When to turn car seat???

[Lunar]

On Kailah's car seat it says for babies up to 8kgs reward facing, for babies over that it must be forward facing.

I am a little confused as to when to turn it around. She has very good head control and is nearly sitting alone. She is 5 months old and nearly 8 kgs. With Emily it was different. I didn't turn her seat around till she was 7 months or so as she had poor muscle tone and was just so tiny.

So, when did you turn your baby around? I know I can leave her that way for a while but just wondering what is best.

[dannii]

I just turned Indy around a few weeks ago (at about 7.5 months)
i probably could have done it abit sooner as shes a big bub and great head control.

[Frazzled]

Hey babe. We turned Elliot at nearly 8 kilos. We had a capsule though and he was getting way too small for that! I think he was about 6 months and about 7.6 kilos? he has always had very good head control.

[Lunar]

Thanks chicky babes!
I think I will leave it for another month.

Kate, I can't believe Elliot was only 8kg at 6months! Little chubba he is now.... I wanna eat his cheeks ya know!:p

[Frazzled]

Kate, I can't believe Elliot was only 8kg at 6months! Little chubba he is now.... I wanna eat his cheeks ya know!:p

Ha ha! I know hasn't he wacked it on now! Ha Ha! I thought he would have lost weight last week after being sick:no: He is upt to 10.73 kilos! Ha Ha Ha!

[2littleprincesses]

I think generally it's 6m or 8kg as long as they have good head/neck control. But look at the instructions that come with your car seat to see what they recommend

[sam's mum]

I was told by the health nurse that it is solely on weight. Even if it takes Sam until 15 months to get to 9kg (QLD) he can't be turned. She said that there is more to it than the head control, it is about the cushioning and protection around the torso and organs. At the rate he is gaining weight, we might get there by 15 months....just....

[kamaraj]

I thinks its best to wait until they are a bit older and their weight is at or over the 8 kilo mark, only cause even if they have great neck control, they dont have that same neck control when they fall asleep, so if you do have to stop suddenly you may do some damage. Always better to be safe than sorry. My friend has turned her bubba around already and he is only 4 months old, I couldnt do it that early!

[reAllytee]

Yep go by weight is what ive been told by everyone.
Shame my poor Boof got turned at 4mths cause well he was & still is a Boof :p
Luckily he had head control etc otherwise we would have had dramas !!!
Im going to have to look at finding another carseat for him in my sisters car cause he is so big now he doesnt fit the standard properly anymore :rolleyes:
Yes big babies are fun ....... and bloomin expensive :p

[claireandbailey]

Yep go by weight is what ive been told by everyone.
Shame my poor Boof got turned at 4mths cause well he was & still is a Boof :p
Luckily he had head control etc otherwise we would have had dramas !!!
Im going to have to look at finding another carseat for him in my sisters car cause he is so big now he doesnt fit the standard properly anymore :rolleyes:
Yes big babies are fun ....... and bloomin expensive :p
Hey Allyoo
have you seen the car seats that are like booster seats but they have the same seat belts as a baby car seat that might be best for you!!. I think they go from 8-10kgs to 26kgs! I'll be getting one of these when Bailey gets too big for her seat cos i think they're safer than just a booster seat!

[munchkin05]

i turned bens seat around when he was around 5 mths old he had great head controll and could alreafy sit by himself

if i had waited untill he reached 8 kg he wouldnt have got turned around untill he was over 1

hes 14mth now and weighs only 8.4 kg

but when i did turn it around as i said he was already sitting by himself and everything and he was also walking by 8 mths old so there was no way he was going to be content in not seeing out the window

[Mamaduke]

I was always told to not rush to turn the seat around, as it's so much safer for bubs to be sitting that way in a car.
allyoo...
I just bought Lukey (just turned 2) his first booster seat (it's apparently the tallest on the market), poor thing was really struggling in his baby seat - we'd run out of strap length for the harness part and his shoulders were getting squashed from the tension in the belt!!
Got him (and Jesse) a Safe and sound Pegasus - all the extra padding, a moveable & detachable pillow, a centre slot for the seatbelt to slide into (between his legs) for added safety as well as the extra harness that we bought seperately...'cause if something happens I don't fancy 21kgs of Lukey hitting me in the back of the head!!!:p (that was a joke of course!)

[reAllytee]

...'cause if something happens I don't fancy 21kgs of Lukey hitting me in the back of the head!!! (that was a joke of course!)


:eek: :eek:

Your horrible horrible woman !!!!!
You should neve have been allowed to have children !!!!!!!
I think your ovaries need to be removed at once ;)

That actually made me snort as i laughed btw

Will have to start checking out what i can buy etc dont even know what Boof weighs anymore suppose a trip to the CHN is in order lol !
Our problem is his height he is getting too tall for his car seat & it looks ridiculous plus the straps are starting to sit the wrong way on his shoulders so yeah looks like another few hundred dollars we dont have need to be spent ! Luckily we dont have a car ourselves so it isnt a dire need but still ...

[neeky]

when we took our capsule back the qld ambulance people said not to turn them til they were 9kgs even tho most car seats say 8kg. apparently 9kg is safer. but he also said that so long as they are able to sit up properly and still breathe etc then they will be safe enough to be forward facing. but he did stress that 9kgs was preferable. our son has been siting by himself for so long but we still only just turned him around not long ago. he's 8mths. he's only about 8kgs, but it was just getting to be too much of a fight to put him facing backwards!

[LucyE]

It is SAFEST to leave bub rearward facing up to the weight limit of your particular restraint. So, if the manufacturer recommends 8kgs then that restraint would only have been safety rated for that weight. I would rather trust the manufacturers than anyone else (you will also void any warrantee if you don't use the restraint in the way they recommend eg. within weight limits).

And for some info on why to keep them rearward facing as long as possible, check out

http://www.carseat.org/Technical/tec....htm#rearfacFF

Here are a few quotes from the article:

The most prevalent misunderstanding is the idea that muscle strength and control dictate whether it is reasonable to face a child forward and subject the neck to the extreme forces pulling the head away from the body in a frontal crash.


Rather it is the rigidity of the bones in the neck, in combination with the connecting ligaments, that determines whether the spine will hold together and the spinal cord will remain intact within the confines of the vertebral column

TMI warning!!!!!

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.

And for those who are skeptical of o/s crash test data, these tests were done to meet the European testing standards of which Australia follows. The only difference in Australia, is that we have a top tether strap to our carseats which helps to minimise damage to the child. The same laws of physics still apply regarding the affects of the crash on the child's spine. There is no Australian data that indicates that forward facing is as safe as rearward facing. And definitely no reliable data anywhere that says head/neck control has anything to do with when to turn bub around.

[Milliner]

There was a thread on this a few months ago here is the link
http://www.bubhub.com.au/community/forums/showthread.php?t=27644&highlight=turn

There is alot of good info in this thread!!!

[NZMama]

Ive just recently turned my daughter around and she is 7.5 months. Shes had good head control since 4months but she was far too small to be sitting forward facing.

[MummyCharmzy]

I turned Zach at 18 months, he was reallyyy tiny
I turned bella at 12 months and shes a boof!
I'll probably keep sav rearward til about 12 months too :)

[little mermaid]

My car seat says to keep it rearward facing till 12kilos.

[LilShenanigans]

I had to turn DD around when I could see her legs waving in the air from rear window!!! lol
She was under weight for the instructions, but there was no way she was going to fit - small but incredibly long! lol

If I had of stuck to instructions, she'd still be facing rearward with her head and feet poking out each end! -That could've be funny come to think of it lol

[reAllytee]

My car seat says to keep it rearward facing till 12kilos.


Can you tell me which brand & name cause i would love to know cause if my next bubba ( if & when we have one lol ) is a hippo like Boof is then i would rather have them still rear facing as long as possible.
As i said i couldnt as he was too big you couldnt get him in etc so it sounds like that would be a bigger style of seat so could be more appropriate !
Ta :D

[Areca]

Allyoo my car seat is rear facing up to 12kg and is a safe and sound. One of the safe and sounds that goes from 0-4 years (up to 26kg I think). It's a Royale maybe...I don't remember the exact name of it. We got it from babies galore. Ours was the most expensive one they sell (it has speakers in the car seat..dbf's idea not mine. Needless to say we've never used them) but there were other more standard car seats that were the same style, just without all the extras so cheaper. I'm imagining they are up to 12kg too!

[Lunar]

Allyoo, the car seat Kailah is in is a mother's choice can't remember the model but it is the current one in stores, think it was around $220 but we got it for $150 on special from baby target when I was preggie (oh how it seems so long ago...)

[little mermaid]

Can you tell me which brand & name cause i would love to know cause if my next bubba ( if & when we have one lol ) is a hippo like Boof is then i would rather have them still rear facing as long as possible.
As i said i couldnt as he was too big you couldnt get him in etc so it sounds like that would be a bigger style of seat so could be more appropriate !
Ta :D
Both my meridian AHR and royale are rearward facing up till 12 kilos and so is the premier and a few other safe n sound one. I have a feeling the baby love ones are too.

[ladybug]

My DD was born in the USA, and It is the law that you have to wait until your child is 1 year old and weight 9 kilos. Also the carseat's manufacturer says the same thing. When we came here, she was 8 months old. I waited for her to become 1 year old, and 9 kilos to turn her around.