Question extended rear-facing

I currently have an Evenflo Symphony 65 LX which my 17 month old happily rear-faces in and I plan to keep her rear-facing until she out grows her seat. My question is, when did your LO reach the rear-facing limit for his/her seat? Did they reach the height limit or the weight limit first? If they haven't reached the limits yet, how old are they and how close to the limits are they? My DD is fairly petite so I have a feeling that it'll be a while before she is anywhere near the limits but I'm just trying to get an idea here.

Also, her father has recently started taking her for visitation. As of right now he has to do what I say as per the court order because his visitation with her is supervised, however, when they come to get her he always gives me an attitude when I ask and check to make sure that the car seat is rear facing before they leave with her. My concern at this point is for if/when it reaches a point where the judge orders for regular visitation instead of supervised. I've tried talking to him about the benefits of leaving her rear-facing and the risks involved if she is put forward facing too soon but he doesn't want to listen to any of it because they put his son forward facing very early (before a year even) and they never had a problem with it. How can I bring the subject up in a way that he will actually listen to me and understand why it's so important for her to remain rear-facing for as long as possible?

The Symphony is not tall rear facing, since only the bottom two headrest positions can be used rear facing. So most kids outgrow that seat by height, and often between 18 months and three years. Other seats are outgrown by weight first. But many are height.

Have her father do research of his own. When he has proven to the court that forward facing is safer, then he can switch her forward. Would that work?

Wendy

All you can do is talk to him. And make sure he has information to back up what you are saying. But As a parent, He has the right to make up his choices about his child if he gets regular visitation, Maybe you can petition the court to make car seat safety guidelines part of it?

If he ever gets unsupervised visitation, I imagine you'd have to go to court again to work that out right? I would request that it be put in writing in your agreement that he has to keep the child rear facing until at LEAST 2 years, which is the minimum recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Hopefully you can convince him to do it longer though!!


As for when they outgrow it, it kind of depends on the seat and the child. Certain seats we have were outgrown at around 3 to 3.5 years old, others last longer. If your child isn't unusually large I would think you could get at least to 3 if not longer in your current seat.

I don't think there is a lot you can do other than encourage him to keep her rf longer. She is his child as much as yours and he has the right to make that choice for her. Unfortunately. I would think that the court system wouldn't get evolved unless he were to break the law, and even then I don't know what they could/would and if she is over a year old and 20 lbs than turning her ff is legal. Do what you want in your car, but it goes both way. Good luck. As for outgrowing a seat, it just depends. My daughter is almost 5 and has just met the 35 lb weight limit on a true fit. She still has some room height wise, but at 34 lbs, I consider it outgrown. My kids usually meet height limits first though, as they are light weights.

It depends on the seat. I have a 3 year old daycare child who outgrew the Myride by height before weight. However, my 3.5 year old son just outgrew our Avenues, Sceneras, and 35 pound Radian by weight rather than height.

When you go back to court to revise your custody/visitation/parenting plan, put a clause in that your child must rearface until ______ years old. Put whatever your personal minimum is. Your ex can choose to agree with the parenting plan or he can choose to counter. He might just be glad to be getting unsupervised visits that he will just agree to something minor that doesn't really matter to him very much. When my husband first went to court, he and his ex couldn't agree on a custody schedule/parenting plan. The guardian ad litem made a recommendation and my husband and his ex settled on that because typically the judge goes with that recommendation, so there wasn't much point to take it in front of a judge. Maybe if you have that in your plan, if you have a mediator or GAL, they will keep that in there and then your ex will just settle on that.

:yeahthatlove:

If you deal with a mediator, they can put just about anything you want in the paperwork. If your ex signs it and the court approves it, it is enforcable. (mine has that ex MUST abide by Dr orders or medication, as he refused to give my son his medication in the past)

My DS would have just recently outgrown his first seat RF. He just turned 4 a couple weeks ago. He had a True Fit Premier- RF weight limit of 35lbs. He would've been nowhere near the height limit. At his 4yr appt last week he was 35lbs on the dot and 40 inches. I turned him FF at 3 so we could pass his seat down to my sister/nephew who couldn't afford a new one. He was 30lbs then so we just got a Frontier 85 since I wasn't sure how quickly he'd grow.

As far as the court stuff, I choose to pick my battles and that's not one I'd pick as long as he is using a proper restraint that is legal.