Super Duper Extended Rear Facing Question

stiggygirl · Mar 22, 2012

My almost 4 yo (41", 35ish+ lbs) has expressed interest (insert her begging and pleading with me on a daily basis) in riding rear-facing like her little sister. I assumed this was the safest way to ride so it would be okay, but there is a weight limit cut off for rear-facing in most seats, right? We are in the market for a new seat anyway since a couple of our seats are expiring (we were thinking Diono), are there any seats our there that allow older children to rear face too??? We currently have her in Britax Frontier in both cars, but have a spare Marathon we could switch her too IF it is safe to do so?? Thank you in advance for help and ideas!

stiggygirl · Mar 22, 2012

It appears there are 2 different Marathons on the Britax website- the "Classic" and the "Next Generation" and I would have to say we own the Classic (purchased new in 2008), which indicates a RF weight limit of 35lbs. She hasn't been weighed for several months, but she was 35lbs at last check up. Can she ride RF in this seat until I purchase a new one?

CrunchyMaineMama · Mar 22, 2012

If she is 35lbs then, no she cannot ride in the Marathon with a 35lb RFing limit. It is unlikely she would fit height-wise anyway. There are seats that can accommodate older children rearfacing that have taller shells and 40-45lbs weight limits.
If you are serious about turning her back and willing to buy a new seat (which is great BTW!) I would look into a Diono Radian R120 or RXT.
At her age and size though she is safe forward facing in an appropriate seat.

ETA: The picture in my siggy shows my 39" 35lb 4 year old in an RXT.

skylinphoto · Mar 22, 2012

If she is over the weight limit it would not be safe for her to ride in that seat.

While I am quite pro erf (I just turned my 4 yr old ffing for the first time this week), I would express that she is quite safe ffing and leave her ffing. That is, unless you end up with the diono (id get one that goes to 45lbs rfing) or another tall, high weight rfing seat.

Also, remember that they have to have at least an inch of shell over their head when rfing..as well as being under the weight limit.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Car-Seat.Org

msg221 · Mar 22, 2012

If you wanted to rear face your 4 year old again, I'd go with the Diono since it has a 45 lb. RF limit.

The "Next Generation" Britax seats have a RF limit of 40 lbs. now, however they don't have very tall shells, so it could be that your DD won't fit by height any longer.

Finally, I would not recommend putting her RF in your current Britax if she already exceeds the weight limit, especially since it's not a necessity since you have seats the do fit her.

stiggygirl · Mar 22, 2012

All right, so it is looking like purchasing a Diono is the way to go. Of course, secretly the answer I was looking for! We had been discussing it anyway, just not for this daughter! But our oldest can use it until the other ones needs it (younger ones seat in Daddy's car expires next year) and we'll have a great seat for traveling to boot.
Thank you everybody!!! I, of course, installed the Marathon for her today PRIOR to seeking advice, so now off to get the Frontier back in there!

lovemy2kidstw · Mar 22, 2012

CrunchyMaineMama said:
If she is 35lbs then, no she cannot ride in the Marathon with a 35lb RFing limit. It is unlikely she would fit height-wise anyway. There are seats that can accommodate older children rearfacing that have taller shells and 40-45lbs weight limits.
If you are serious about turning her back and willing to buy a new seat (which is great BTW!) I would look into a Diono Radian R120 or RXT.
At her age and size though she is safe forward facing in an appropriate seat.

ETA: The picture in my siggy shows my 39" 35lb 4 year old in an RXT.

Check your seat because some of the classic MA's only have a RF limit of 33 lbs. The one I had that expired in Jan was like that

KaiLing · Mar 22, 2012

My 42" 43lbs 3 year old is RF in a Diono Radian. If you want her RF, I'd go for that.

stiggygirl · Mar 22, 2012

KaiLing said:
My 42" 43lbs 3 year old is RF in a Diono Radian. If you want her RF, I'd go for that.

Great! Thank you!! And happy to see somebody with a taller 3 yo than mine rear facing! That is great and we'll copy you for sure

mkmama · Mar 23, 2012

You're doing the same thing I did two years ago...my then almost-5-year-old was having jealousy issues after the arrival of our third child, and was very upset that everyone got to "ride backwards" other than him. So since we knew we'd eventually need a Radian for DS2 for the weight limit, we went ahead and bought one then and let him rear-face in it until he outgrew it at about 5 years 2 months by height (so he rode RF'ing for about 4 months total). He was not happy when he eventually outgrew it RF'ing and had to go back FF'ing (and he's also not happy now at 7 that he has outgrown all harnessed seats and has to use a booster full time) and would ask for months afterwards if we could turn it backwards again LOL.

Super Duper Extended Rear Facing Question

stiggygirl

New member

stiggygirl

New member

CrunchyMaineMama

Senior Community Member

skylinphoto

New member

msg221

Well-known member

stiggygirl

New member

lovemy2kidstw

New member

KaiLing

New member

stiggygirl

New member

mkmama

Active member

Car-Seat.Org Facebook Group

Sponsors

Forum statistics