I normally don’t like to go political on this blog. I try to keep all these things to myself. This post however may be seen as political. I am sorry. I mean in no way to offend anyone that can’t extended rear face their child. Some children really can’t handle it and we paid nearly $300 for our current car seat, and that isn’t in everyones budget. However these are the reasons why we chose to.
Max is rear facing still. He is 33 lbs and in the 96% for height. So he isn’t small. We are rear facing still because it is the safest way for him to travel. I don’t understand physics but Tony does. He says that would be safest if everyone in the car faced to the rear, but that isn’t practical so we don’t. This link should help anyone understand the benefits of rear facing. If that doesn’t help you perhaps this video might. Our current car seat for Max is rear facing to 45 lbs. So we do plan on rear facing him till he gets to that limit. However if some of the manufactures in Europe are able to get our seats to rear facing even longer, we may consider getting a new seat for him. In Sweden (I am told) it is common place to rear face to 55 lbs or 5 years old. The car seat that Max has, is the highest rear facing in the US market right now.
Our car seat is a Sunshine Kids Radian (we have the XTSL). It has the added benefit of being able to be folded as you can see in the photo of all of our stuff in Minnesota. It is also in one of the photos of Max looking at trucks in the hotel window. The car seat is in the chair to the left.
Max’s legs normally hang off to either side when he is in the seat. Rarely does he have them straight out in front. He seems happiest this way. He also does forward face when he is in the car (which Tony normally takes to work) however this is a VERY rare occasion when the minivan (Maya) is in the shop.
I hope I didn’t offend. That wasn’t my point. However if I could educate just one person as to the benefit to this it would be well worth the time that it took me to post this.
Jennifer