Rear facing in car seat?

[haurelia]

Hi all!
I'm new to this forum...my son just turned 1 last week.
I'm wondering what folks tend to do with their LOs in the car seat at this stage. I have friends and family who have kept them rear facing until the seat weight limit forces them to face forward, and some who've turned their kid forward facing as soon as they can.
I'm reading lots to support keeping the seat rear-facing as long as possible.
What do you think?
Thanks, and happy new year!

[sapphire_chan]

Pretty much that. I've got one of the 35-lb rearfacing seats and a pretty light dd so I don't think I'll end up getting one of the new 40lb seats, but with a larger child I'd probably plan on needing to get an extra seat.

Right now, my plan is to have her RF to the limit of her seat, which should take her past 3, and then FF to the limit or the seat's expiration. Followed by a combination seat which should take her to being able to wear a seat belt alone.

There are people who say they'll buy as many seats as they need to keep their child RF to age 4 at a minimum, but while the physiology and physics suggest that is good, the crash statistics don't really show that much of a benefit. I won't turn her at 4 if her seat still works RF, but I won't feel it necessary to buy a new seat to keep her RF.

[JBaxter]

we are rearfacing to the full limit here. 1 yr and 20lb is the MINIMUM... I choose to do much more than the minimum for my baby

[serenbat]

In PA they have their own laws, you might want to check what your states allows.

[jessaroo]

I have also read that for safety it is best for children to stay rearfacing until 2 years.

I have a small car and a big baby. He is almost to the limit where I need to turn it around and he just turned 1 last week-bummer. A bigger carseat will not fit.

[bandgeek]

DD is still rear-facing at 2 years 3 months and will probably fit rear-facing until she's 4 in the seat we have now. I may turn her if it gets too hard to load and unload her (she has CP and is non-mobile so it's a specific issue, not one most kids will face) but for now it's fine. It's way safer to rear-face. It's awesome that you already know people that rear-face past the minimums! It seems like it's becoming more common thankfully. I'd encourage you to continue to rear-face, obviously.

[sapphire_chan]

Jessaroo, ask in the Safety forum, the small car/large child problem is pretty common and I know there are some less expensive seats that can handle that scenario.

He must be huge to be near 30lbs at one year, but pretty much any newer convertible seat should give you another 5 to 15lbs. If he's outgrowing it by height, are you going by the 1" of hard shell above his head or by his length measurement? The length measurement isn't really an accurate measure of how well a child fits into the seat, but manufacturers still put that into the manuals (as well as BS about needing to switch to FF if the child's feet touch the back of the car's seat ).

[haurelia]

Thanks all!
I had always planned to keep him RF as long as possible (a friend who uses the same pedi as us told me that the MD told her to keep her daughter RF until she began menstruating! )
Over supper tonight, I told DH that we were keeping our kid RF until 35 lbs, and his main concern was the baby's legs touching the seat back (which they do already). Our 1 year old is 32 inches tall and around 25 lbs now. His feet have touched the seat back for ages, but I think DH is more worried about when he gets longer legs/taller, like, do kids sit cross-legged once they're that big and still RF?
Thanks again.

[pbjmama]

It is okay for their legs to touch. They bend their knees, cross legs, whatever is comfortable for them. In some cases this could lead to an injury during an accident but better a leg injury than a head injury. It can be a pain, my dd presses her feet against the back of the seat to keep her butt out of the car seat but it isn't up for negotiation so she ends up getting buckled in every time My ds was rf to 18 months, 32 lbs so I never had that problem with him.

[jocelyndale]

I've read that there actually aren't any documented cases of broken legs while RF, but there are cases of broken limbs and internal decapitation while forward facing. This is a very serious safety issue and the fact that so many parents see 12mo/20lbs as a rite of passage is a bad thing.

The law in most states is a minimum--one year and 20 or 22 lbs. That's just a minimum and it was made when very few seats were manufactured which went beyond that. The AAP recently revised their recommendations to sticking with the maximum limits of the seat or--at the least--until the age of two. Again, the two thing is a minimum.

There are seats which RF to 40-45lbs now, so the laws will hopefully start to change with new recommendations (and some time).

Here's my son. He's in a Britax Boulevard, which likely has the least legroom of the cushy convertibles. As you can see, he's quite comfy. He'll be three in about three months. He's taller than your son by a few inches, but might weigh less.