How do I manage Forward Facing without being able to dangle legs?

Our DD is 16 months old and has low tone (which is improving) and a circulation disorder. She looses blood flow very frequently espcailly to her hands and legs but her entire body is affected. She is rear facing for now but what do we do in a year or two when she outgrows her seat? She CAN NOT dangle her feet - I can't carry her on my hip, in the stroller she has to use it like a baby with the foot rest up. Do they make carseats with leg supports or verticle foot rests? Is it safe to put something in the spot where her feet should so that she can rest her legs on it - a foam block maybe? What do other people do?

There are special-needs car seats with leg/foot rests available, but they are usually down below.

The best option is to rear-face her as long as possible. 2 is a minimum, not a maximum, as you seem to know; many children can rear-face to between 4-6 depending on their size in seats now available. What seat is she in now? If it's not one of the longest-lasting ones rear-facing, maybe we can recommend a few for you to start saving for to rear-face longer. How big is she (torso and weight?) Those factors will determine how long she can rear-face.

Once she has outgrown rear-facing, there may be solutions other than special needs seats (which are expensive, and often you only can get insurance to pay for one, so you want to max out conventional seats first, especially for a child who will need harnessing for as long as possible for support reasons.) One idea is building up a support platform, like we do for kids with broken legs etc. that need support. Another similar idea (often used in the same situation) is to use an exercise ball that is not fully inflated, so it holds up the child's leg(s) and is inflated to the desired level of support. Another idea, a beanbag chair. Etc.

Basically, anything that can be used to support the legs and is lightweight enough that it's not going to harm any occupants if it hits them in a crash will be fine. However, as I said, rear-facing as long as possible is the first choice, so just keep going with that for now.

First of all, thank you for planning to RF her until she is at least close to three, and hopefully more! That's an excellent plan for any child, but even more important with her special medical needs.

In terms of when you turn her, you can create a safe footrest for FF children in a couple different ways. You can fill the footwell in front of her seat with pillows or blocks of foam to build it up to a level where her feet can comfortably rest. You can cover the stack with a towel that can be slipped off easily for washing if needed.

Alternately, you can create a footrest with a section of hollow pool noodle and some rope, and attach that to her car seat through the RF belt path. So you'd cut a section of pool noodle about the width of her car seat, thread the rope through the hole in the center, and then thread the rope through the RF belt path and tie it at a length that is comfortable for her feet to rest on. If you leave a bit of excess rope, you can adjust it as she grows. Make sure you use a rope that is thick enough or soft enough to prevent it from cutting through the pool noodle.

This is a big purchase, but one option for once she gets too big to extend her legs in your current vehicle (runs into the front seat) is the 2011 Toyota Sienna It has footrests built into their captain's chairs like a recliner. You will still have to put a pillow or something to accommodate the height difference between the vehicle seat and the whatever car seat she is in at that time, but I'm assuming that there is a lot of space available to make this concept a part of the van's features. You could also look at the Chrysler vans that have the swivel chairs. There is tons of leg room when they are faced backwards and you could build a platform for her legs.

Along those same lines, but cheaper, any van with removeable captain's chairs with one captain's chair removed can provide plenty of space to accomodate stretched-out legs. Or the rear outboard seating position in a van with a center bench, in some cases.

ketchupqueen said:

Along those same lines, but cheaper, any van with removeable captain's chairs with one captain's chair removed can provide plenty of space to accomodate stretched-out legs. Or the rear outboard seating position in a van with a center bench, in some cases.

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True, but I'm not sure that would work for loading a low-tone child.

I'm thinking it's no worse than the swivel seats reversed option. Possibly easier.

ketchupqueen said:

I'm thinking it's no worse than the swivel seats reversed option. Possibly easier.

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A friend from church has a van with swivel seats and it is super easy to load because the seat is fully exposed and closer to the door when it is swiveled. She has a ffing seat installed with LATCH and actually swivels it rfing to load her 3 yo when he isn't cooperating because it is so much easier.

Also, I think I'm picturing my Oddy 3rd row, which is about 18 inches back behind the door opening. I can't even reach from the door to the back row with my feet on the ground to buckle a ffing child. Maybe other vans have a 3rd row closer to the door?

We removed a seat from the Sienna we rented to load Bridget when she had her broken leg/non weight bearing restriction. It was back there but not any worse than loading any other kid back there, really; she had to be lifted all the way in and it wasn't horrible. Assistive devices for loading might be useful, of course, but at the point those become needed, the second row wouldn't work with leg room anyway in most vehicles.