Anyone gone back to rf after ff?

[sunnygir1]

The more research I do, the more I want to buy a radian and rf my dd who is 3y8m. She is currently ff in a harnessed hbb. (I kept her rf to the 30# limit of her convertible.)

I am not one to negotiate on safety rules, but I've brought it up to her and she is really unhappy about the idea.

Any experience or ideas to help make it a peaceful transition? Obviously once I get it installed it will be, "ride in that seat or stay home." Maybe some kind of really exciting activity for only in the car in her new seat?

[jillmamma]

Have you shown her any of the covers on the Radians (I am assuming you would get an R80 or XTSL as those RF to 45 lb)? Would she be more likely to go for it for a cool "girly" cover? How long to you plan to keep her RF this time? Maybe get her a mirror so that she can still see things that are in front of you? My older DD was RF till age 4y3m in her Britax Decathlon (tiny kid, 33 lb RF limit), and probably could have continued till age 5 in it, but we needed to do 3 across the back, and I could get a better fit with her FF. I still don't quite feel comfortable with her in a booster yet as she is wiggly and still only 32 lb (would feel better when she is closer to 40), but I imagine somewhere around age 6ish I will be okay with it.

[mamadelbosque]

I flipped my ds1 at ~16 months to ffing to get him to stop screaming... and later flilpped him back RFing about a year later ~28/29 months. He was rfing up till just shy of a month ago when he broke his leg and simply does not fit rfing. I don't think I'd get a new seat for a nearly 4 yr old, but thats me.

[sunnygir1]

Originally Posted by mamadelbosque

I flipped my ds1 at ~16 months to ffing to get him to stop screaming... and later flilpped him back RFing about a year later ~28/29 months. He was rfing up till just shy of a month ago when he broke his leg and simply does not fit rfing. I don't think I'd get a new seat for a nearly 4 yr old, but thats me.

Well, I wouldn't be just getting the seat for her. She was 3 or so by the time she outgrew her convertible rf, but ds (13m) is a lot bigger than she was, so I expect that he will outgrow it before 3. I won't want him ff that early, so I thought if I get a radian now I can use it for dd for maybe a year, and then put her ff and put ds in the radian when he's too big for the convertible he's in now.

I wouldn't want to spend the $ on a new seat to rf her at this age, and I wouldn't want to add the extra plastic to the landfill in the future, but since I would be using it for 2 kids it makes more sense.

[an_aurora]

I would and have. I turned my younger DD FF at 3 because she was unhappy and getting out of the harness. I turned her back RF around 3.5 and now she loves it again. I would just approach it as "hey let's try this for one trip and see how you like it". A new seat would undoubtedly help.

[Eresh]

I turned DS1 back to RF a little before 2.5yrs after he'd been FF for almost a year. He was not resistant at all and really enjoys the mirror and looking out the back window. I did end up buying a new seat (a CA) to RF him longer. He's just shy of 30lbs right now so I expect the new seat to RF him to at least 3.5 yrs and probably more like 4 yrs then I can also use it to ERF DS2.

At almost 4 yrs, I'm not sure I would switch a child back to RF if she were resistant to the idea but, at least right now, I would be happy with RF until 4yrs. But if you're planning on buying a new Radian at some point anyhow, a cute girly cover is certainly worth a try to overcome her resistance.

ETA: And definitely get as big of a mirror as you can find for the seat back in front of her. Not sure if it goes for all toddlers, but DS1 is such a narcissist!

[OkiMom]

We are looking at vans right now and when we get one we will be turning our almost 2 year old back around (our car right now has very poor ventilation and she was passing out from the heat being rear facing). Honestly Im not expecting a fight from her, she wants to "look back" as she puts it and its easier for her sister and her to play with each other when one is rear facing. My only concern is what trouble they will cause on trips when I cant see both of them. As it is they like to hide things on us (like the eggs that we put on the back seat, eggs after a few days in hot weather really really stink just so you know). They will both be in the very rear seat of the van, leaving the front seat open for the new baby, so Im hoping they don't cause to many troubles back there.. At least they won't be next to the baby, my oldest is already asking when she can feed him pizza.

[Katie T]

I originally turned my ds ff at 2yo because I didn't know about extended rfing. A month later I turned him rfing again and he rfed till he was 3.6yo. He is 4.2 now still asks to get turned rfing like his sister but he is too heavy for it.

If I had the money and would be needing another car seat anyways I would get one with a higher rfing limit and turn him rfing again (since he wants to anyways) and then pass it down to dd2.