Angle of rear-facing baby seat

[~ Mylitta ~]

When we installed DD's rear-facing baby seat it had a "recommended" recline angle which is what it's still sitting at. She's now just over 7 months and would prefer to sit up more. Is it safe to modify the angle that the seat sits at so that she is able to be more upright? I wouldn't jimmy-rig it with towels or anything, but the seat is able to recline or sit more just by rocking it and securing it at a different angle (it just wouldn't be the "recommended" angle. I don't want to change her to forward-facing for quite some time yet, but want her to be happy in the car.

[willow5]

Hi Mylitta, We have installed our rear facing seat at a more upright angle than recommended. No towels or anything to do so. I did get some advice from the manufacturer as well as some installers who had installed the same seat more upright. We moved the seat base back a little from the seat bight and put pressure on the seat at a different angle when doing up the seat belt to secure it more upright. The whole of the base is still touching the car seat and the installation is very solid. A lot of the time the recommended angle is 45 degrees to avoid head flop for newborns, so it may be ok o have it more upright for an older baby. Maybe you could call or email the manufacturer and or an installer if you're not confident before you try?

[~ Mylitta ~]

Thanks Willow. I'm thinking that I might just try it and see how secure it feels, and if it doesn't feel right I'll just put it back the way it is now and head over to a professional installer and see what they think My DD is getting better in the car, but she still doesn't love it a lot of the time, so anything to make her happier would be good.

[willow5]

I know how that is! DS screamed every time in the car until he was about 6 months old. He started to improve after that but still whinged and cried a bit he is really good now he's 20 months. I can't remember exactly when he stopped completely hating the car, but I'm so grateful he did! Everyone said he'd stop when we turned him FF, but I wasn't and still aren't in a hurry to do that, we're still RF and he's happy now We took a few goes at putting it in before we were completely happy with it. Keen to hear how you go!

[Taurean]

I know our car seats only have one recline position that's recommended while rear facing so I personally wouldn't change it for safety reasons.

Once forward facing, our seats have two positions - reclined and upright.

[melbel]

If you mean use the recline function on the seat then no you should not use these rearfacing. rearfacing has the one angle and it locks in that position....the seats are not crash tested in the other positions rearfacing so you would theoreticaly be using your child as a crash test dummy. It is set at that angle so that the baby is forced back into the seat and the seat takes the maximum amount of impact force in a crash, if you change that you affect the impact absorpton capability. Also it will affect the ability of the rebound bar to sit perfectly flat against the back of the seat, actually I am not sure if you can alter the recline without disabling the rebound bar even? hmmm......not sure on that one. BUt IMHO not worth the risk.....My LO was quite happy still at 18 months in the reclined rear facing position...he was just turned forward facing last week as he hit 12 kilos and he actually doen't like it as he can't work out how to go to sleep sitting up...go figure! LOL....have you tried a toy bar or a mirror so you can talk to her?

[feeb]

Great post melbel, I agree completely with you.

Both of my boys have struggled with going to sleep in forward facing and do often look a bit awkward and they are in slighly tilted back setting as per person who fitted.

I turned both at 17 months, DS1 because needed seat for DS2 and DS2 because he was 12 kg.

[willow5]

If you mean use the recline function on the seat then no you should not use these rearfacing. rearfacing has the one angle and it locks in that position....Also it will affect the ability of the rebound bar to sit perfectly flat against the back of the seat, actually I am not sure if you can alter the recline without disabling the rebound bar even? hmmm......not sure on that one. BUt IMHO not worth the risk.....

Our seat doesn't have a rebound bar, so there was no issue there for us, I didn't take that into account when I made my original post. I definitely wouldn't be trying to modify or remove parts of the seat at all!! Also would definitely not be using the recline for FF for RF. Definitely not worth the risk!! The mirrors are great

[melbel]

If you seat does not have a rebound bar it is not a legal australian rearfacing seat...ALL rearfacing seats in australia must have a rebound bar.

[willow5]

Yep melbel, I know we imported to rear face longer after a lot of research. I've been looking at non Aus seats so long I forgot about the rebound bar.

[melbel]

ah okays that makes sense then!