Carseat...

[Carla]

Jonah is just under 9kg at 9.5 mths, and we turned his around about 5?weeks ago

Everyone was asking when I was going to! But I just didn't feel ready What changed my mind was the fact tat he was straining his little head SO much to see the action!- he has 3 older brothers - I knew he had good head control then and felt that he was ready!! He LOVES it!!!!!!

But I would keep him rear for as long as poss. he'll let you know
Head control is the most important

[twinmama]

I did it at around 7 months - Brandon weighed around 6kg, same with Emma. I know I should have waited - but the way they were growing, with the seat requirements etc they'd still be rearfacing - and even though I know all the stats etc on rear facing, I just couldn't bear them to still be facing forward for that long - so I turned. It's a personal decision. You need to decide what's best for you and your son.

[ljl211]

I just turned Alanas around only because she's great with head control (7.5kgs, nearly 8 mths) and was getting super cranky facing backwards. A lady in my MG who was the "different" one turned her second baby around at 6 WEEKS! because she said he hated going backwards (like he'd know at 6 weeks!) we were going to dob her into the cops!

[Carla]

6 WEEKS!!!!!


OMG!!!!!! is that allowed?????

[Kylie]

I'd check your manual. Some seats are rear facing until 9kg, some until 12kg.

[Kylees]

um 6 weeks ? I was scared to have Kalan in the car seat cuz it looked like he didnt fit in it properly no way would it ever be turned around at 6 weeks.

[Lucretia]

Rear facing is SO SO SO much safter.

There are a couple of videos down the bottom of this page
http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/StayRearFacing.aspx
which compare a baby in a crash rear and fowards facing. The fowards facing baby you can just see their neck and back breaking The rear facing baby is almost totally protected...

We turned Alia we she outgrew the seat limit of 12kg which was about 18 months. I wish she could have stayed rear facing longer.

[ljl211]

my husband when training to become a mechanic did a course on car seats as well and definitely rear facing is better.....

[lesley4]

I'll be keeping Katherine rear facing as long as possible, hopefully to at least 12mths - especially after I was shown the crash tests last year, but since she's already 2nd from the top on the shoulder straps and they look like they need to moved soon, I don't know how I will, might have to buy a new seat And William sits next to her, so he can keep her amused LOL!!! Yeh right, poking her, holding her hand, trying to put her dummy in when she cries.

[KristyMum]

I rang the Kidsafe line and asked about this because Zeke (before I realised it) exceeded the weight limit early, but was surprisingly still very happy rear-facing (Jake and Brooke (especially) really didn't like rear facing as much, nuh-uh, so as soon as they met the weight limit, we turned them) - so I thought well should I leave him rear-facing, since it's safer?
My thinking was he should stay rear-facing as long as possible, because he's younger (and because it's safer) despite his weight...

however
Kidsafe (WA) reply was that you should go by the weight range/limitation on the seat fullstop. They said even if they have good head control, it isn't an indicator to say 'yes' to turning, because their delicate heads and necks still get thrown forward in the front facing position even if they have super head control - heck, even adults heads still get thrown forward. The flip side was that even tho he was happy rear facing, because of his weight, he should be turned front facing, because that's what the forward-facing car seat was designed to accomodate, at that weight, while the rear-facing position was not.

So they said even if a child has superb head control, if they don't meet the weight restriction/minimum, then don't turn them.
the weight restriction is there for a reason - because that's the most appropriate restraint/position for the child of that weight.
(don't yell at me lol, that's what they said)
(I don't know how this would work if the child was above the max rear-facing weight but with seriously no head control..?)

So even thought Zeke was more than happy rear facing, we did turn him because he exceeded the seat weight limit. It felt very strange, him being 'younger' than Brooke and Jake were before we turned them, but that was the advice we were given, and it did make sense - that was the position that was safest for him at that weight in that seat...
They said go by weight.

The other thing is, some seats have a higher top-end weight range, so if you want to prolong the rear-facing, you'd go for a higher end range iykwim... although it's so hard to know in advance, you may have a child who hates rear facing and be glad of a slightly lesser higher end weight range limit... iykwim (and too late of course if you already have a seat!)

The other thing is do we ignore weight restrictions on other things?
Bridges?
Medications?

IN the end, of course, the decision is yours and best of luck with it!