Car Seat Woes

Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced new car seat guidelines today that every parent needs to made aware of. They are as follows:

1) Children are to ride in rear-facing seats until 2 years of age.
2) Children are to ride in a booster seat until they are 4'9".
3) Children are to ride in the back seat of the car until they are 13 years of age.

I wasn't surprised to hear the news. I had done a fair amount of research on car seat safety for a post I wrote in January about keeping children in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible (until they reach the height and weight limits for the seat.) At the time, my motivation was the number of parents that seemed all to eager to start using a forward-facing seat as soon as the minimum requirements were met (one-year AND 22 pounds.) It seemed to have become a milestone of sorts and parents were switching their children as soon as possible despite the recommendations to keep them rear-facing as long as possible (information which was not adequately communicated to parents in the first place.)

When I heard the news today, I decided to pull out and re-read the manuals for our car seats. I also measured Lilah only to find out that she is on the verge of exceeding the height limit of her rear-facing seat (32 inches.) Unfortunately, she has not reached the minimum weight requirement for her forward-facing seat (22 pounds.) This means that despite the new recommendations, we need another seat that can accommodate Lilah until she can use her forward facing seat (which is now not until she turns 2.)

Our only option at this point is to invest in yet another car seat. We considered buying a convertible seat to fill the gap, but it seems to make more sense financially to purchase a 3-in-1 seat that Lilah can use in the rear-facing position until she is 2 years old. She could then start using the forward-facing/booster seat we have already purchased and we could use the 3-in-1 seat through all three stages (rear-facing, forward-facing, booster) with our second child. My only fear is that something is going to change between now and then and we will find ourselves in a similar position. As all parents know, car seats aren't cheap and we hope to be able to use them for more than one child. With constantly changing standards and recommendations, this becomes challenging. I know these changes are in the best interests of our children, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.

I am open to suggestions and/or recommendations!