our little man

2.26.2009

new perspective

i've mentioned before that we are advocates of extended rear-facing when it comes to car seats. the norm is to turn kiddos around on their first birthday, but many people don't know that you don't have to turn them then. in fact, the rule in most states is that the child has to be both a year and 20 pounds before they can be turned forward-facing. with both sophie and ben, they weren't even actually big enough to turn by their first birthdays. we kept sophie rear-facing until just before ben was born and we had to juggle the seats around and decided to make the switch then - i believe she was 20 months old. ben has been rear-facing up until now, and he is 27 months old. in our judgement, the safety benefits dramatically outweighed any convenience of switching the seat sooner... and in fact, in our van, i think it's actually been easier to get ben in and out of a rear-facing seat anyhow. also, ben sits in the second row of the van and sophie sits in the third - so with him facing backwards they can talk and play together much more easily.

i've done a lot of research and heard recommendations from several people in the medical profession and found that children in a rear-facing seat are much better protected from serious injury in the case of an accident. even the american academy of pediatrics says that children should remain rear-facing until they outgrow the limits of the seat. for example, ben is currently in a britax roundabout convertible car seat - which is safe rear-facing until the child is 33 pounds.

ben is getting closer to that 33 pounds limit, so we've been thinking about making the switch. in fact, he's taken a few rides in sophie's seat after we've dropped her off at school, so he's been able to test it out a bit. yesterday i actually had to take both car seats out of the van (due a slightly embarrassing situation where i locked myself out of the house and my sister had to drive me and ben to pick sophie up from school), so i figured it was as good a time as any to turn his seat around.

when i switched his seat, i also moved sophie's seat so that they are now sitting next to each other. when we got up this morning and i asked the kids what they wanted to do today, the first thing sophie said was, "take a ride in the car so i can sit next to ben!" they were so anxious to try it out, so we did go for a little drive. they loved sitting together and had a great time. ben also loved his new vantage point and being able to see out of the windshield.

posted at 7:00 PM by aimee // 0 comments