What's your personal minimum for rear-facing?

[KaysKidz]

I wish I could say 3 or 4 but at the rate my kid is growing my minimum is whatever age she is when she hits 45lbs.

Ricky is 4.5 and it will realistically be another 3yrs before he'll hit 45lbs! LOL

 

[skylinphoto]

My personal minimum is 4. I have small kids so it totally works.
Once we get to 4 we just do what the kid wants. My ds wanted to rf sometimes and ff sometimes between 4-5 yrs. So that's what we did because he still fit and rfing was more comfy on long drives (that's what he told us).
When my dd gets to 4 in a few months, ill give her the option..but I already know what she's going to want to do. She's BEGGING to ff and has been for a while. She's going to be thrilled when she turns 4. Lol.

With other people, I'm beyond thrilled if they rf to 2. Any older and I may pee my pants with excitement.

Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Car-Seat.Org

 

[Anne]

I've always said 3 is my minimum and that before 3 I would get a new seat if it would keep a child rf longer. 4 my personal goal that I would rf to as long as child fit. Now we're dealing with a 3.5 yo that really wants to go forward and we're considering it. I'd still like to make it to 4, but we'll see. For the general public, I only push for 2.

 

[lynsgirl]

This is not a set-in-stone thing for me. What I do is RF to the maximum limits of the seat for the particular seats and child I have. Ds2 was over 4 when he hit the (at the time 33 lbs) RF limit of his MA . Ds3 was just a hair under 3 when he reached 33 lbs and since I had a number of seats, but none that I could use past that point RF, I chose to FF him, rather than buy another seat. Dd2 will turn 3 in March. She is only 25 lbs and will RF to the limits of her seat (35 lbs). I don't foresee this being for a very, very long time lol. IF I was buying a new seat for whatever reason, I'd consider the RF limits, but I will not buy a new seat specifically to continue RF longer if we've reached approx age 3. FTR, extended RF and extended HWH are extremely important to me and I've been doing both for years :thumbsup:.

 

[jess71903]

I tell other people "AT LEAST 2" but 3 for my own kids. 3 is also DH's max.

 

[lynsgirl]

I tell other people "AT LEAST 2" but 3 for my own kids. 3 is also DH's max.

Hehe My dh's max is whenever I tell him we're switching "X" kid FF lol. He used to be a huge pain about the whole CPS thing when I first got hooked (10+ yrs ago - how did *that* happen?), but over time, became very, very supportive. He's not nearly as passionate about it as I am, but he rarely questions me and when I mulled over turning ds3 FF on a cross-country trip where he would. not. quit. screaming (he was a couple of months past 2), dh absolutely was not ok with it. I did try it for a brief while (on the actual trip), but it didn't help and I turned him back around in a parking lot somewhere in KY . Dh is also the one to try to help my frame of mind when I'm upset about friends/family and their lack of um, anything, I guess, when it comes to all things related to CPS. He frequently tells me to remember that I "can't fix stupid." Sigh.

 

[brightredmtn]

XH and I are legally obligated to RF DS to the maximum of every available seat . He's 5.5 now and has an inch left of torso and about 4lbs in his Radian XTSL. Hope we make it to 6!

* He does ride FF 1 mile M-F in the daycare van in a Ride Safer Travel Vest.

 

[cpsaddict]

2. It might be more if my kid wasn't huge. She's 2yrs 7mths and weighs 37lbs and is 39" tall. She has outgrown all the seats I have and I won't buy a Radian, so she's FF. We will see with DS, as he's big too, but only 5mths old.

 

[VoodooChile]

We only have 1 seat that ds still fits rf (he'll definitely outgrow by height before weight ), so he's rf in my car but ff in others. That's okay with me b/c he's with me the vast majority of the time. I guess I don't really have a firm number in mind; I hope he makes it to 3.5, but 4 would be better.

 

[mommyfrog]

2 for general recommendation
3 for other people's kids riding in my car
4+ for my own kids

I voted 4+, since it said my personal minimum. My ds will be at least 4 before he outgrows his RadianXT, if he doesn't drive me crazy about the pink girl cover before then. I have a Foonf fund going though!!

 

[momtotwogirls]

4 or as close to 4 as we can get

 

[KaiLing]

My kid's so large and poorly timed (all the 40 lbs seats came out after decisions had been made) that I've had to go to strange lengths to keep him RF. Once we got to 40 lbs / 2 and a half and I was so terribly uncomfortable with him FF I just felt committed to as long as possible.

I'd like to say if I had a regular sized kid it would be 4. But I'm not going to have a regular sized kid. I really push 24 months for the general public, but I'll talk up rear facing to the maximum of the seat, too.

 

[jeminijad]

Since the question was minimum, rather than ideal, the answer is 2.

 

[ilo]

My absolute minimum for my kids is 4 I think. Before that there is no FF in any setting including vacations and other ppls cars. I would buy (and I did LOL) a new RF seat for my child who is 3 almost 4, I would also import if needed. I probably would not buy a seat to RF a 4.5 year old. Then after 4 it depends on the child. I will RF to the limit of the seat and I will consider turning a child FF fulltime at some time during the year when they are 5-years old and will most likely not RF past 6.

 

[Ninetales]

I envy everyone with kids that will fit RF until 4. I feel like we'll be lucky if we make it to 2. I will buy a 45 lb RF seat but I absolutely cannot afford to import.

 

[misstj9]

I think mine is 3.5....but I'm not sure. My DD is 30 pounds even and still RF, but she's only got 2.5 lbs to go....and I don't want to FF her. I'm considering buying a MyRide from a friend (who I know and trust) so RF her to 40 lbs, but I'm wondering how long it will take her to get to 33 lbs (DS1 was 4+ before he was 33 lbs, DS2 was over 33 at 3yo!), and know that my DH will give me cr@p for buying her a new seat (but he thinks I'm nuts on the whole car seat thing, so why listen to him now!!)

 

[oddduck]

My personal minimum is 2. I would allow one of my children who was over 2 year old to FF in a properly installed carseat if need be. I would prefer them to rear face until 2.5-2.5 but if I had to I could deal with a FFing 2 year old. My youngest is in 1x35lb seat and 2x40lb seats so she'll probably be fine to RF in all vehicles until she outgrows them by height.

 

[DrummerBaby]

2 in other cars, to the limits of a Radian in my car. I RF him in other cars when possible, but it is not my hill to die on if he is in a safely installed FF seat rather than RF.

DS did ride FF once before age 2 when we were stranded on the interstate after breaking down. Some guys in a pickup gave us a lift to the next exit and the seat did not fit RF. I turned it because I figured it was safer than being on the side of the freeway with trucks going by at 70-80 mph. And we just installed it RF in the car we borrowed after that. DS has no problem going back and forth.

 

[carseatcoach]

I RFed to almost 3 back in 2005, and I thought that was pretty good. I'm not planning any more children, so I am not likely to have to make this decision. I think if I had to, though, I'd make age 4 my goal. After age 4 (my daughter would have fit RFing in a Radian to about age 5.5) I'd let the child choose. I would not buy a new RFing seat for a child over age ~3, and I would not import for a child over 2.

 

[An Aurora]

My own personal minimum was 3, and I changed it last summer when DS was 2 and every car ride was a traumatic event due to all the kids fighting. So I FF'd my 20 pound barely 2 year old and got a few peaceful weeks before I turned him back around.