Maybe I should preface with....this is not a debate, this is just me showing some pics of my kids and sharing my excitement...yes I'm crazy and get excited about new car seats lol. Feel free to ask me any questions though

I don't know really where this would qualify, seems to me like most parents I run into that do ERF (extended rear facing) are more "natural/AP" mamas so I thought I'd put it here

Yesterday I got an amazing deal on a new car seat!!!! I was sooooo excited to find it. It was a Radian XTSL that normally retails for $299.99, it was on sale for $134.99! Turns out it was a mistake but the store honored it though the manager was a total b**** about it! (Told the girl checking me out, right in front of me, "I want to know who tagged that seat, this is going to be someone's job" wow way to make me feel awful when it wasn't my mistake) But anyways I got the seat, yay! It was intended for Hayden to give him more leg room but it goes to 45lbs RF and so I tried Casen in it (36-37lbs) just to see and he fits and he ASKED to be "backwards" so I decided to do it I feel so much better with my new set up, and they all 3 love it. Just wanted to share some pics, older kids ARE comfy RF

First this is Hayden trying it out inside


Casen in the house


Landon back in a harnessed seat, he has been in a booster but we put him into Casen's seat


My 2 RFers


One way to ride lol, Casen's legs make me laugh


This was Hayden in the seat we tried at the store, they let us make sure it fit in the car, he has lots more leg room in it


Landon happy in this seat, says it's more comfy


My happy almost 28mo old


Casen




Just want to add they were in the car for 2hrs earlier straight, he said he was comfy the whole time, wants to stay riding that way.

Those pics are fab, they look really pleased with their new seats!! x

I'm not trying to start a debate with other ladies but I've always wanted to ask you what made you choose to do extended rear facing. I am starting to get curious about it just from seeing you talk on here. Was there some moment that made you realize that you wanted to do extended rear facing? I know you posted a site in another thread that explained about it but I never got the time to read through it. What kind of reaction do you tend to get from other people when it comes to this? I admit I'm nosy but I'm just so curious about it all.

Your sons are absolutely gorgeous BTW.

Very nice carseat! That is quite a deal. Your boys are always so cute, and hey as long as everyone's happy your free to do as you wish in regards to the carseats!

Love the seats. They look both comfy and safe.

I have heard about the safety of rear facing seats up to a certain age but I have never found what age is recommended. I have heard someone say at least until the age of 5 but I have always wondered where you get rear facing seats that big.

That's fine, I have no problem answering any questions just don't want other people to think I'm pushing it or anything, just really excited about it...especially the awesome deal I got on it

For me it was just looking at the facts...most importantly that kids from ages 1-2 are 500% safer rear facing. There are no actual stats for above 2 but if we look at Sweden's crashes and fatalities with kids it is much lower and it's shown how much safer they are rear facing...it's common in Sweden for kids to RF to 4-5yrs old. But it's also shown that kids spines and neck aren't strong enough to withstand a forward facing crash just because of how the bones are formed until age 3 or so...that's when the bones start to ossify. So even though there aren't more stats for over age 2 there are other things showing how it's safer based on how the bones are formed and all of that.

I didn't rear face Landon very long, actually he was a little before 1 because I thought it was 1yr or 20lbs...he was like 25lbs then when we switched. Thankfully nothing ever happened, they have never been in a wreck. Casen was 13mo when we switched. But just since finding out more and more I feel it's the safest. Getting in a car is dangerous, but obviously we have to do it, I just want to keep them as safe as I possibly can, so I take as many precautions as I can. Hayden has been RF his whole life minus about a month that the seats we had wouldn't work that way in our car...my goal is to get him to 3-4yrs old then I will let him choose like Casen.

I have a few videos that give alot of info and show crash tests if you would be interested in them too They aren't scare mongering just facts and showing bigger kids RF to see it is comfy. Casen has a huge vocab, he is quite amazing lol, he is more than capable of telling me if he's comfy or not and he loved riding in it RF today

It depends on where you live, here in the US the law is 20lbs and 1yr, the recommendation is 2yrs or the limits of a convertible carseat which is 35-45lbs depending on the brand. I think where you are it's hard to find many that have high RF limits, I would just get what you can and keep them RF as long as you can. I'm not real familiar with seats there so I can't say which do have the highest limits I would just look around and see what you can do with what's available there

Thanks hun

That's so interesting. I had honestly never heard anything about that with necks and spines not being formed well enough yet, etc. I'm so glad I'm on this site to learn things like this. I am for sure going to look more into extended rear facing. Emma is so tiny so I highly doubt she will be 20 pounds even at a year. My carseat goes up to 35 pounds that she is in right now. So I could potentially use it for quiet a while. Thanks so much for being such an advocate for this! I agree no one should ever judge you. I think your an awesome mommy from the posts I've seen you make, etc.