Survey: how long did your kids rear-face?

[NatenMaddiesMommy]

My kids have always been on the tiny side. My eldest is now 9.5 and was rear-facing in a 33lb Britax convertible until he was 4 when he reached that weight limit. My daughter who is now 7.5 was rear-facing until she was 5 when she also hit 33lbs. My youngest is 5.5, in kindergarten, and is still rear-facing in our primary vehicle because his newer Britax convertible has a 40lb rear-facing limit. He currently weighs 33-34lbs and is pretty short so he still has plenty of room to rear-face both height and weight-wise. At the rate he grows he could be rear-facing until he's 6 or 7!! Just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience or if it's just time for me to turn him forward-facing (in the same seat). So how long did your kids rear-face for?

 

[christineka]

child 4 rfed till age 6 and 33 pounds. (She fit for longer, but didn't rf again.)
Child 5 rfed till 5, but then swapped back and forth till 6.5 and 43ish pounds. He's too tall to rf now.
Child 6 is currently 4.5 and 32ish pounds. I figure she'll rf till 6 or so. I like rfing kids better. They can't kick my seat and the are so comfy in that direction.

 

[TechnoGranola]

18 months and 22# for my first as that was the highest RF seat here then.

4y8m for my second and 40#, and only a Radian available for 45# which didn't work in our vehicle (no angle adjuster then).

The third, I'm guessing will get to 4.5-5 in her Peg. I'll see if the NextFit is here by then. I'd like to make to 5.5 or 6 and then just switch to a booster. They are SO loud when FF and the seat
kicking drives me bonkers. And it's not that my kid purposely kicks my seat, it's when getting in our getting out or adjusting, etc.

 

[rachelandtyke]

DD1 was 4y4m when she hit the rfing weight limit and turned.

DS is still rfing at 4y8m. I expect he'll finally hit 35lbs before he gets too tall.

DD2 is similar size as DD1 was, so expect her to get to 4-5 rfing as well.

 

[katymyers]

Levi was 3.5 when he reached 40 lbs so I turned him. Hunter was just under 3.5 when, due to limited seating arrangements possible in our car with four car seats) I decided to turn him. He was about 35-37 lbs though, so close anyways. I'm aiming for 4-5 with the girls because they're both so tiny.

 

[tiggercat]

Mine RF'd to the max on available seats. Which was less than 6m/22lb (2000), 2yo/30lb (2005), and 3y11m/38lb (2009) respectively, birth years in brackets

 

[MommyShannon]

How tall is your 5.5 year old? The new Britax seats are outgrown when there is only 1" of hard shell above the head NOT headrest. It's not impossible for a tiny 5 year old to fit, but my 38.5" (25th percentile) almost 4 year old is at the limit.

For me, I've decided to let DD2 (almost 4) turn at 4 if she wants. She's close to the 35lb limit of her True Fit and at the height limit of our Britax seats anyway. It's great you rf so long! I naively turned my older kids way too early.

 

[NatNat's Mom]

A little under 3 years. She was about 30lbs and was about 40" tall. My bf & my family thought I was "weird" for keeping her RF that long. And they still think I'm weird cuz DD's 4 now & still harnessed. Sigh...

 

[gsdguenter]

4y10m for DD1

4y8m for DD2

 

[TechnoGranola]

Mine RF'd to the max on available seats. Which was less than 6m/22lb (2000), 2yo/30lb (2005), and 3y11m/38lb (2009) respectively, birth years in brackets

See my post above for how old mine was when she hit 22#!

How tall is your 5.5 year old? The new Britax seats are outgrown when there is only 1" of hard shell above the head NOT headrest. It's not impossible for a tiny 5 year old to fit, but my 38.5" (25th percentile) almost 4 year old is at the limit. For me, I've decided to let DD2 (almost 4) turn at 4 if she wants. She's close to the 35lb limit of her True Fit and at the height limit of our Britax seats anyway. It's great you rf so long! I naively turned my older kids way too early.

In my measurements the other day, the Britax seats gave my child a half inch less growing room than the My Ride. My 50th percentile child had a half inch growing room in the My Ride when she outgrew it the weight limit. Which means she would have just outgrown the Britax by height. And she was 42.5" tall. Her torso was average as well, she fit in the size that corresponded to her age and outgrew the shirts before the pants (usually due to arm length).

Agreed though, good idea to check on height to be sure!

 

[tiggercat]

See my post above for how old mine was when she hit 22#!

Wow! That is tiny! Greg was a tank, and each time higher limit seats came on the market, he had just outgrown them by weight, LOL. I just thank my lucky stars we were not involved in any collisions when he was young.

 

[Suzibeck]

My 17 yo was 9 months when she hit the 22# max for her seat.

My 14 yo was 15 months, I think. I turned her because she was over a year and I didn't know better. She was about 25#.

My 11 yo was 18 months when she hit 20# and I turned her until I learned better when she was 24 months. She rf full time from then until a week before she turned 3 (head nearing the top of her RA in dh's car) and off and on until age 5 in our main car.

My 5 yo did not ride ff until 3 1/2, over the next year she rode ff a couple of times. Mostly we just avoided using dh's car for her because it didn't work well for rf. At 4 1/2 I let her turn ff because she was begging to and I was sick of taking off wet, muddy shoes every trip. She was about 32#. She went back rf for a short time at her request but she nearly maxed out the RXT in height shortly before she turned 5 and has been ff full time since.

 

[joolsplus3]

About 13 months, my older one, I was so proud I made it past a year (hey, it was 1998, options were limited...)
dd1 RF'd to age 4.5 and 41 inches and 33lbs in her original 2002 Marathon.
dd2 was bigger and only made it to 3 in her 33lb limit Radian 65. Could have bought another seat that went to 40, but was kind of on the fence about spending the money for diminishing safety returns by that point.

 

[MommyShannon]

See my post above for how old mine was when she hit 22#! In my measurements the other day, the Britax seats gave my child a half inch less growing room than the My Ride. My 50th percentile child had a half inch growing room in the My Ride when she outgrew it the weight limit. Which means she would have just outgrown the Britax by height. And she was 42.5" tall. Her torso was average as well, she fit in the size that corresponded to her age and outgrew the shirts before the pants (usually due to arm length). Agreed though, good idea to check on height to be sure!

Wow, I missed that. I need a study of my own now. She seems to be average torso too based on clothes. Hmmm...the RA55 is in my hall now...

 

[Keeyamah]

My oldest was just past two in our main car due to having outgrown his Scenera at 16 months in DH's truck. Of course, he wasn't going to last in his True Fit long by weight either, he was 40lbs and 40" by 2.5......

I have since bought 1 Radian for Sean and am working on the second, lol. He is following big brothers growth pattern and I want to get as close to 4 as I can. We don't go in Daddy's truck as a family anymore, but I do have seats in my mom's van.

 

[TechnoGranola]

Wow, I missed that. I need a study of my own now. She seems to be average torso too based on clothes. Hmmm...the RA55 is in my hall now...

Go check! It drives me up the wall how kids for so differently, I want all of them to fit just like my kid so it's not so confusing when recommending seats. LOL

I know a tech here just put her 38" child in a BLVD and had 2.5" over her head. So 1.5" to grow. And she's just over 3. That should get her about 18 months so to 4.5 or more and her child is about 50th percentile as well.

 

[HappyHoo]

My kids are big for their age - so I was forced to FF them v. having to make a choice after 4 yo.


DD is almost 8.

RF in Scenera to 2 1/2 and 30 lbs (and technically I ignored the 36" RF limit and kept her RF to 38" when she got close to the 1" mark - so she should have been turned earlier - sometime before she turned 2).

RF in classic Britax Marathon to 2y11mo when she hit the 33 lb RF weight limit.

At that point, some of the 40 lb RF seats were going to be out soon but since she was almost 3, I just kept her FF since I was pg with DS.


For DS who is 4 1/2:

RF in Radian65 until 3y3m when he hit 40 lbs

RF in RadianXTSL until a week after his 4th bday. At that point he was 43.5" tall and 44 lbs fully clothed so I decided to give in to DH and turn him FF

 

[MommyShannon]

Go check! It drives me up the wall how kids for so differently, I want all of them to fit just like my kid so it's not so confusing when recommending seats. LOL I know a tech here just put her 38" child in a BLVD and had 2.5" over her head. So 1.5" to grow. And she's just over 3. That should get her about 18 months so to 4.5 or more and her child is about 50th percentile as well.

Sorry this is probably huge from my phone.
Here she is in a RA55, reclined and buckled. The cover is sticking up above the shell a little too. It looks like she has maybe a 1/2" left. In the car, I used a 1" book and she seemed at the limit but it's hard to measure that closely.

 

[abigaylebelle]

My kids are wee little things like you, OP.

My first (7) rode rf until he was 4 and change. He was getting close to the 35 lb limit. Although he could have ridden rf in a new britax for a long time since he is just now even with the top of the shell. Conservatively I would say he could have rf to 5.5 or so.

My second is 15 months so she definitely rides rf. She is even smaller for her age than ds so I expect she could rf to 6 or 7 in any reasonably sized convertible.

Even though I can rf my kids forever and a day I probably won't. I care deeply about child passenger safety but even I dislike stuffing 40" tall kindergarteners into rf seats.

 

[NatesMamma]

DS RF full time until 4 yr 3 wk, then I turned him in the primary car because he requested it. In the secondary car, he RF until last week, so 4 yr 10 mo.

I'll RF DD until at least 4.