Child seat question…

Oldest is 15 and was forward facing at 10 months, middle is 11 and forward faced at 15 months, and my 20 month old is still rear facing and will be until at least 30 months

I have no plans to forward face my NYE baby any time soon. While she meets the minimum requirements for her car seat to forward face, to the best of my knowledge, it is illegal in my state to forward face before age 2. Even if it was legal to forward face her before age 2, I know it is scientifically safest to rear face until one of the rear facing limits is maxed out. My 4.5 yo is still rear facing in my husband's car and still would be in my car as well if I hadn't bought a new car and needed a new car seat for her, but she was rear facing until after she turned 4 in all cars.

My son is 20 months and in the 96th percentile for height, I turned him forward a few weeks ago. I used like 3 different methods to secure the seat so it doesn’t budge an inch lol. I had a lot of anxiety doing so, but he seems much more comfortable

We're going to max out the limits.

@Brianna your manual allows that? I'd double check because only 3 car seats on our market allow lower latch and seatbelt.

@Chrissy I was going to say the same thing. @Brianna also double check the laws as I believe it's a nation wide law that children under 2 have to rear face.

@Stephanie sadly a lot of states only have a 1 year requirement or none at all. It’s sad and scary!

@Jazzmyne thanks for the info and I agree, that's very scary. Looking back I can't believe I turned my oldest around when I did. My middle child had to be forward facing due to only having a seat belt in my vehicle and it's almost impossible to properly secure a convertible seat rear facing.

@Stephanie Honesty I thought it was a 2 Year minimum too until someone told me but you shouldn’t feel bad you did the best with the knowledge that you had at the time! I think Extended rear facing just recently got the push it has in the last few years as well.

@Jazzmyne thank you. It used to be thought that once their feet touched the back of the seat it was time to forward face

Wow thanks everyone for the info! I was def hesitant to turn him around anyway, so I think it may be best to wait a little longer

@Brianna trust your gut! Rear facing is safer and honesty more comfortable for them as they have a place to put their legs. And then you can still sneak snacks while you're driving 🤣

My cousin is an EMT and her daughter just turned 3 and still isn’t forward facing. If that tells you something

My oldest will be 4 in February and he’s still rear facing. My Jan ‘23 girl will remain RF until she’s 4 too.

We did around turning 2.

I don’t forward face before 2 even when they meet the height requirements. In my mind, what’s the rush?

@Brianna definitely up to whatever works for yall. We switched at 2 and that was better for us since we had another baby and my husband is tall. So we needed to do that in some cars to be able to fit eveything. And definitely make sure to google your car seat or something since usually it says to only secure it one way

My kid will remain rare facing for as long as possible. The longer, the better.

5.5 years for our first until we turned her forward. She has been in the 95th percentile for height her whole life. As long as they are within both the height and weight limits for their seats, they can stay rear facing which is safest. Leg room doesn’t matter.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKNcfldMYVf/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== From a CPST.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DAmqLrmKZ2I/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

@Stephanie don’t beat yourself up about FF when u did. There was a time when babies had no car seats and we were hanging on with hopes and dreams 😂😂

@Brianna are you using more than one method to secure the seat. That can actually be very dangerous and cause the seat to malfunction in an accident. Here is info explained by a CPST. https://www.instagram.com/p/DAY_b1XRdn1/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Also, in most states forward facing before 2 is illegal, but laws are not always the safest. It’s best practice and safest to RF for as long as the child is within the height and weight limits for their seat.

@Chanel no I realize now that I worded it poorly, I just meant that I tried a bunch of different ways to find what was most secure. I use the lower anchors. Thank you for providing so many great resources!

@Chrissy same!

Still rear facing at 36” and 32 lbs

My 1st was just over 3 years old. I would have liked it to be longer but my husband put the carseat back in when I was in the hospital with our 2nd an he said it was the easiest and quickest to do at the time. We wanted to switch sides.

We will rear face until we max out the height and/or weight limits for rear facing. We have the Graco Extend2Fit which has higher rear facing limits, and our son is smaller so at this rate he will probably not face forward until he's 4 and I'm fine with that. A police officer I know told me to rear face as long as possible, then keep him in his regular car seat as long as possible, then a booster, etc. Basically, keep any extra safety precaution you can for as long as safely possible.

@Brianna Be aware that the lower anchors have weight limits. Check your car seat manual for what they are

If you are on Instagram please follow safeintheseat. She's amazing and gives lots of tips. But I would max out the seat requirements before moving FF.

lol mine is too . I’m going to leave him that way til I absolutely need to move him as it is safer .