Intro to Forward Facing
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I’ll never forget the very first car ride my daughter took in a forward facing car seat. She had just reached the age and weight requirement that allowed us to turn her seat around, so we flipped the car seat to forward facing and headed out for a quick trip to the mall.
At first she protested a little, but not very much. All she knew was that something was different and it didn’t seem quite right to her. I urged her to look out the front windshield since she now had a view that she had never enjoyed before, and suddenly the protests stopped. She was silent. I looked back and saw that her eyes were widened, her mouth was slightly open, and she had an incredibly shocked look on her face. I wish I would have taken a picture, because it was indeed priceless.
It was similar with my son when we first turned his car seat around, although with him he had his big sister talking up the event so I think he was even more excited. He giggled like mad during his first car ride with the seat forward facing, and I think it was about that time he really stopped protesting car rides. It was like magic.
If your baby seems a little disgruntled to ride around in a rear facing car seat, you really can’t blame him or her. After all, how much fun can it be to face away from everyone and see where you have been, but not where you are going? It won’t be long until your baby gets to sit forward facing - believe me, it will happen quicker than you think - and you can rest assure that your kiddo will probably be a lot happier once entering The World of the Forward Facing.
brit says...
It’s cute to turn them around, but it’s much safer to stay rear-facing until baby reaches the upper height or weight limits for their seat. In a crash, a rear-facing baby is much less likely to be killer or injured and that should be a greater consideration that which window they look out of. My son is 2 and still rear-facing, and he’ll stay rear-facing until he outgrows this carseat.
I wish car seat makers would make a bigger deal of extended rear-facing being safer.