Question How long CAN I rear face my child

Unregistered · Oct 21, 2013

We reached our goal of rear-facing our DD to age 4. Now what

She is still within the guidelines for rearfacing in her Britax Roundabout 55. She is <35 pounds and still on the second-to-top shoulder strap, and doesn't mind at all being RF

Is there any reason to flip her if she's still within the seat's guidelines? Can anyone provide me with references? I'm starting to get funny looks from people. Thanks in advance.

LISmama810 · Oct 21, 2013

You can rear-face her as long as you'd like, as long as she fits. Does she have at least an inch of shell over her head?

Rear-facing is safer for ANYONE simply because the entire body is cradled in the shell.

My personal minimum is 4, and then I give my kids the option to ride forward-facing, but people can and do rear-face beyond that.

Jan06twinmom · Oct 21, 2013

Unregistered said:
We reached our goal of rear-facing our DD to age 4. Now what She is still within the guidelines for rearfacing in her Britax Roundabout 55. She is <35 pounds and still on the second-to-top shoulder strap, and doesn't mind at all being RF

Is there any reason to flip her if she's still within the seat's guidelines? Can anyone provide me with references? I'm starting to get funny looks from people. Thanks in advance.

Awesome job keeping your DD rear-facing so long. I agree with the pp that everyone is safer in the rear-facing position.

At 4yo, I think it's important to take your child's preference into consideration. Is your DD happy about being rear-facing? Does she ask/request to sit forward? My DD expressed a strong preference for rear-facing over forward-facing, even though she was riding ff in one of our car seats in the nanny's car. So I kept my DD rear-facing until she hit the rf limit of our car seat around 4y4m old.

There are a bunch of references about rear-facing on this page: http://carseatblog.com/5168/. These references focus more on keeping children rear-facing beyond a year with suggestions to keep them rear-facing up to 4yo. The physics behind why rear-facing is safer are the same even with an older child, but an older child has stronger, more developed bones to protect them in the forward-facing position.

HTH

carolyn_mtl · Oct 21, 2013

I keep my girls rf until they reach the limit of their seats. DD1 is 4yr2mos, and still rf in her Radian. She still has 4 or so inches above her head (so 2.5 inches of growing room). I have no intention of turning her until I absolutely have to. DD2 is only 18mos, so will rf for many more years. She is likely going to be taller than DD1, so I REALLY hope we get to age 4 with her too.

Melodiya99 · Oct 23, 2013

My girls rode rf in their radians until they were 6 and 5...ever since turning they both complain about getting carsick, not having good places for their books, and their legs being uncomfortable. It's a tough life going ff!

AK Dad · Oct 23, 2013

Unregistered said:
I'm starting to get funny looks from people.

Well, if you're anything like me you'll take those funny looks as 1) a reason to feel really good about yourself as a parent and 2) a good conversation-starter to help educate other parents! Keep up the good work!

BTW, my oldest RF'd to 4y4mo (at 90th percentile for height)
my middle boy will probably go well into Kindergarten RF'd, and we'll see on #3 since he's over 95th percentile in both!

Question How long CAN I rear face my child

Unregistered

Guest

LISmama810

Admin - CPS Technician

Jan06twinmom

New member

carolyn_mtl

New member

Melodiya99

New member

AK Dad

New member

Car-Seat.Org Facebook Group

Sponsors

Forum statistics