A rfing discussion

christineka · Jul 9, 2009

I find that people's rfing goals seem to be scewed by their child's size and available car seats. I want to discuss ideals.

The US study on rear-facing only studied kids up to age 2 and found rfing to be safest for that age group.

The European study only studied kids through age 4 (pretty sure) and found rear-facing to be safest.

We've been saying for some time now that rear-facing is safest for everyone.

Why would you want to turn a kid forward facing before they reach the rear-facing limit on their car seat?

How do you think this works with lightweight kiddos? Are older lightweight kiddos just as safe ffing than their average weighted peers?

If there was no limit on weight/height and you didn't have to buy a new car seat, what age would you turn your kid ffing?

Judi · Jul 9, 2009

I would be safer rear facing. If I could, in an ideal world. would have everyone rear facing. Can you imagine a mini van with all vehicle seats rear facing (except for the driver, of course)? Of course, they could swivel to install car seats.

Austins-mama · Jul 9, 2009

in a perfect world I would turn my son at 5, maybe 6.

In the real US world I would have liked to make it to 4.

3 is what I had hoped for

DS hit 35lbs at 29 month.

He's been teetering close to 40lbs but if he's under he will be being flipped back in a radian until he hits 40lbs.

goldmama22 · Jul 9, 2009

I think that age is more important than weight in safety of RF v. FF. It's really about development, though, and we can't really know how able each individual child's body will support itself, so all we have to go on is age. The higher weight limits will allow people to get their child more use out of the seat - meaning the child's body will be more developed to be able to withstand the strain ff - and more time, since as the PP mentioned, RF is safer for anyone.

I'm not a tech and I'd never thought about this til you asked, so these are just off-the-cuff :twocents:

WhatAboutPuppy · Jul 9, 2009

Judi said:
I would be safer rear facing. If I could, in an ideal world. would have everyone rear facing. Can you imagine a mini van with all vehicle seats rear facing (except for the driver, of course)? Of course, they could swivel to install car seats.

So are you saying you'd rear face a child in a booster or seat belt only (given they meet all 5 safety points) in the Dodge van that has the 2nd row seats that flip backward??

Judi · Jul 9, 2009

No, I said, "Of course, they could swivel to install car seats." Forward facing, of course. Only seat belt only riders would be rear facing, well, and anyone under 40 lbs!

BookMama · Jul 9, 2009

WhatAboutPuppy said:
So are you saying you'd rear face a child in a booster or seat belt only (given they meet all 5 safety points) in the Dodge van that has the 2nd row seats that flip backward??

I would! Assuming that boosters were allowed (which they're not), or that I had the integrated boosters. My cousin has a Town & Country with the swivel seats and his 10 and 12YOs ride rear-facing most of the time. I always smile when I see that because even though the reason they do it is because the kids like it, I know that it's much safer.

joolsplus3 · Jul 9, 2009

I turned dd1 FF in our car a lot sooner than I did in our van. It was just really, truly, a supreme pain in the neck to fold her up like origami to get her 3 yo/39 inch tall body into her Marathon. But in the van, she easily could have made it to 5 with plenty of room and comfort and ease of buckling.
If our seats were more like Swedish seats, with ample leg room, I think most people would be more than happy with the idea of RF longer (and yes, they fit in pretty small cars, they are really huge, but differently shaped for taller kids with longer legs).

Leah had to go FF at 3, my seats only had a 33 pound limit, and I'm intending to put her RF again now as soon as we get another verification of the Radian 40lb limit or I can get her tested out in a Complete Air to see if she has growing room (she's STILL 33 lbs, the little stinker has stalled her weight gain). She's at the top of the My Ride already or I would have bought one in a heartbeat.

mom2juliarose · Jul 9, 2009

I was hoping to hit 3.5 or 4 with DD RFing, but she hit 33 pounds at 2y,9m so that was it for us (no 35-pound seats at the time, and when they came out she was pretty much there anyway).

Qarin · Jul 9, 2009

mom2juliarose said:
I was hoping to hit 3.5 or 4 with DD RFing, but she hit 33 pounds at 2y,9m so that was it for us (no 35-pound seats at the time, and when they came out she was pretty much there anyway).

? There were 35lb RF seats in the US in 2007.

I turned DD1 FF at 2.5, RF again at 3.5, FF at 3y9m (to her disappointment, she'd outgrown the 30lbRF Roundabout), RF at 4.5 (got a Wizard!), FF at 4.9m. She is not going to be told about the new 40lb RF seats because I fear she would attempt to lose weight to use one.

I turned DD2 FF at 2.5 at her specific request (choosing to support her communication abilities and feeling that 2.5 and 30lbs was Pretty Good), though she still had room in her (35lb RF) Scenera, but not in the (30lb) Roundabout. She has not gone back RF since then, and is now 40lbs.

skylinphoto · Jul 9, 2009

My son will stay rfing as long as possible (about to buy a rn xt).
I don't know if that's realistic with my dd. According to growth charts, she won't hit 40lbs until 7.5 yrs old or so..and she's not that tall....a little under average height.
She could potentially fit rfing for a long long time..to an age where she'd even be safe in a booster providing she could sit properly. Would she really be that much safer rfing then? I'm guessing no..but, who knows?

scatterbunny · Jul 9, 2009

I would keep my kiddo RF as long as possible in appropriate restraints (even if that were 7 years old). I believe that strongly in the safety benefits of RF. Unfortunately, my kiddo maxed out all RF seats in the US by 2 (35 pounds). She hit 40 pounds at 3y4mo, and may have been too tall/too long-torsoed to fit RF by height at 35-40 pounds, as well. I'm so thrilled that we're getting seats with high RF weight limits AND taller seat shells to accommodate not only the heavier kids, but the taller kids, too. Still, with what we have on the market now, even an off-the-charts kiddo should be able to RF to 2, bigger-than-average kids to 3ish, average kids to 4ish, and smaller kids to 5+. That's wonderful.

sunnymw · Jul 9, 2009

I'd RF as long as financially possible. So, if we're dead broke until one of my boys hits 35lbs and I can't afford a 40lb seat, then I have to turn them. If I can afford a 40lb seat, they'll be RFing until 4-5 years old. I'll reevaluate often, I'm sure, but if DS1 stays at this curve he won't be 40lbs until 7.5 years old

He's the kind of kiddo where I totally understand the minimum 30-40lb for a booster, because he may very well be 39lbs and maxed out all harnesses by height!

mommaon112903 · Jul 9, 2009

I agree

Except mine would be closer to age five, and if they did not object they could RF to age six then straight into a booster. Josef is the child who maxes out harness height LONG before weight. We will max out the Regent before 45lbs

sunnymw said:
I'd RF as long as financially possible. So, if we're dead broke until one of my boys hits 35lbs and I can't afford a 40lb seat, then I have to turn them. If I can afford a 40lb seat, they'll be RFing until 4-5 years old. I'll reevaluate often, I'm sure, but if DS1 stays at this curve he won't be 40lbs until 7.5 years old He's the kind of kiddo where I totally understand the minimum 30-40lb for a booster, because he may very well be 39lbs and maxed out all harnesses by height!

ketchupqueen · Jul 9, 2009

I'm trying right now to figure out a way to fit 2 RF Radians in my car so I can move the baby to a 35 lb. seat for now and re-RF my 5 year old. (I think, sadly, that the 3 year old is probably at just about 40 right now. But if she's not she'll get priority and the 5 year old will wait until we can get a Complete Air that can go more upright.)

mom2juliarose · Jul 9, 2009

mom2juliarose said:
I was hoping to hit 3.5 or 4 with DD RFing, but she hit 33 pounds at 2y,9m so that was it for us (no 35-pound seats at the time, and when they came out she was pretty much there anyway).

Qarin said:
? There were 35lb RF seats in the US in 2007.

You're right, but weren't they just coming out then (the Scenera was first, right? Or was some other company?)? DD was turned FFing in June of 2007, but by her 3rd birthday (September of 2007) she was already 35 pounds so it wouldn't have done us a world of good to buy her a higher-limit RFing seat for such a short time.

Anyway, we couldn't have afforded a new seat for those extra 2 pounds at that time anyway.

carseatcoach · Jul 9, 2009

In an ideal, seats-compatible-with-cars, price-is-no-object world, I'd advocate RFing to 4ish. Since we're not in that ideal world, I would be okay flipping for personal reasons like budget or convenience (not "the seat looks prettier forward-facing" convenience, but "I need to be able to have front-seat passengers not eating the dash" convenience) at 3ish.

*Spoiledinmyhouseofblue* · Jul 9, 2009

Logan just had a huge growth spurt and is now 37 pounds. I am probally getting another radian in the next week or so, and going to RF him until he is 40 pounds. He will be 5 the end of January.

I would RF for as long as they fit comfortably.

In my minvan they fit for a long time comfy.

karlatta · Jul 9, 2009

Ideally, in a world where seats are easy to use and fit in vehicles well, I'd love to RF to age 5, at least.

But I have 3 children, born less than 2.5 years apart (#1 is less than 27 months older than #3) and it's VERY difficult to get three seats RF in a vehicle and still be able to get everyone in and out in less than 30 minutes. So I turned my oldest at 3. I have a van now (more room!) and as soon as I find my Radian foot (oops) I'm going to turn him back around.

urchin_grey · Jul 9, 2009

Well lets put it this way... Bram's estimated adult height is 5'3". Soooo, I think he'll be RF'ing for quite some time. His stats are in my siggy... you can see he has tons of room in the TF and there's no telling what will be on the market by the time he outgrows it.

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