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???

Ds is 99.9th centile and he rear faced till 5.5 in an axkid minikid with no issues. In fact he was not particularly impressed when he was turned forward facing. His dangling legs were very uncomfortable.

Mine both went FF at around 18Kg. Younger one was 4, older one more like 5. Went straight to HBBs as I'm happier about the biomechanics.

Older one would technically be in the weight limit for a RF seat but gets travel sick on twisty roads so is happier FF. Younger one also had a travel sickness incident shortly before we turned him... Children vomiting makes crashing more likely so worth the increased risk for me. Reading/tablet in the car is not sensible for either of mine - so seeing out the front is key for them

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

This is a significant change over the last couple of years, though. When DS1 was little ( he is 14 now) children mostly were forward facing at about 9-10 months and in booster seats at 3, sometimes even 2.5, particularly if the toddler seat needed to be handed down to a baby sibling. In fact I remember that his childminder used to use a booster seat for her daughter who was 2 and I didn't think anything of it except when I started to learn more about car seats and I had picked her up one day and realised she was lighter than DS1 and therefore must have been under 15kg.

I know 10-15 years is a fairly long time but I feel like until the Joie 360 spin came onto the market (2016/17?) the majority of people were still FF as soon as the child was out of the infant carrier, except for some real ERF fanatics who went to the trouble to find the imported Swedish seats. The first spinning seats were about £400. Joie have really made ERF mainstream and I think that's great. 2 is much better than 9 months!

And it's even more recent than this that the 25kg forward facing seats have become commonly available and known about. Previous to that everyone was moving to a booster at about 100-105cm regardless of age. (It's usually between 3-4 years). I think the options for these will increase soon - it's good if we have more options everywhere.

I would have loved to ERF but I had a screamer. Absolutely nothing worked to distract her, and I figured the risk of me making a mistake because of the distraction and sheer stress was more of a risk to her safety at that point. I turned her FF at 17 months and haven't had a problem since.

I would definitely try to keep him rear facing for now using distractions like a mirror and toys, the seat should be suitable until 3 even if he's heavy and tall at which point the trade off to front facing is less

We had the same seat and DS started FF just before 3.

Wanted to do longer but we got stuck in horrendous traffic on a long drive and he was getting so upset in the back we span him round whilst it was slow moving. Of course then he just screamed if we tried to face it backwards again. He stayed RF in DHs car until 4 though, because the seat always faced that way he was fine with it! He is tall for his age and it wasn't an issue, just crossed his legs.

Mine was 5.5 when I turned her ff when she outgrew her seat.

Legs are fine, they're very flexible and put them in all sorts of positions naturally anyway.

RFing is much safer.

Have you got a mirror on the seat back so you can see eachother? Lots of talking to him and even singing etc.

You could look into having him in the front seat maybe if you're really struggling. With the airbag off it is safe. Better than ff at such a young age.

Not preaching or judging before anyone has a go.

Mine is still rear facing in an axkid minikid and an axkid one seat at age 5 and a half and will be until they get to the weight limit then it will go siblings who are in Joie spin and Maxi cosi seats rear facing as they are younger. It is a no brainer for me to keep them all this way as long as possible as it is much safer and I do a lot of motorway driving with them too. Once I learnt about ERF when my youngest was turning 3 I knew I couldn't un learn those facts so for me I was always going to be doing this.

We have not had any issues with sickness or hating their seats so this hasn't been something we have had to consider. Her legs are totally fine and she crosses them or has them to one side. There's loads of pictures and videos of ERF safety and older children in car seats on the ERF Facebook group you can join.

My DD is just starting to question why her friends are in boosters and she isn't yet and my simple explanation about her seat being the safest choice and that she will have a booster when she is a bit bigger has been accepted without issue. And she is the eldest and tallest of her main group of friends. None of her friends have said anything negative about it and when they travel in our car they rear face too and think its fun.

I do think ERF is becoming more normal but for all the people I read about on here and see on the relevant Facebook pages who also ERF, I have yet to see another older child rear facing in real life. I have tried to spread the word amongst my friends in a very low key way, I would never be preachy about it, but they have all chosen to FF at around 18m to 2yrs old.

I do think laws should be changed to increase the weight limit for FF and there should be more public safety awareness about the benefits of ERF.

• when my eldest was turning 3!