Car seat question

[mrs_kat]

Hey all,

Dd's on the small side and probably won't be 20 pounds yet when she hits one year old.  Our front facing car seat is for one year/20+ pounds.  Should I keep her in the rear facing seat until she reaches 20 pounds, even if that's a few months past a year?

Thank you!

[Messa]

I would, they suggest AT LEAST one year and if your car seat can support a larger weight even if past one year I would go with that that is what I am going to do our car seat faces rear up to 35lbs and I am planning on keeping her rear facing up till real close to that weight.

[¤ Efka ¤]

I also suggest keep her in rear facing seat as long as possible. It is safer that way for babies, though when your baby is really active it could be boring for her this way.

[joannad]

It goes by weight & this affects mommentum when the car is moving or if you have to do an emergency stop or if the car jolts suddenly in an impact.
I'm pleased you mentioned the weight as we were trying to remember the weight to go forward facing today.  I know it was 33lb for the booster seat but couldn't remeber the weight for forward facing.
DD1 was only 6 months & was in a Booster at 18 months as she was big & DD2 will probably be the same.  Their cousin although forward facing was still the tiny baby car seat at 2 years as she's that much smaller - she's on the 5th centile whist my 2 are on the 95th (DD1 now off the scale).

[mrs_kat]

Thanks everyone for your input.  We'll keep her in the rear-facing seat until she's 20 pounds.  Here's some appreciation headed your way! 

[EmMUK74]

I agree with everyone else except with one small caveat.  DD is really tall and that means her head is above the top of her car seat and her feet hit the feet in front so we have been advised that she's not safe in her rear facing anymore even though she's not too heavy for it.  We had to do loads and loads of research to find out what to do if length is the issue and not weight and everyone agreed to go up to the bigger car seat since her length means she is at major risk of wiplash in the rear facing one.  thought that was worth sharing.

[¤ Efka ¤]

I agree with everyone else except with one small caveat. DD is really tall and that means her head is above the top of her car seat and her feet hit the feet in front so we have been advised that she's not safe in her rear facing anymore even though she's not too heavy for it. We had to do loads and loads of research to find out what to do if length is the issue and not weight and everyone agreed to go up to the bigger car seat since her length means she is at major risk of wiplash in the rear facing one. thought that was worth sharing.

This is true too. Obvously , when baby do not fit(being it lenght or weight), it is better for her to be transfered to bigger seat.