Extended rear-facing?

Question

Personally, I am all for ERF and plan on buying a convertible car seat with the highest limit for rear-facing. I talked about this with a few people and they acted like I was weird....their excuses for not doing it were along the lines of "my child will be uncomfortable" or "I want to be able to see my child" or "what child wants to look at the seat". If it's been proven to be the safest way for babies to ride until at least age 2, then why wouldn't you do it? I'm just curious of what everyone else's opinions on it are!

Answer

My son is 3 and he's still rearfacing, we plan to keep him that way until at least 4.  I don't care what people think, I will keep my children as safe as possible.  There's plenty of science to back up why it's better, and safer, for children to rf longer.  Look at statistics and it should be obvious what every parent should do (Rear face to a minimum of 2 years, preferably to the max limits of their seat!)

Answer

We turned my son around at around 18 months or so. We have a Honda Civic and he would kick his feet against the back seat and rock his car seat and back and forth and actually loosened up the strap slightly a few times. We turned him forward facing so he couldn't do that any longer

Answer

I plan to keep my son rear facing as long as possible! The videos I have seen about kids facing the wrong way just scare the hell out me! Car accidents are a big worry of mine personally

Answer

I kept my son rear-facing until after he turned 2 & had gone in for his 2 year check up with his pediatrician. As others mentioned, my son outgrew his infant carseat & was in the weight range for forward-facing in his new convertible seat... BUT... He was also still in the weight range for rear-facing as well, as most convertible carseats have overlapping ranges. This ultimately leaves the decision up to the parent, but I wasn't going to risk the extremely higher chances of horrible injuries & death just b/c my son wasn't able to fully straighten his legs out.

He didn't know the difference in riding one way or the other, so he was perfectly content looking at the back of the seat... & at himself in his mirror... Which I was able to clearly see him in as well by simply looking in my rear view mirror! It was actually much easier to glance in the mirror than it is to turn around to see him now that he is forward-facing! He also acts out a lot more now that he is facing my back (side really, but behind me) b/c I guess it seems like I'm ignoring him with my back being to him, especially during longer car rides! He's 2.5 years old now. 😉

Answer

I rear-face my kids until they either don't physically fit, or are becoming a danger to themselves and others. Unfortunately that means rarely longer than a year, maybe year and a half, because of how quickly my children tend to grow. For example, Juice Thief has been front facing for 4-5 months now and she's 19 months now. She started topping out on the weight/height limits of her chair (much like Eldest did T 1 year) as well as started kicking the backseat, pushing against the backseat with her legs, and fussing incessantly. I value the safety of my children, and will do what is necessary to keep them safe, but I don't see how continuing to rear-face under those conditions would benefit anyone. 'Ensuring the safety' of Juice Thief would lead to distracted driving, which endangers everyone in the car as well as everyone else on the road. 
With incoming baby, I'll rear-face until she has the same issues and who knows when that'll be. I'll also have to play carseat tetris in the backseat so I can adequately fit an almost grown 9 year old, a soon-to-be 2 year old, and a newborn behind a 6'5 driver that needs the seat all the way back and a 5' driver that has to scoot all the way up in a small car.

Answer

My son outgrew all RF except the $500 ones. He was just like 5 lbs away from outgrowing them so we decided just to put him front. Plus I have a sports car and they just won't safely fit. 
To each their own but ever since we turned him he will take long car rides with no hassle and it can just be me and his daddy. Before we would have to take someone else too. Otherwise it would be a nightmare. So, we are satisfied with our decision.

Answer

I turned my oldest as soon as I possibly could. He had horrible acid reflux as a baby  and vomited (not spit up, but projectile vomiting) and choked several times a day. The risk of him choking because I couldn't see him and react fast enough was higher than the risk of turning him around.

My youngest rode rear facing until he was too cramped to do so. And this one will be the same unless there are issues which prohibit it.

Answer

Only thing I've heard that concerns me is that if the child's legs are too long they can break in a car accident but I'm not sure what we will do to be honest. This is our first and we still have alot of research to do. We will probably keep our child rear facing as long as we can depending on their length (hubby and I both have tall genes lol) though and because I don't drive I will always be in back with baby anyway so seeing baby won't be an issue :)

Answer

I did until 18mo with my twins because their screaming was a lot more dangerous than turning them around.

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We turned aliscia around when she was 1.5 she has very long legs and instead of folding them the would push on the seat, she knew how to undo her straps(around her arms) and when we got rear ended she ended up hitting her head on the handle and after that I said absolutely not, i want to be able to see shes still n her car seat securely. Shes 29months now and She loves to look out the windows and see all the cars I think she's have a huge problem if we went back to a rear facing car seat. Plus she is to big for a rear facing so I won't b puttin her back in one.

Extended rear-facing?

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