Car Seat - Grand Prairie, TX

Your baby needs to be at least 12 months to turn around to have the neck muscles to be able to support her head in a crash. The current research is now saying leave the baby backwards as long as possible.

If you are looking at a new carseat go ahead and spend the money on a good one (Britax) because you will use this one the next 4 years. I had to buy a new one at age 4 because he was too tall (and he is not a tall kid) to fit in his seat and still needs to gain 8 pounds to graduate into a booster (40 pounds).

TEXAS: 12 months **AND** 20 Lbs.

See attached for video showing the difference of impact of RF and FF. Not a sad video I promise just educational...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRP7ynNI8mI

My pediatrician said to wait until my baby was at least 32 pounds to switch carseats which will be longer than a year. She is only 16 1/2 pounds at 8 months. She is really long though so we will see if this limit sticks. Good luck.

I agree with the last response. Wait til a year. I also went with the Britax. I know it's more expensive, but it's worth it!

After her first birthday. The regulations are one year AND 20 lbs for a reason - a baby smaller than 20 lbs just isn't big enough to fit a forward facing seat and a baby younger than 1, on average, does not have the neck muscles to prevent significant brain injury in a forward facing crash.

That said, if she still fits in her car seat (or the next one you buy can also do rear facing) and she's ok with facing backwards, there's no real rush to turn her around. She is much safer facing backward in an appropriate, and appropriately sized car seat than she is facing forward.

S.

A child should be one year old AND weigh 20 pounds before sitting in a front facing seat.

ugh ..so I just typed this long e-mail and my internet cut out .. grr!!!

Anyway ... I would most certainly wait until the 1 year mark and if possibly slightly longer. My first 2 kids (now age 5 and 7) I turned FFing shortly after they turned a year .. but with my 3 child .. there are all sorts of studies and tests done that prove RFing is so much safer. He is now 2 years and 4 months old and STILL RFing and loving it. :-)

Just google or search you tube and you'll get all sorts of video showing the difference btwn RFing and FFing and the benefits of extended RFing. :-) Yes their legs get a little long .. but a broken leg is easier to fix than a broken neck. Obviously make an informed choice for you and your daughter .. but at minimum do wait until she's a full year old regardless of weight!

Oh and Britax does make probably the best seats around, but b/c of the price, I've never purchased one. Good luck in your decision. :-)

My Dr. says 1 yr. old or 20 lbs. whichever comes LAST.

Love your name! My daughter's name is C.. :)

We have a similar problem! We have an 8 month old who is only 15 lbs, but about 2-3 ins short of being too tall for her rear facing car seat. My sister is a pediatrician and from what she told us, both height and weight are a factor in transferring babies to the front facing car seats. She said we will probably need to switch to a convertiable car seat and get her out of the infant carrier pretty soon becuase her head will be too close to the top of the car seat for it to work properly in a crash. We will still have to keep her rear facing until that magical 20lb mark - which at the rate she is going will be a long time! I personally hate the rear facing car seats since you cant see the little ones to sooth or interact with them very well when you are driving alone with them in the car. I would love to put her in a front facing car seat ASAP, but want her to be safe. You probably need to check with your pediatrician to make sure that your daughter is tall enough, along with heavy enough, to switch to a front facing car seat and be safe in it :)

Hi C.,
Please please please keep your little girl rear facing, it is MUCH MUCH safer, 2 years and 30lbs is the new 1 year and 20lbs. :-) The only reason the rule is 1 year and 20lbs is because when the law was made, car seats only went to 22lbs rear facing, lots has changed since then, and now we have all these awesome car seats that go to 30, 33 and 35lbs rear facing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psmUWg7QrC8 - here is a good video that sums up why rear facing is so important. If you want more info you can always google "Benefits of rear facing" or head over to car-seat.org and take a look around on their forums.

Also, I would definitely try and meet up with a Child Passenger Safety Technician and have them show you how to install your seat properly, as the vast majority of carseats are installed and used incorrectly these days.

If you have any other questions about anything car seat related, please don't hesitate to ask! (I am a CPST)

Hi C.. The law says that your baby needs to be at least 12 months old *AND* at least 20 lbs. before facing forward.

In terms of carseats, I second Tracie's recommendation on Britax seats. We have owned Evenflo and Graco FF seats as well, and hands-down the Britax seats are easier to use. Their crash safety ratings are excellent as well. Review the height and weight limits for the Britax seats -- you'll probably either want a Roundabout (which we have 2 of and LOVE) or a Marathon. The Marathon is much bigger, which allows you to keep the seat longer, but I don't believe you can take them on aircraft because of their size (too big). However, if that's not an issue for you, you may want to get the Marathon since it will allow you to keep your child in the 5-point harness longer, if that's important to you. Then you could go straight to a belt-adjusting booster.

Once our oldest outgrew her Roundabout, we got her a booster that allowed her to use its internal 5-point harness until she met the requirements for using the car's seatbelt with the booster (in which case, we removed the 5-point harness from the booster). Removing the 5-point harness was a real hassle, at least for the seat we purchased, so perhaps its not worth the expense of the combo seat. Hope that last part isn't too confusing!

Good luck!

She has to be 1 year old and 20 lbs.

I'm pasting and editing from a different post I answered.

Keep him rear facing as long as possible. Here's an article about extended rear facing. I know it seems like such a good idea, but not at the risk of the babies. I have an almost 4 yr (next week) who we just turned around on her 3rd b-day.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/215843/extended_...