What happens if you keep a child in rear facing car seat past the weight limit?

B

bot

Guest
Hi,
My husband asked me this question now that our son is approaching the rear-facing weight limit for his car seats.
So, I looked it up on-line, and especially on this site, and I can't find an answer.

If rear facing is best, why can't we leave our son in his seat, rear-facing, up to the seat's top (front facing) weight limit? What is the risk, exactly, of him being rear-facing and above the rear-facing weight limit? The back of the car sear is smooshed against the front seat, so it can't be that he'll fall backwards.

What am I missing here?

Thanks for your help in answering this question!
-B.
 
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joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Hi! Welcome to the board :).

Well, what's likely is that your front seat will move forward a good distance as you crash, and the bracing you have will be undone, allowing the child to dump well back and risking their head flying out or excessive force on the shoulders... check out this little blurb in this link with pictures...you can see even the rear seatback flies forward in the crash, so would a front seat... http://www.carseat.org/Technical/tech_update.htm#angleRF

I was looking for a youtube video, but can't seem to find a good one...
 

carseatcoach

Carseat Crankypants
How old is your child and how much does he weigh? What seat is he outgrowing? There are now carseats with 45# RFing limits.

ETA that besides Julie's excellent explanation, the forces on a carseat are different RFing than FFing. It may be that the carseat will simply fail RFing over the limit, but be just fine FFing at the same weight.
 

Pixels

New member
The forces on a seat are very different FFing vs RFing. According to Sunshine Kids (makers of the Radian and Monterey), a RFing 40 pound child puts about the same strain on the seat as a FFing 65 pound child.*

*I think those are the numbers. I'm going from memory, the numbers may be wrong, but the gist is right.
 
Julie gave you a great link. I wanted to lay out a little scenerio that might help you visually/physically think of the posibilities as well.

Have you ever watched a weight lifter? When they lift their max weight they do ok, sure they make shake & tremble a little but they succeed safely. If you add an extra couple pounds or more what happens? Their arms &/or legs buckle & they & the weights slam to the ground.

So, as chickabiddy said, the seat obviously passes the crash test standards to the weight listed on the seat, but add extra weight to the equation & your looking at possible catastrophic failure of the seat & either horrible injury or worse, death to your child.
 

4boysmom

New member
I am also thinking that being over weight could, in theory, "break the seat in two"- the forces are just so different and the seat back in a ffing seat adds to its stability, similarly why the Apex I think it is requires headrests to support it perhaps???
 

Jennifer mom to my 7

Well-known member
I also want to add, that are you sure your vehicle and the child restraint allow for the seat to brace against the front seat? Many newer vehicles do NOT allow this because of advanced air bags, and many restraints only allowing touching, not forcefully bracing.

If you tell the lovely technicians here what vehicle (make model and year) and what restraint, they can usually tell you if it is allowed in your situation.
 

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