S/O RF to age 4 - WWYD?

The other thread was about turning a child BACK RF at 4, who had already been FF. To me, this is a very different situation.

I'm thinking we will have to see if the My Ride (or whatever they eventually release it as) really has a tall enough shell to RF to 40. If so, I will keep my current RFer RF to 40 for sure-- but I would let my older children who have already been FF have the choice as to whether or not to RF.

In your situation, if you can find and afford a RF seat to keep her RF, I'd do it.

pixels99 said:

At her age, it's still 3-4 times safer RFing.

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Where did you get that statistic?

Ben was 33lbs and just (by 3wks) turned 2yo when I totaled my car (no kids w/ me) in a five car pileup in December of 2007. His unoccupied Boulevard was in the car, as well as Beth's (then 6.5yo & 55lbs+) Husky.

To complicate matters Ben was riding in an about to expire Britax Advantage in dh's car that only had a 33lb rear facing limit.

So I had to make some really big decisions about what seats to buy as replacements, two for Ben and one for Beth.

I seriously thought about getting him convertibles but I couldn't bring myself to invest in two for just 2lbs. If I hadn't been involved in the crash he would have stayed rfing until he hit the weight limit but it did happen and I had to do something.

I ended up replacing his primary seat w/ a Regent and his secondary seat w/ a Nautilus. Bethany's Husky was replaced with a Nautilus as well.

I thought of getting Beth a Regent as well, but again...she was 6.5yo and in first grade. There would have been no question that she would have used the Husky until she passed the 5 step test (or outgrew it by height which would have been more likely)... but invest in it now, so late?

It really is a hard call, but I think you got good advice and have come up w/ a decent plan.

As it turns out, Ben hit the 35lb mark 7mo after I replaced the seats and Beth outgrew her Nautilus in 11mo. She's using the Nautilus as a booster in dh's car now and riding in a Monterey in mine.

Stresch said:

Where did you get that statistic?

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A little extrapolation. Between the first and second birthday, it's 5 times safer RFing. Between second and third birthdays (which is Jessie's current age, not quite three), it's 4 times safer. RFing is safer than FFing at any age, but how much safer is reduced as the child gets older. So I extrapolated out a bit and I'm pretty confident that a child is at least 3 times safer RFing between third and fourth birthdays, but I have no data whatsoever to back it up.

ketchupqueen said:

The other thread was about turning a child BACK RF at 4, who had already been FF. To me, this is a very different situation.

I'm thinking we will have to see if the My Ride (or whatever they eventually release it as) really has a tall enough shell to RF to 40. If so, I will keep my current RFer RF to 40 for sure-- but I would let my older children who have already been FF have the choice as to whether or not to RF.

In your situation, if you can find and afford a RF seat to keep her RF, I'd do it.

Click to expand...

I guess I missed the fact that it was about turning them BACK to RF... oops. Like I said, I quickly read through the responses, so I missed that part.

Looks like my revised list of options would be, in this order:

1. Keep Jessie in the TF and get one of the following for Tyler:
a. My Ride 65
b. TF w/ARB
c. Avenue or Uptown
d. New 3-in-1
e. Scenera
2. If none of those work, then Jessie would get an FF seat and Tyler would get the TF. I'm sure I can make one of the above work though.

Hi Jenny -

I was going to suggest the Avenue as an option too.

I was also thinking that you might want to keep Jessica rf because of the sensory issues that I remember reading about before. As you know Isabelle is rf at 4 years old and she really prefers it. That's the reason she is still rf in our primary vehicle even though she's about a lb away from hitting the limit. I found that after my twins were over 3 years old, they had the language to express that they preferred rf and I suspect you'll find that too with Jessica.

Melanie

See, my sensory child hated RF. Hated it. From birth. Much preferred FF. Also hated slings, carriers of any type, oh, and swaddling.

Thanks. I think Jessie really enjoys RF. She's never been FF, so I don't know how she'd feel about it.

Yes, she does have sensory issues, so the switch may be traumatic for her... she really resists changes, especially changes involving movement or the senses.

Jessica did hate swaddling and carriers, she's not a very touchy-feely kid.

Mommy0608 said:

I guess I missed the fact that it was about turning them BACK to RF... oops. Like I said, I quickly read through the responses, so I missed that part.

Looks like my revised list of options would be, in this order:

1. Keep Jessie in the TF and get one of the following for Tyler:
a. My Ride 65
b. TF w/ARB
c. Avenue or Uptown
d. New 3-in-1
e. Scenera
2. If none of those work, then Jessie would get an FF seat and Tyler would get the TF. I'm sure I can make one of the above work though.

Click to expand...

I think that's a great plan

pixels99 said:

At her age, it's still 3-4 times safer RFing.

Click to expand...

I'm with you--I want to RF my kids til age 6, but the way you stated the above quote, it sounds like you're telling a fact. Extrapolating for our own theories is fine, but I don't think it's appropriate to go around saying something like that without a disclaimer along with it saying that that is just your opinion. When you say a number like that, readers tend to think it must be true.:twocents: