At what age do you change the car seat to face forward?

Question

Or what is the weight my son should be at? He is now 9 months and 22 pounds and I gave the seat its turn around just to see how he'd react and he loves it! but should it be kept forward facing?

*His legs are too long for rear facing already*

Answer 1

I am being serious about this....

A friend of mine's cousins 20 month old was foward facing and he died in a accident his head seperated from his neck beneath his skin. It just makes sense that I would rather my daughters legs to break then her neck.

my daughter is 7 months and I plan to keep her foward facing until she is 2 yrs. old.

I was naive about my son and turned him around when he was 1 boy am I glad everything turned out okay. Which I am sure it will for you but do you really want to take that chance?

Answer 2

It doesn't matter how old is the baby, but it has to be 20 lbs or more. There's some baby that are under 12 months old are overweight or tall and reached over 20 lbs

Go ahead and put him forward facing since he's over 20 lbs!!!

Answer 3

They say up to a yr or 25 lbs which comes first.  But in reality, it doesnt work that way.  My son was too big for rear facing at 5 months.  Hes been in forward facing ever since.  Its up to u, if u want to take the risk but in my opinion, your baby is big enough.

Answer 4

He has to be one year old and 20lbs before you can change it around. If you get pulled over by a cop you can get a huge fine and child endangerment if you keep it forward facing not to mention if you did get into an accident.  Your little one would be injured serverly if he was in a forward facing carseat.  For his legs try sticking a blanket or pillow underneath of them to keep him for comfortable.

Answer 5

My babies sat Indian-style until they were over a year old.  My youngest was 17 months when I turned him around.    

Answer 6

He has to be 20 lbs AND 12 months old to face forward so you need a convertable carseat facing rear until he is 12 months old that is the law.  

Answer 7

His legs are NOT too long for rear facing.  It is perfectly safe for a baby's legs to be bent, folded, or hanging over the sides of the seat. Babies are much more flexible than adults, and are quite content to sit "froggy-style".

The MINIMUM is one year and 20 lbs, but that is the MINIMUM.  It has nothing to do with how much your baby weighs, it has to do with the development of neck muscles - one year is an arbitrary cut-off.  It is far safer to remain rear-facing to the limits of the seat.  Because a baby's head is so much larger in proportion to the rest of his body, the impact of a crash can actually separate the head from the spine (it's called internal decapitation).  Rear-facing children are 4-5 times safer than forward facing children in a crash.  

I urge you to turn your baby rear-facing again.  Right now, it's actually illegal for him to ride forward-facing, not to mention horribly dangerous.

Answer 8

Since you say his legs are too long already- here's a hypothetical situation:

If you were to (God forbid) get in an accident- would you rather your child have a broken neck or a broken leg?  (Even though there have been no reports of leg injuries due to extended rear facing)

A baby should be kept rear facing for as long as possible.  The force of an accident can cause a baby's head to be jerked forward so hard that it can literally detatch the head from the spine (internal decapitation).  Keep your baby rear facing for as long as possible-  most convertible car seats have a weight limit of 35lbs.

Check out this youtube video if you're interested... it's very eye-opening.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psmUWg7Qr...

Answer 9

No.  He needs a convertible car seat if he doesn't have one already.  It's not just about weight, it's about neck development.  He needs to be one year old before he flips around, at least.

If his legs are folded, that's fine.  It won't hurt him.

Answer 10

My two-year old just started forward-facing a couple weeks ago. It doesn't matter how heavy or tall a baby is, he is five times safer sitting rear-facing. And there are plenty of great convertible seats out there that will comfortably sit a child twice your son's age in the rear-facing position. His legs are perfectly safe being bent. His neck and spine, on the other hand, are not safe sitting forward.

Answer 11

Definitely keep it rear facing.  You've gotten a ton of great answers here (and a couple STUPID ones).  Just keep in mind that if you get into an accident and that little boy suffers internal decapitation because YOU turned the seat around too soon...it's you're fault, and there's no excuse for that.

Answer 12

Time for a Convertable Carseat that rear faces up to at least 30 lbs, he can NOT face forward until he is ONE year old and at least 20 lbs.

He can Suffer Severe Neck Trama if he faces forward Before he turns ONE, his spine Can NOT handle the impact.

Answer 13

You absolutely have to keep a child rear facing until a year and 20 pounds. It is actually beneficial to keep a child rear facing until 30 pounds. You can buy car seats that will keep a child comfortable in a rear facing position with plenty of leg room. My daugther is 16 months and I still keep her rear facing. There is a website I also included, hope this helps.

Answer 14

I was going to give you the youtube link but someone beat me to it :D I recommend you watch it and then turn your boy back to rear-facing. I am horrified at our Australian Standards which allow children to be faced forward from 6 MONTHS! My son will be staying RF until the 12kg limit of his carseat. He will then stay in it FF until the 18kg limit. When he gets to booster seat stage it will be a proper one with an anchor strap and 5 point harness. (he'll probably be teased at school for sitting in a "baby seat" lol but I don't care if it means he is ALIVE!)

Answer 15

You're not supposed to turn it around until a year. Longer if possible. I'm worried too, because I have a tall baby. The AAP recommends at least a year AND 20 pounds. It should really be both.

Answer 16

most states require that the child is 1 yr old.  contact the local fire department or ambulance service in your area for specific answers and a car seat installation check.

Answer 17

When your baby is 9kg or 20lbs then you can change the position of the seat to forward facing.

Answer 18

MY son now at 6 months is almost to big for his car seat.  His feet dangle over it, and he is about 18 or so pounds(not sure weighed him on our scale).  But thankfully my sister also had a biy who gre huge fast.  We got her old convertible car seat from her.  I can keep him rear facing for a long while now.  I really do not think the risk is worth it.  Also the best thing about the car seat.. it matches my diaper bag.. dumb I know.  But woo hoo for me.  

Answer 19

You've gotten some GREAT advice luckily. And I'll add mine to it. By the way, the separation of head from spine IS a real threat with forward facing a child under 2 years old and its called internal decapitation.

The old 20lbs/1 year rule is just that. OLD. It came about in the 1980's when our seats were only capable of rear facing to 20lbs and we didn't know any better. Now we definitely know better and all current convertible seats rear face to at least 30lbs, but its hard getting people to realize this.

Turning kids forward at 20lbs/1year is an outdated practice that could cost you your child's life!

1)A forward-facing child under 2 years old is 5 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a crash than a rear-facing child of the same age.

2)A child's vertabrae do not fully fuse until 3-6 years old, before then, she is at great risk for internal decapitation. The spinal column can stretch up to 2 inches in a crash BUT the spinal cord can only stretch up to 1/4 inch before it snaps and baby is gone.

3)Current research suggests that children under the age of two years are 75 percent less likely to die or be seriously injured when they are riding rear facing.

4)In a recent article from Injury Prevention, it was found that the odds of severe injury to forward facing children age 12-23 months old was 5.32 times higher than a rear facing child. (Car Safety Seats For Children: Rear Facing For Best Protection; Injury Prevention 2007; 13:398-402.)

It works this way: when you get in an accident and run into something, the car stop suddently, but everything and everyone in the car keeps moving in the direction the car was moving when it stopped, in most accidents, this is forward. So in an accident with a child in a forward facing seat, his head, the heaviest part of the body on babies and toddlers, flies forward very forcefully and easily snaps. If that same child is in a rear facing seat, his head tries to fly forward but is supported by the back of the rear facing seat, so there is no stress put on the child's neck and spine.

Check out this photo album exclusively of rear facing kids, many of them much older than 12 months: http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum...  There isn't a single documented case of a child breaking their legs b/c they were rear facing in an accident. There are, however, lots of cases where children have been killed and seriously injured where a rear facing seat would have protected them better. And  most kids actually prefer to be rear facing b/c they can rest their feet on the vehicle seat back. When they are forward facing, their legs don't receive enough support and will frequently fall asleep.

In the foreground is a forward facing seat, in the background a rear facing seat. You can see how much trauma the forward facing dummy has to endure. The rear facing child simply rides it out.

http://www.oeamtc.at/netautor/html_seite...

Here's another video. You can see how there is NO trauma to the baby, it simply sits there waiting for it to end.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v163/j...

Answer 20

Consult your doctor on this one.  The general rule of thumb is 20lbs AND one year of age.  However, my youngest son was very large and after much research and conversations with doctors, police officers and EMT workers, my husband and I chose to turn him forward facing at around 10.5 months.  I know not everyone agrees with it (I'm prepared for the massive amounts of thumbs down), but in the long run it was safer for our exact situation.  Because he wasn't fitting properly (not just his legs) in the rear-facing position, it would have potentially caused more harm in a collision than if he was forward-facing.  That's why I suggest you talk to professionals about your exact situation before turning him forward-facing.  They can give you tons of helpful information and insight.

Answer 21

By law, in most places, they must be one year old AND 20-22lbs.  But that is merely the bare minimum based on the seats that were available at the time.

His legs are fine, there is nothing wrong with bent legs or even cross-legged.

Rear-facing is ALWAYS safest and a child should remain rear-facing until they are too heavy or too tall for a convertible carseat which is generally 35lbs.

http://www.carseat.org/Technical/tech_up...

Rear-facing vs. forward-facing

Safety experts and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children remain rear-facing as long as possible and never travel forward-facing before they are 1 year old and also weigh at least 20 pounds to reduce the risk of serious neck injury and lifelong disability. All new convertible seats available today allow a child to remain rear-facing until they weigh up to 30 or 35 lb, depending on the model.

When the child is rear-facing, the head, neck, and thorax are restrained together by the back of the CR in a frontal crash. There is little or no relative motion between the head and torso that could load the neck. If the same child were facing forward, the harness would restrain the torso, but the head and neck would pull and rotate forward, leading to the potential for serious upper spinal injury.

There are many misunderstandings and misconceptions about rear-facing vs. forward-facing that lead even the best intentioned parent or pediatrician to believe a child is "safe" facing forward when he is still very young. These come from obsolete ideas and advice that may still appear in older pamphlets and pediatric literature and are not the current recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Real-world experience has also shown that a young child's skull can be literally ripped from her spine by the force of a crash. The body is being held in place, but the head is not. When a child is facing rearward, the head is cradled and moves in unison with the body, so that there is little or no relative motion that might pull on the connecting neck.

The most common misunderstanding is that a child is ready to travel facing forward when his neck muscles are strong enough to support and control his head. However, when a car hits something at 25 to 30 mph, it will come to a stop at a negative acceleration rate of from 20 to 30 G. Because of the time lag between when the vehicle stops and an occupant stops, and the fact that the head of a forward-facing adult or child is still free to move relative to the restrained torso, the head may experience as much as 60 or 70 Gs acceleration for a brief moment. Even the strong neck muscles of military volunteers cannot counteract such forces. Instead, the rigidity of the bones in the neck and strength of the connecting ligaments (not the muscles) hold the adult spine together and keep the spinal cord intact within the confines of the vertebral column.

Very young children, however, have immature vertebrae that are still partly made of cartilage. These are soft and will deform and/or separate under tension, leaving just the spinal cord as the last link between the head and the torso. According to documented research, autopsy specimens of infant spines and ligaments allow for spinal column elongation of up to two inches, but the spinal cord ruptures if stretched more than 1/4 inch. Real-world experience has shown that a young child's skull can be literally ripped from her spine by the force of a crash.

Another aspect of the facing-direction issue that is often overlooked is the additional benefit a child gains in a side impact. Crash testing and field experience have both shown that the head of a child facing rearward is captured by the child restraint shell in side and frontal-oblique crashes, while that of a forward-facing child may be thrown forward, around, and outside the confines of the side wings. Field data show better outcomes for rear-facing children than forward-facing children, even though most CRs are not specifically designed to protect children in side impact.

Some older convertible CRs indicated in their instructions that a child should face forward when her feet touch the vehicle seatback or when the legs must be bent due to lack of space. This prohibition is not justified by any crash experience or any laboratory evidence, and these instructions have now been revised. There have not been any crashes documented in which rear-facing children sustained leg injuries because they were rear-facing. Even if this were the case, broken legs are easier to fix than broken necks. The only physical limit on rear-facing use is when the child's head approaches the top of the restraint shell (see Height and weight limits). At this point, she should be moved to a rear-facing convertible restraint, or, if the child is already using one and is over one year, to its forward-facing configuration.

There are no magical or visible signals to tell parents, pediatricians, or technicians when the risk of facing forward in a crash is sufficiently low to turn the child around. In an international research and crash review conducted several years ago, the data seemed to show a change in outcome at about 12 months between severe consequences and more moderate consequences for the rare events of injury to young children facing forward in a CR. At the time, one year old was useful as a simple benchmark, but now the message is to keep the child facing rearward as long as possible within the weight and height limits of the CR. This may be as long as 18 to 24 months.

Parents and pediatricians need to know what the real reasons for extending the rear-facing period, in order to be able to make an informed judgment. For research documentation, see Weber, 2000. See also Rear-facing child restraint. (7/06)