to move them for another child (and you decide against a larger rear facing seat) or you max out the limit of your seat. I have the Joie 360 spin, and it's not the most generous for leg room, there are certainly rear facing seats which have more, but little children don't mind at all. In fact it is often more comfortable for them to have something to rest their legs on rather than have them dangling. He might surprise you! Just keep going and see how long it works for. I wouldn't rush to forward face as soon as you can. We put a dangly toy on the car headrest and had a mirror so he wasn't bored or lonely in the car.

With DS1 I used a forward facing seat once he was out of the baby seat but I kept him in it as long as possible - 18 months. This was 2009 so ERF seats weren't easily available then and I didn't have my own car. The only isofix one was about £400 and most cars didn't have isofix anyway! There weren't any belt fitted ones without tethers back then.

With DS2 we had the Joie 360 Spin and I had planned to keep him RF until 3 or 4 but DH really wanted to turn him around 2 so I agreed to do so on occasions he was really unsettled, for shorter slower journeys, and we'd RF if he was likely to sleep or for faster/country roads but DH took this to mean any time he felt like it, and it happened to coincide with him taking him in the car a lot without me so he started to prefer FF and was FF basically all the time from 2.

DS3 is 16mo and is still rear facing, I would like to keep him RF through all next winter (so until about 2.5) as the first winter DS2 was FF made me really anxious in the car. But I don't feel too anxious about turning him from 2.5 - 3ish. There is still a benefit to RF at those ages but I didn't feel it was as critical as when younger.

His legs will be fine, kids are bendy. My 3 year old is rear facing in an axkid and will be for a while now. The 25kg+ seats give much more leg room than the 18kg ones if that's a concern.

@202130x have you forward faced your son yet? My baby is 12 months old and I'm already really looking forward to move her to a forward facing carseat. She also gets extremely bored at the back, no mirror or toys would help.
Really struggling to understand how people keep them rare facing around 4 years. It would only work with my daughter if she would get screen time there which I won't do.

My daughter has always faced forward in her joie spin as she gets car seat when rear facing. X

Mine rear faced until 4.5 in an Axkid move seat.
plenty of legroom! And so much safer

We've just moved out of the Joie spin seat at 4.5 and gone into an Axkid move which is rear facing. Safety is paramount.

15 months is still so young to move to forward. DD is 3.5 and still comfortably rear facing in her erf car seat, we plan on keeping her that way until she is 5 at the earliest when her little sister will move into her car seat.
The legs don't really come into it, they can cross them or put them wherever they are comfortable and to be honest having them dangling while forward facing will be more uncomfortable. It's 5x safer for your child in an accident so for me it's just a no brainer.

I don’t understand how facing forward offers more to look at? Either way they can see out the side window, with rf they see out the back window, and ff they see the back of your seat/head/ and a bit out the front window?
I do use some screen time, but you could do music instead, we listen to things she likes and sing along!

Sing songs, they read books, listen to audio stories, chat. Although this is no different to when they are forward facing and staring at the back of the seat in front of them.

I think everyone has to weight up the risks for them and their circumstances.

DD hated RF and would scream in the car constantly unless asleep or with someone next to her making a massive effort to entertain her. Almost all our driving is short journeys in town so max 30mph and usually less. For these reasons it was less risky for us to go FF and stop the screaming.

However if you do a lot of dual carriageway/motorway driving I would be more worried about accidents. Also if your child can be quiet RF that reduces the risk of distraction from them.

3yo DS has been forward facing since 20 months and it was honestly life changing. No more crying or hysterics whilst in the car and we could start going out on solo trips. He has never been entertained by iPads, books and toys in the car, he'd just squirm and scream, trying to twist his whole body out of the seat which in my opinion is just as dangerous plus it's a continuous distraction.

No issues since he's been forward facing. He still isn't a fan of iPads and toys in the car but will talk and sing happily whenever we are out. Or nap 🙏🏻

Nothing against rear facing for older kids obviously, I wanted to do it for as long as possible but sometimes you just have to reassess and make adjustments

My ds rear faced until 5.5 and he only stopped them as his sister maxed out the harness height wise in spin seat so needed his 25kg rear face seat. (I decided not to buy a second 25kg seat because at 5.5 I was happy with forward facing)

dd will stay in the 25kg seat until it becomes a problem ie she is uncomfortable or if she becomes embarrassed at school drop off (which she'll be almost 5 when she starts school) It is safer for her to rear face and she doesn't complain, on a couple of occasions in our other car she has forward faced.

if I had a child who screamed/vomited/distressed rear facing then I would have changed earlier, after trying mirror/distraction techniques.

@Sucessinthenewyear Of course we tried all of these. When I say nothing works I mean nothing works!

I've never met anyone in real life who kept the child rare faced for that long. This website is strange!

My 2.5yo is still rear facing, planning on keeping her that way until she outgrows her current seat (probably when she’s about 4) and then when I need to buy a new one I’ll decide on an erf seat or a ff seat.

a mirror so she could see us (and we could see her) has been really helpful and we try to play games with what she can see out of the window/boot window if we want to keep her awake.

I turned mine as soon as possible tbh.

You have to weigh up all the risks and there is no wrong answer. While RF might be safer, FF isn't unsafe any more than being in the care is unsafe.

For us extended rear facing wasn't an option. As a tall family we physically couldn't all fit in our old car with 2 rear facing seats.

In real life every child I know is FF at 2 and in a booster at 4.

DD was horrifically car sick so we turned her early at 13 months. DS is almost 2 and we’ve just turned his seat forward.

OP you have to weigh up the risk of FF versus the risk of you being distracted if he’s very upset but it’s not an all or nothing thing. You could do long journeys RF where you have a passenger who can sit with him, short local ones where it’s just you you can do forward facing.