Forward Facing Yet??

[Unregistered]

I just purchased a Britax Boulevard convertible carseat and I had it installed by a trooper that was certified in car seats. I was under the impression if he was more than 20 pounds his car seat could be forward facing. The state trooper told me that my son needs to be 20 pounds and at least 1 yr in order to be FF. I've heard from so many people that its 20 pounds only!!! He is very tall and his feet hit the back seat-isn't that dangerous?? Please let me know what I should do. I'm a first time mom and this is all new to me. Thanks so much for any input and any help you can give me. Lisa

[wendytthomas]

The trooper is right. It's 20 pounds AND one year at a BARE minimum. His feet hitting the seat are not a problem at all. They'll bend a lot better than his neck will in case of an accident. If you can keep him rear facing to the WEIGHT limit of the seat (so 33 pounds I believe) then that'll be best. The reason being that his neck muscles can move about two inches until he's four years old or so, but his spinal column can only move a half inch. (so that means his head can move 1.5 inches beyond a fatal or at least a paralyzed point). Until he's four he'd ideally be rearfacing. Unfortunately a lot of US seats don't go that high on weight limits (the country with the lowest child mortality due to car crashes, Sweden, has seats that go to 50 pounds or so rearfacing), so we need to turn earlier. Then there are those like me who caved and turned their kid at 2.5 years old even though she still had about 10 pounds to the rearfacing limit.

Check out this link. http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/StayRearFacing.aspx Be sure to check out the album of older kids for my cutie Piper!!!

Wendy

[skaterbabscpst]

My Joyjoy is also in the extended RF album. She was *just* turned FF last week, and we actually thought for a little while we'd have to import a Swedish seat for her because she screamed every time she had to ride FF. She's 2 1/2.

There is a myth that in a crash the child's "legs might break" - this is false. Any crash strong enough to break a RF child's legs is enough to snap a FF child's neck, and muscle strength has NOTHING to do with it. Besides - broken legs can be fixed. We can't fix a broken spinal column.

[papooses]

Click here (http://car-seat.org/showthread.php?p=32831#poststop) to read a recent post of mine explaining the importance of extended rear-facing, including links with crash video & a picture of my daughter, etc. :)

[Unregistered]

My dd is 4 1/2 and is rf. She enjoys being able to cross her legs or prop them up on the seatback. Rf IS safer and the longer rf the better. He may go through a phase of kicking the seatback but it is more a develpmental 'I wanna move' stage than a 'my legs don't have enough room' stage :) Plus it's FUN to kick!
C.

[papooses]

C. you reminded me of 2 other fabulous reasons to RF: kiddo can't kick MY seat kiddo can't throw snack foods in my hair:D :p

[skaterbabscpst]

Here's a third: Can't backseat drive. lol Joyjoy keeps yelling "Watch out mommom!" now. :p

[Unregistered]

I remember older dd doing that! 'Watch out for the car, watch out for the tree, watch out for the building'....it went on and on for everything she saw!
Now she checks to make sure I'm doing the speed limit :)
C.

[skaterbabscpst]

Yeah, it gets annoying pretty quickly. LOL

[Dillipop]

DS does more of the "GO, GO, GO" and "move out of the way, car." Hasn't gotten into telling me what to do, just the other cars on the road.

[skaterbabscpst]

With Joyjoy I think it's because now she can see things coming towards us. lol

[Michi]

My DD prefers to RF because then she can see her two older sibs in the back seat. (They help keep her entertained.) I think she would be sad if she couldn't see them anymore.

[papooses]

Yeah -- how could I forget that one ... Leila's constantly telling me to STOP for the red lights -- about 5 blocks in advance, LOL!

[skaterbabscpst]

Joyjoy hasn't figured that one out yet, but I'm sure it will come. LOL

[papooses]

I made the mistake of teaching her what the red & green lights meant, LOL :p

Anyway -- another reason my DD loved RF: her legs go numb dangling FF ... which then causes her back to ache :( (I sometimes wonder how often this happens to kids who are too young to tell us :confused:)

[skaterbabscpst]

Good point! I'm just glad she doesn't scream FF any more.

[joolsplus3]

I just purchased a Britax Boulevard convertible carseat and I had it installed by a trooper that was certified in car seats. I was under the impression if he was more than 20 pounds his car seat could be forward facing. The state trooper told me that my son needs to be 20 pounds and at least 1 yr in order to be FF. I've heard from so many people that its 20 pounds only!!! He is very tall and his feet hit the back seat-isn't that dangerous?? Please let me know what I should do. I'm a first time mom and this is all new to me. Thanks so much for any input and any help you can give me. Lisa

It *used* to be 20 pounds because that was the highest weight any seat went to rearfacing...so there was just no choice. Now, though, we have done a lot more research and know a lot more and your seat goes to 33 pounds rearfacing (the AAP recommends seats be developed to go to 45 pounds rearfacing...I guess they don't like seeing little babies with broken necks and heads because they are turned FF too young....).

Go read some of the links that others have posted...you will seriously never want your child to face forward once you do (and my own DD rearfaced till she was 4.5 because she wasn't 33 pounds till then...she cried when she had to face forward :( )

[SamPacey&Joshua]

My son is almost is almost 18 months, is 25 lbs. and 31 in. tall, and is still rear-facing. His feet touch the seatback, but it doesn't seem to bother him at all. I plan to keep him rear-facing until he is at least 2 years old and the same goes for his little brother.