This week we welcome Nicole White as a guest blogger to the FaceFile blog! You can find her online at MyBottlesUp.com. Welcome, Nicole!

Facing front or rear-facing: when do you turn the car seat around?

Our son will be 18 months at the end of October.  My husband and I turned the Magoo’s car seat around to face forwards when he hit 16 months old.

Granted he’s a lengthy child.  You should probably know that my husband is 6’6” and I’m 5’9”.  We’re not capable of producing small or even average-sized spawn.

I was once approached in a parking garage and asked by a complete stranger, “Shouldn’t you turn her around by now?”

(The “her” issue is an ENTIRELY separate one that I will share in good time…)

But as this parking garage stranger asked me this, I found my blood pressure rising, wanting to respond with, “Excuse me, but why is this any of your business?!?”

Instead I counted backwards from 10, found my zen place and said, “Ya know, I’ve read that children’s neck muscles aren’t strong enough to face forward in a car seat until they are a year and a half,” giving parking garage stranger a look that clearly ended the conversation and slamming the car door shut.

Parking garage stranger then buckled her little bundle into their grocery cart, flipped her lusciously long ponytail and proceeded into Whole Foods, where I assume she bought an abundance of organic, gluten-free, soy-based food for said bundle who looked to be dying for some whole milk and Cheez-its, the Magoo’s snack of choice.

(For the record, I’m totally down with the organic, gluten-free, soy-based, whatever… Whatever works for you and yours).

So when do you turn your tot around to face forward in their car seat?  At what age was your little one when you made the big switcheroo and had them face forwards instead of backwards?

I’ve polled parents while on the playground and have come to the following conclusion: no one truly knows.  Some moved the car seat to face forwards on their child’s first birthday, sort of a rite of passage thing.

“Congrats son! You can now face forward and not have to watch me through the monkey mirror that sits on the headrest.  Here’s your birthday cake.”

Other parents waited until 16-18 months, like we did, having read or heard from friends that neck muscles of toddlers are stronger and better developed when they are closer to a year and a half, should you be in a car accident where whiplash occurs.

To be perfectly honest, my husband and I turned the Magoo’s car seat around to face forward because his legs were too long and climbing up the back of the passenger seat.  It was when he kicked the monkey mirror that sits on the headrest off that was the deciding factor for us.

At what age was your child when you turned him/her around to face forward in their car seat?  How did you come about making that decision?