Would you rear face a 4 year old? /was Re: Uhggg!!! One Step forward, One step back!

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Mommy0608

New member
Yes, without a doubt. My daughter will almost certainly still be RF at 4 years old. The only way she WON'T be RF at 4 is if she suddenly has a massive growth spurt, but that's highly unlikely. You can see in my sig pic that she has LOTS of growing room in her RF seat... she has 8 more pounds and several inches before she outgrows it. She's 34 months.
 
Yes, I would. Logan loves to rearface, but currently he is too tall to RF in the scenera(35 pound limit) and too much in weight for his Fisher Price Safe Voyage(33 pounds). He fluctuates from 30-34 pounds. Forgot to mention: He fits in the Radian, but my radian is FF(something with the boot is broke) and he is so close to that 35 pounds.
Logan is 4 years 3 months old.
 

carseatcoach

Carseat Crankypants
If she fit in a "standard" seat and was not miserable, yes. If she was physically and developmentally typical and over 28#, I would not buy a new car or import an unapproved seat to rear-face her, and I would give her wishes some consideration (which I would NOT do with an 18-month-old).
 

mommaon112903

New member
Sure would! Josef would have out-grown the TrueFit RFing due to weight when he was 4.10 months of age. And if something like the TrueFit had been out when we bought the Regent in May of 2007 he would have been turned back around at 3.5yrs and 30lbs.
 

Momof4Girls

New member
My 3 y/o weighs around 26lbs. She is 35" tall. She also has special needs, including some reduced muscle tone and a large (95% or higher) head circumference. I have reservations about turning her FF full time.

At the rate she's growing (or not...), she may well be RF until she's 5 or 6! I may, at some point in the next couple of years, decide to turn her for age reasons rather than size reasons.

Raechel
 

elle7715

Member
Yep, my 4 year old is rearfacing right now. I had turned her FF in July when she hit the seat's RF weight limit of 33 lbs. She was 3.5 then. I recently needed to switch seats around in our car so for the past 6 weeks she's been rearfacing in a seat with a 35 lb RF limit. With flus and rotavirus this winter she lost weight and is back down to 33 lbs. She doesn't mind the switch at all. Her 2 year old brother is also rearfacing.
 

lorismurph

Senior Community Member
Unless they were REALLY tiny, probably NOT. My 4 1/2 yo is only 32 pounds but she's 41" and it's very difficult to find a RF seat to accomadate the height (unless I order online, no one here carries the Radians, TFs). At this point, NO, I would not turn her back RF.
I tend to be a little less strict than a lot of others here on the ERF. Don't get me wrong, my youngest just turned 2 and is still RF but I will probably turn her when she's 2 1/2 for reasons other than she hates RF. She actually loves RF and I'll be sad to turn her but I see no other solution to my issue.
I guess so many still go with 1yr and 20 pounds that if you make it past 2, you're doing great in my book!
 

Maedze

New member
Yes, if my four year old fit in a rearfacing seat, he would be rearfacing :)


If the fabled Graco MyRide materializes this summer, my three year old will go back rearfacing.
 

Lara

New member
my kidlet will be 5 in 4 days :)eek:) and is still happily rf in my car :) Granted she is in a swedish seat, but still lol.
 

heyruthie

New member
My 4 1/2 yo is only 32 pounds but she's 41" and it's very difficult to find a RF seat to accomadate the height (unless I order online, no one here carries the Radians, TFs). At this point, NO, I would not turn her back RF.
I tend to be a little less strict than a lot of others here on the ERF. Don't get me wrong, my youngest just turned 2 and is still RF but I will probably turn her when she's 2 1/2 for reasons other than she hates RF. She actually loves RF and I'll be sad to turn her but I see no other solution to my issue.
I guess so many still go with 1yr and 20 pounds that if you make it past 2, you're doing great in my book!

i'm kinda on the same page as lorismurph--in some ways. i would only add that if the child is small and/or likes RFing, go for it! But if not, there are SOOOOOO many things that you could fight with a 4 yo about, I'd pick my battles. I have a 4 yo who has been FFing for quite some time. But I'm keeping me 2yo DD RFing for the forseeable future, until I have to turn her. But she already FFes for occasional rides in other cars, and I'll eventually turn her when/if getting in and out of the van is too hard after DC #4 is born and/or out of the infant bucket and also RFing in a convertible. with my van setup, i'm sure it will become nearly impossible for me to do the pickup line at our preschool with two RFing convertibles plus 2 more preschoolers in the back row. (I'm not allowed to exit the vehicle at pickup.) so, we have some lifestyle issues that will probably lead me to turn her when she's about 3. if i could easily keep her RFing after that, I would. I'd basically turn any kid over 2 or 2.5 when/if their personal needs, or the overall needs of the family demand it (not wants--but needs.) But until then, i keep my kids RFing!
 

nevaehsmommy

New member
My 3 y/o weighs around 26lbs. She is 35" tall. She also has special needs, including some reduced muscle tone and a large (95% or higher) head circumference. I have reservations about turning her FF full time.



Raechel

What does large head size have to do with it? My DD is 36.5 inceh tall and 31 # even with a HUGE head it was 78% on the growth curve.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
Here was my 4 yo RF... http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum/SarahMA.aspx I'll admit, it was a lot easier in a minivan with lots of legroom and ease of loading her and buckling. We broke down and forward faced her in our small sedan when she was 3.5 because it was just too hard to get her in there. Her 'little' sister is a lot bigger and had to go forward at 3 :(
 

Maedze

New member
What does large head size have to do with it? My DD is 36.5 inceh tall and 31 # even with a HUGE head it was 78% on the growth curve.



Smaller children have proportionally larger heads compared to body size. In a forward facing accident, that huge head is a detriment...it puts even more stress on the neck as the head is flung forward.

If the head is unusually big, the stress is even greater.
 

mommaon112903

New member
A child with a larger head has a higher chance of becoming internally decapitated in the event of a crash. They have more mass (big head) which produces more force upon the spinal cord making the spinal cord easier/more prone to "snap". Hope that makes sense, I am sure a tech has better terms than I do :)

What does large head size have to do with it? My DD is 36.5 inceh tall and 31 # even with a HUGE head it was 78% on the growth curve.
 

Mommy0608

New member
What does large head size have to do with it? My DD is 36.5 inceh tall and 31 # even with a HUGE head it was 78% on the growth curve.

The larger the head, the more it weighs, and the bigger it is in proportion to the body. When FF, a bigger head will fly forward with more force than a smaller head (think F=MA). This is one of the reasons that kids are safer RF than FF... babies naturally have larger heads in proportion to their body than adults do. Of course, maturation of the spinal column/neck is vital as well.

Edited to add - Sorry, looks like we all posted at the same time. None of the other answers to this were up when I started typing mine. ;)
 

lorismurph

Senior Community Member
I'll eventually turn her when/if getting in and out of the van is too hard after DC #4 is born and/or out of the infant bucket and also RFing in a convertible. with my van setup, i'm sure it will become nearly impossible for me to do the pickup line at our preschool with two RFing convertibles plus 2 more preschoolers in the back row. (I'm not allowed to exit the vehicle at pickup.) so, we have some lifestyle issues that will probably lead me to turn her when she's about 3. if i could easily keep her RFing after that, I would. I'd basically turn any kid over 2 or 2.5 when/if their personal needs, or the overall needs of the family demand it (not wants--but needs.) But until then, i keep my kids RFing![/QUOTE]


That is exactly why I'm going to have to turn her at 2 1/2 (when school starts up again). I'm expecting #4 and having 2 RF seats plus 2 older kids in the back, they cannot get in around the RF seats. Otherwise, I'd happily keep the 2yo RF longer
 

monzogary

Senior Community Member
I kept my two youngest rf for 4 yrs 3 months and 3 yrs 1 month.

4 yrs

Heather4ma.jpg


3 yrs

laura4.jpg


The older one has always had a disproportionately large head for her small overall size, so I felt better having her rf for as long as possible. I didn't turn either of them ff until they hit the rf weight limit of their seats.
 

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