When did your DC stop rear facing?

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Looking for a pushchair, and am not sure how important it is that it is rear facing. DD is 9 months, the current pushchair we have does rear and forward facing, but we generally only use it in rear facing mode.

I really enjoy being able to see her and talk to her, particularly as we spend at least two hours a day out and about. There aren't many rear facing options that are 'off roady' enough for the park etc, and will she want to shun her mummy be forward facing at some point anyway?

I have the "snow" or "terrain" wheels for my Cameleon - they work wonderfully off-road for us!

It really is the ideal all-round pram for us and it gets used every day and for every occasion. I really love it!

I did ask on here about buying one for my child at over 2y - and some mums thought it was a bit of a waste of time as DS was so old - but then considering my situation and how much walking we do, and how long I expect to use it (based on experience of the older siblings and starting school and half days and walking there and back and there and back - half the day long!), I thought it was worth a try - and I'm so happy with this choice.

Just wish I'd bought the cameleon earlier - instead of wasting so much time (browsing for alternatives to what I had from the beginning, and buying and selling numerous other brands/models).

I do face DS away if were going somewhere like the zoo - if he's having a sit down - but the majority of the time he's facing me and I'm so pleased that the buggy is well balanced in that mode - even with my heavy toddler.

There is a bit of an optical illusion that the hood seems low - if it's down - but when pulled up there's enough headroom for a couple more years at least - and the seat is roomy enough my 7y old can park her bum in it and have adequate back rest(had to try to see it was definately going to last the course)!

I really don't think DS would tolerate any shopping trips if he was facing away, he would be soo bored. If facing me we can chatter, and I can make sure he has a drink whenever he needs it - or swap his toys around, if facing away, I might not pick up on these things fast enough - and he'd reach meltdown point.

He's really comfy in his buggy too - which is good as he has to be in it so long (when he's not walking - which as I said - he does walk too).

DS hasn't been a particularly early talker - but his speech is coming on in leaps and bounds now he's approaching 3y in a few months. What people do comment on is how good his pronunciation is and how clearly he speaks.

Some people have said they think parent facing encourages better communication and thus better speech.

I do think it facilitates this, especially for us where we live.

If I lived somewhere more quiet or rural - maybe the parent facing wouldn't be so very important to us.
As I said earlier - we are living in a densely populated built up area with a lot of noisy traffic that drowns out speech much of the time. We do also have forests and beaches only a few miles away too (south coast uk) so an off-road buggy is good if we want to enjoy outings to these places too - which is why the bugaboo works so well for us - with it's extra wheels for all terrain (and such a bonus to only need to store an alternative couple of wheels for such occasions rather than an entirely different buggy!).

I do love being able to see DS and find it rather unnatural to sit him facing away from me (almost rude!) for anything other than short trips.

DD1 was rear facing until she stopped going in the pram at just shy of 3y/o, DD2 was rear facing until she stopped going in the pram at just she of 2y/o (though now she has to go in our BJCMD as she has been too unwell to walk/stand for any distance), and DD3 would be rear facing now at 18m except for DD2 needing to be in a pram. If/when DD2 is able to walk more, more often I will go back to rfing DD3 in our Emmaljunga classic and DD2 can walk or buggy board it as she used to.

I prefer rearfacing so much and I really hate not being able to see my children when we are out. The BJCMD does have fairly good windows in the hoods but it's not the same as facing me as you spend all your time asking the children what they said or stopping to check if one of them has gone to sleep which invariably wakes them up....

I had to take DD1 to a Drs appointment before Xmas and she went rearfacing (she was 4.9y/o) and when she was confined to the pushchair after an asthma attack she went rfing even though I was taking her to school - it was nice to chat to her when I could hear what she was saying.

Mine don't mind rfing in the pram as they rf in the car until 4+y/o anyway so they are used to the direction of travel

Which rf car seat do you have pls?

The Jane Slalom Reverse is a good pushchair on or off road.

Ooh, the Jane one looks good. Decent basket etc?

Monkey - We have a Britax Two Way Elite (rf 9-25kg, ff 9-25kg) , a Britax Nordic Secura (now unavailable in the UK - can't find a supplier but it's a fab seat if you get hold of one - rf 9-25kg) and 2x Britax First Class (rf to 13kg, ff to 18kg).

All good seats though I have a secret hankering for a Volvo rearfacing seat (de-branded Britax Multi-Tech) that sells for about £130 through Volvo dealers vs the £200+ the Britx branded ones sell for.

Thanks truthsweet , I'll have to look at those.

We never had a rear facing pushchair, only forward facing. She never spent that much time in it anyway, especially as a baby.

DD said her first words from 6 months old, and sentences by 18m, so no delay in communication skills as a result here.

I would think it only makes a difference to talking and othr social type development if they spend huge amounts of time in their pushchair with no other times of interaction.

I have a double buggy at the moment and both boys are still rear facing in it.

Ds1 is 2yrs old in a couple of weeks and ds2 is 6months. Both will stay rear facing until no longer using the buggy. Ds1 hates not being able to chat away to me.

Hence why I spent too much £££ on a double where both could face me.

FWIW, I have a friend with a teutonia and she adores it.

I have a Teutonia Spirit and I absolutely love it. It wasn't quite so good with the carrycot, but it's brill with the pushchair - it handles really well. I have problems with my wrists and the Teutonia was the only one which didn't annoy my wrist problems, but I'm so glad we got it rather than another type. I probably spend upwards of 10 hours a week out with it, so we've had lots of mileage out of it.

14 m.o. DS is still rear facing. I'd hate to have him forward facing, and on the odd occasion I've needed to use my little folding Maclaren I've been stopping every 100 yards to check he's okay, as well as lonely. We spend an hour or two every day out in the pushchair, and he points at things and asks me to tell him what they are, and I can point things out to him too. In fact, we never stop talking! :) It also means it's easy for me to give him snacks / meals in it (which I do a lot) as having to either keep stopping to hand him the next bit of food, or trust him with a potful of something would be a right nuisance.

He sometimes leans round the side to see things behind him, but that's fine as I never strap him in, and the Teutonia is easy to steer so he can see the occasional lorry/whatever more easily.

We've got the Britax 2-way elite car seat too, and DS really likes it - very comfy and he enjoys looking out of the rear window.

Thanks for replying! Angeldog, have you taken you Teutonia off road much? Is it too much to hope for that you've taken it on a beach and can post an exhaustive review?

I'm afraid that would be too much to hope for.

I've never been to the beach, but it depends what you mean by off road. I've taken it across (bumpy) grass fields and so on without any problems. (DS used only to sleep in it if he was being jolted within an inch of his life.) We do a lot of trips down a disused railway line which is part tarmac, part track/mud/random surfaces. I've not had any problems with that.

Obviously it's harder work on difficult terrain. I rarely bother locking the front wheel in position though, and I reckon having that fixed would make bumpy surfaces easier to negotiate.

One advantage of the wheels IMO is the air-filled foam tyres. From what friends with other pushchairs tell me, air-filled tyres are much better than solid ones, but punctures are often an issue with normal tyres. I don't know how unique this is to Teutonia, though.

On less than a handful of occasions I've had problems with tipping - usually when going down a steep hill with a very steep sideways camber too, and with heavy bags swinging off the handlebars and/or back of the pushchair. I think that's just a function of a 3-wheeler though.

Looking at the instructions one day, I realised that at least once or twice a week I load the basket to more than double its recommended carrying weight. I do all my shopping on foot.

You'll probably find you need to buy a raincover after a bit as the one that comes with it is a bit cheap & nasty (ours tore after about 10 months). I got an 'apron' to go over the seat too, which has been useful.

I do find it annoying trying to put stuff in the basket when it's reclined flat. It'd also be better if you could remove the insect netting completely in the winter, and I occasionally have problems with the brake sticking, although that seems to have improved. One of the clips that made it easier to add/remove the carrycot broke but we had the whole chassis replaced under guarantee.

If you do decide to get one, I'd really recommend getting one with a handbrake if you can. I nearly didn't, but it's been brilliant for slowing it down on steep hills (and there are plenty of them near me).

HTH

Thanks so much! That's as much as I could know without actually seeing one, really helpful.

We had a Jane Powertrack, back when everyone had one and with the matrix there was the option to have a pram and be rear-facing for up to 6 months. However, I had a rather unsocial son and he started to hang out of the pram at 5 months. He was desperate to see the cars and buses and not interested in me in the slightest, so we changed him to front facing and he was more than happy.
Having said that I think I would have liked the option to have rear facing though, for when the occasion called for it, perhaps in a busy street.