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It has nothing to do with height and everything to do with weight. A good car seat will hold a child rear-facing until at least 33 lbs. Kids shouldn't be switched to ff before then.
It does have to do with height as well as weight. Weight being the major factor. If your kid is too talll for the entire seat (head above the seat and legs way too long crunching into the back) a new seat is in order.
I already said I agree anyway! The good "convertable' seats which I have says up to 35lbs!
my son was way too tall to stay in the baby seat for more than 6 months! i had no choice but to get the next seat and turn him forward.
i had never heard of sitting them rear facing for 2 years!
6 months?????
I'm so glad nothing ever happened to him! That is soooo dangerous!!
I can understand you not hearing of the 2 year rule but you NEVER heard of the 1 YEAR???????????????????
It does have to do with height as well as weight. Weight being the major factor. If your kid is too talll for the entire seat (head above the seat and legs way too long crunching into the back) a new seat is in order.
I already said I agree anyway! The good "convertable' seats which I have says up to 35lbs!
A child may be too tall for a bucket car seat (usually 26 inches), but ifa child is in a convertible car seat and is rear-facing the height limit is around 4 ft. and the weight is around 33 lbs. A typical child isn't going to be too tall for the entire seat with those limits. For rear-facing it is mostly weight that you need to be concerned with.
My son just turned 2 and is still rear-facing. His feet ARE "crunching into the back" of the seat, but he is NO where close to too tall for it. The fact that it is a convertible seat indicates that it will fit him for a very long time.
The Britax marathon owner's manual gives NO height limit for rear facing other than the child's head not going over the top of the seat. If they are still light enough to ride rear-facing, it shouldn't be an issue.
Again, height has nothing to do with it. Are you talking about a baby cariier/bucket? THOSE only hold a child to about 26 lbs. and then you switch to a REAR-facing convertible car seat!
If you have a very tall kid they are not going to be comfortable sitting criss cross applesauce for very long.
My daughter was always in the 100th percentile for height. She is very tall.
We turned her around, well I don't remember when, sometime after she turned 1, at 1 she met the height recommendation but not the weight recommendation. (or she met one criteria not the other, I don't remember exactly)
In any case, if they really want children to be in these car seats until they are 2 years old, they really need to design them so that a 2 year old will be comfortable in them.
Imagine sitting criss-cross applesauce yourself, backwards, and with your knees flush against the back of the seat. It would NOT be very comfortable, and as an adult who is able to reason and understand why it would be necessary I don't think many of us would put up with it for any length of time.
My biggest question nowadays is the booster seats.
You have a booster seat, with that little strap that connects from the seat belt to the shoulder strap, which you can adjust so that the shoulder belt is in proper place. What I don't get is why can we not skip the booster altogether and just use the strap? If the strap will work in conjunction with the booster I don't know why the strap won't work alone. Either it is too flimsy to be used at all (and children should have to use the booster w/back, like my 4 year old does, or the booster alone when they are able, like my almost 8 year old does) or if it is not flimsy why not use it alone? Is there some reason the kids just have to be higher up?
In my car, for the shoulder strap, you can bring it down or up depending on your height. This is built into the car. If the purpose of the booster seat is just to situate the strap in the proper place, couldn't they just put these things at every seat in the car?
I have a feeling money is being made by car seat manufacturers and there are other alternatives out there that could be cheaper to manufacture.
If you have a very tall kid they are not going to be comfortable sitting criss cross applesauce for very long.
My daughter was always in the 100th percentile for height. She is very tall.
We turned her around, well I don't remember when, sometime after she turned 1, at 1 she met the height recommendation but not the weight recommendation. (or she met one criteria not the other, I don't remember exactly)
In any case, if they really want children to be in these car seats until they are 2 years old, they really need to design them so that a 2 year old will be comfortable in them.
Imagine sitting criss-cross applesauce yourself, backwards, and with your knees flush against the back of the seat. It would NOT be very comfortable, and as an adult who is able to reason and understand why it would be necessary I don't think many of us would put up with it for any length of time.
My biggest question nowadays is the booster seats.
You have a booster seat, with that little strap that connects from the seat belt to the shoulder strap, which you can adjust so that the shoulder belt is in proper place. What I don't get is why can we not skip the booster altogether and just use the strap? If the strap will work in conjunction with the booster I don't know why the strap won't work alone. Either it is too flimsy to be used at all (and children should have to use the booster w/back, like my 4 year old does, or the booster alone when they are able, like my almost 8 year old does) or if it is not flimsy why not use it alone? Is there some reason the kids just have to be higher up?
In my car, for the shoulder strap, you can bring it down or up depending on your height. This is built into the car. If the purpose of the booster seat is just to situate the strap in the proper place, couldn't they just put these things at every seat in the car?
I have a feeling money is being made by car seat manufacturers and there are other alternatives out there that could be cheaper to manufacture.
How is sitting criss cross applesauce anymore uncomfortable than sitting with your legs dangling down? If it is safer to be rear-facing and your child fits that way, I don't see a problem?
As for booster seaqts, the point of them is too "boost" them up so the seat belt hits the points of their bodies that will cause the least amount of damage in a crash. This usually cannot be reached in a seat belt alone until over 4 ft. 9in.
My hubby is a car seat safety tech and I'm a self proclaimed car seat Nazi. I hope that answers your question.
At 5 months, I had to buy one of those super duty convertible carseats as my son had outgrown the carrier/rear facing style. My son's pediatrician recommended turning him around at the age of 9 months, due to his height.
I'll take a pediatrician's advice over someone being paid by the carseat industry EVERY TIME!
I let my 6 year old sometimes ride in the front too. Some nut job just about ran me off the road to yell at me when we first moved to Colorado. I found the irony funny... what a moron... endanger my kids and yours to tell me I'm not being safe!
If your child is too heavy or too tall for your bucket seat before 1 (or now 2) year old, then you should definitely buy a convertible seat. As stated above, your child is not going to be too tall for the convertible seat and still be under the weight limit for rear-facing, so height is not really a concern. The position of the legs for a rear-facing tall child is of much less concern than the spinal bone maturity - and a broken leg is preferable to a broken neck any day.
The AAP has had in the recs for a while that children should stay rear-facing until at least 20 pounds and 1 year, but preferably until the limits of the seat. Now they have changed it to 2 years or the limit of the seat. If you are going by the limits of the seat anyway, then nothing changes for you. But if you are a calendar watcher, then the new AAP rec probably makes a difference for you.
My child is almost 3 years old and still rear-facing in her convertible seat. It goes up to 33 pounds rear-facing, and she is only about 26 pounds now. There is not a concern about her legs being crossed - in fact many children prefer to sit with their knees bent anyway. She has never complained about it being uncomfortable, and has never complained to switch forward-facing (considering she's never experienced it, she doesn't even know the difference).
At 5 months, I had to buy one of those super duty convertible carseats as my son had outgrown the carrier/rear facing style. My son's pediatrician recommended turning him around at the age of 9 months, due to his height.
I'll take a pediatrician's advice over someone being paid by the carseat industry EVERY TIME!
Um, you do realize that the recommendation above is from the AAP, not the carseat industry. AAP = American Academy of Pediatrics. Your son's pediatrician gave you very bad advice to turn him at only 9 months.
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