Guess what the pedi told me

SusanMae

Senior Community Member
So I took Nicholas for his 6 month pedi visit today. Dr asked me if he was still riding RF, I said of course. Then he told me that they are now reccomending to stay RF to 4 yrs old, but the academy didn't have an official policy on it yet! The concern he's hearing from parents is that the children won't fit. So I gave him the stats---over 5x safer to RF in the 2nd yr of life and that lower extremity injuries are more common when children are FF than when they are RF. Talked about internal decapitation, bone ossification, ect.

I'm going to print off the brochure from cpsafety and take it in it him. Also that AAP parent point thingy to take to him. I might even make another copy of the Dr Bull article from Feb 1 yr ago too. The waiting room and every exam room have the "new" booster law and "Boosters Are For Big Kids" posters in them.

Susan
 
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swtgi1982

New member
I want to know then when they are going to come out with RF seats that accommodate extremely long torso children, my three yr old is not yet near 30lbs and her head is over the top of ever convertible on the market.
 

Mommy0608

New member
I want to know then when they are going to come out with RF seats that accommodate extremely long torso children, my three yr old is not yet near 30lbs and her head is over the top of ever convertible on the market.

Have you tried the Radian 65?

...or the True Fit? The True Fit has the tallest shell on the market, with a slightly taller shell than the Radian. Both are taller than the Scenera that your DD was using before... not sure if you've tried other convertibles or not. If you are interested, you're welcome to sit your 3 year old in my daughter's True Fit next week to see how she fits. :)

To the OP, that's great news! Glad your ped is up to speed! Mine sure isn't.
 

NannyMom

Well-known member
Great :thumbsup: BabyS' pedi hasn't said anything yet about carseats. I guess I'll have to wait until 1yr and see what he says.
 

Madeline410

New member
That is SO awesome!!! When DD was 15 months, my pedi told me I could turn her FF like I didn't get the notice or something :rolleyes: She didn't even know what to say when I said DS was RF too!
 

NannyMom

Well-known member
I want to know then when they are going to come out with RF seats that accommodate extremely long torso children, my three yr old is not yet near 30lbs and her head is over the top of ever convertible on the market.

I agree with others, you should try the True Fit or the Radian. My 6 year old could still RF by height in them. My 8 year old is just a tad too tall to RF in the Radian. But of course, they're both too heavy :)
 

4boysmom

New member
It seems a bit premature to be reccomending rfing to 4 now if the vast majority (???) of kids can't get there with the current options. My kids are all 35 plus pounds well before 3 (I actually take that back I think ds#3 *may* have been a pinch under 35 at 3 but he'd maxed out the height in his marathon and EFTA) so I'd think there might be more danger of misuse if there aren't really any options to get most kids past 3. I think my 35 pounder has maybe 1/2 inch left rearfacing in his EFTA but he of course is over the weight limit. If we don't have seats to accomidate him (at 2.5 mind you, which is not anywhere close to 4) some parents might still put a child like mine in a 35 pound seat because they have room in the shell, or a tall torsoed kid who is under the weight limits but over the shell limits because they heard "you have to rear face until 4". Or like in my case it just seems so over the top to be making a reccomendation like that when my kids will seemingly never get anywhere close to that (even though I desire it) that it seems so "out there" that people can't see how they can/should (not me) comply. I like the "rfing until at least two" motto with a 'as long as possible ultimately reccomended' at least at this point until those 40/40 plus pound seats become widely available AND there are ones that are actually tall enough to accomidate the say 30-50%ile kids to that weight.
 

Maedze

New member
I want to know then when they are going to come out with RF seats that accommodate extremely long torso children, my three yr old is not yet near 30lbs and her head is over the top of ever convertible on the market.

I doubt that, unless your three year old is the size of most six year olds ;)

I can think of half a dozen seats even very large three year olds will fit in easily by height rearfacing.
 

NannyMom

Well-known member
It seems a bit premature to be reccomending rfing to 4 now if the vast majority (???) of kids can't get there with the current options. My kids are all 35 plus pounds well before 3 (I actually take that back I think ds#3 *may* have been a pinch under 35 at 3 but he'd maxed out the height in his marathon and EFTA) so I'd think there might be more danger of misuse if there aren't really any options to get most kids past 3. I think my 35 pounder has maybe 1/2 inch left rearfacing in his EFTA but he of course is over the weight limit. If we don't have seats to accomidate him (at 2.5 mind you, which is not anywhere close to 4) some parents might still put a child like mine in a 35 pound seat because they have room in the shell, or a tall torsoed kid who is under the weight limits but over the shell limits because they heard "you have to rear face until 4". Or like in my case it just seems so over the top to be making a reccomendation like that when my kids will seemingly never get anywhere close to that (even though I desire it) that it seems so "out there" that people can't see how they can/should (not me) comply. I like the "rfing until at least two" motto with a 'as long as possible ultimately reccomended' at least at this point until those 40/40 plus pound seats become widely available AND there are ones that are actually tall enough to accomidate the say 30-50%ile kids to that weight.

I agree, we need to get bigger seats for the bigger kids. My friend has a neice that is 42 pounds at a couple months shy of 3 years old. She still had 2 inches above her head in the My Ride, but was over the RF weight limit. She's not fat, but tall and thick.

However, many kids can make it to 3 or 4 RF. That's why on here I often see the advice say at least 2 years, preferably longer (4).
 

TiaxMarie

New member
I am so excited because I'll be working in our ped's office in January and I'll be a certified tech in September. I can't wait to bring them all the literature I can and coach paretns on carseat safety including ERF!
 

bree

Car-Seat.Org Ambassador
It seems a bit premature to be reccomending rfing to 4 now if the vast majority (???) of kids can't get there with the current options. My kids are all 35 plus pounds well before 3 (I actually take that back I think ds#3 *may* have been a pinch under 35 at 3 but he'd maxed out the height in his marathon and EFTA) so I'd think there might be more danger of misuse if there aren't really any options to get most kids past 3. I think my 35 pounder has maybe 1/2 inch left rearfacing in his EFTA but he of course is over the weight limit. If we don't have seats to accomidate him (at 2.5 mind you, which is not anywhere close to 4) some parents might still put a child like mine in a 35 pound seat because they have room in the shell, or a tall torsoed kid who is under the weight limits but over the shell limits because they heard "you have to rear face until 4". Or like in my case it just seems so over the top to be making a reccomendation like that when my kids will seemingly never get anywhere close to that (even though I desire it) that it seems so "out there" that people can't see how they can/should (not me) comply. I like the "rfing until at least two" motto with a 'as long as possible ultimately reccomended' at least at this point until those 40/40 plus pound seats become widely available AND there are ones that are actually tall enough to accomidate the say 30-50%ile kids to that weight.

I appreciate your concerns, especially given that you had children who might not be be able to RF much past 2.5. I agree that people might wind up leaving kids in their seats beyond the limits. I know that plenty of people leave their kids in infant seats that they have long outgrown until age 1, then put them in forward-facing seats. I definitely think there is precedent for people using outgrown seats to keep up with recommendations that they actually misunderstand.

That being said, I personally don't like the idea of saying RFing until at least 2 and then as long as possible. I've already seen this suggestion made to parents, and I feel like a number of parents consider 2 to be the new RFing safety goal. I know each parent has to make a decision including many factors for when to FF, but there is no research to show age 2 as a good cutoff point for when to FF. When the "until at least age 2" phrase is used, a number of parents wind up prematurely FFing their kids, because they will think 2 is a cutoff point for when to FF. It's just like saying until at least 1 & 20 pounds: parents will turn their kids as soon as they hit that milestone, even though they can still be RFing, and saying at least 2 will cause the same issue.

Since the vast majority of 2 year olds and even 2.5 year olds can already RF in seats on the US market, mentioning age 2 in a RFing recommendation does not provide an incentive for manufacturers to increase their weight limits or height limits to accommodate bigger kids. There would be such little demand from parents if that were the goal, because most kids can already be accommodated to 2+ years. Making age 4 the goal age (and maybe even ages 4-6 based on Swedish research and bone ossification issues) would give manufacturers a reason to change their seats, if parents were demanding seats be available to meet the recommended safety guidelines.

Even taking into account only the seats currently available, most kids can make it to age 3 RFing. By weight, over 80% of kids should be able to RF to age 3 in at least 2 brands of carseats currently on the US market (the Radian & True Fit models), no matter their torso height. 40-50% of kids would also make it to 4 years old in these seats before outgrowing them by weight. My own daughter, who is definitely not short-torsoed, made it to age 4 years and 1 month, 41 inches, and 35 pounds RFing (so 71st percentile for height and 47th percentile for weight) in her Marathon before she outgrew it by weight with a little bit of height left. So even a Marathon and other seats of similar shell height can still accomodate a decent number of kids.
 
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4boysmom

New member
I hear what you are saying Bree... I just can't imagine "most" kids being able to make it to 4 in the current seats (my 5 in 3 months kiddo (the runt of the family if you will) is 38 pounds but outgrew all rfing seats on the market by height eons ago so I am 4/4 of getting nowhere near 3 in current seats). Which absolutely means we need better seats. I just see a lot of parents feeling awful about themselves when their kids fall short of these reccomendations. I guess that really doesn't mean the recc shouldn't be made but it is a bummer when none of your kids and tbh I don't think I know of any that would make it to 3.
Yes 4 should be reccomended but it should also be realistic and I personally have not seen that to be true with any child *I* personally know. Point being get the better seats so people can make it to the reccomended stats :love:
 

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