Is she outgrowing the Roundabout rear or forward facing?
Rear facing - if head has less than an inch of hard shell above head, or the rear facing weight limit is met - 33 lbs.
Forward facing - if harness is not at or above the shoulder, or if weight limit is met - 40 lbs, or tips of ears go above the shell.
Are you familiar with the safety benefits of rear facing to the limit of the seat, rather than 1 year and 20 lbs?
Here's some info to get you started! If you know all about it, just disregard.
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/stayrearfacing.aspx
MSN Article “Child Car Seat Advice Questioned”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9916868/
You Tube Video “Benefits of Keeping Baby Rear-facing”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kRP7ynNI8mI
“Why Rear-Facing is Safest” A fairly comprehensive article from Car-Safety.org
http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html
Rear Facing Seats – Yet another fairly comprehensive article for thecarseatlady.com
http://www.thecarseatlady.com/car_seats/rear-facing_seats.html
Pictures of How a Child’s Spine Developshttp://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=13&topic_id=44503&mode=full&page
AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) Policy
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;109/3/550
Highlight of the policy - for optimal protection, the child should remain rear facing until reaching the maximum weight for the car safety seat, as long as the top of the head is below the top of the seat back
Why RF is Safest Even in Rear End Collisions
One Family’s Story of Being Rear-Ended While at a Stop by a Car Traveling at 60-65mph
http://myangelsaliandpeanut.tripod.com/id5.html
A childs' vertabrae do not fully fuse until 3-6 years old. Before then, he/she is at great risk for spinal injury. When rear-facing in a crash, the forces are spread out among the strong carseat shell and baby's strong back. The harness holds baby down in the seat and he/she is cradled and protected. When forward-facing, the harness holds babys' body back, and his/her head flies forward violenty, putting tremendous stress on the neck.
Here's the catch...the spinal column can stretch up to 2 inches, BUT the spinal cord can only stretch up to 1/4 of an inch before it snaps and baby is gone. This is referred to as internal decapitation. Babys' head will be slumped over like he/she is sleeping.
It's very important to keep babies rear-facing to 1 year AND 20 lbs. (both, not either/or) at the very least. It's actually much safer to rear-face to the limits of a convertible carseat, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. A forward-facing child is 4-5 times MORE likely to be killed or seriously injured in a crash than a rear-facing child of the same age...not a risk I'll be taking with my babies.
Check out this video for some great information and crash test footage...you'll see the HUGE difference:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kRP7ynNI8mI
And this one has lots of pictures of older rear-facing kiddos: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psmUWg7QrC8"]YouTube- The Importance of Rear-Facing: Version 2[/ame]
And here’s another great link:
http://www.childrestraintsafety.com/rear-facing.html
Portions written by Sam-Pacey-&-Joshua, compiled by Trisha (mamato3monkeys) and submitted by Dia (May04 Feb06)
European study showing that rear-facing is better through age 4:
http://www.anec.eu/attachmen