Anyone turn FF earlier than they hoped due to motion sickness?

[pulickalbrothers]

Important disclaimer: we won’t turn FF before 2-2.5 (will do everything to make it to 2.5) no matter what. My son is currently 22 months.

We travel by car pretty regularly. Our parents live 2 and 4 hours away, we do a lot in the city an hour away, and we vacation at a cabin 6 hours away several times a year. My son first started struggling with motion sickness around 1, but it’s definitely been getting worse. We’ve had two major puke incidents in the last couple of months. Like, had they happened on a road trip and not locally, I genuinely don’t know what we would have done.

I’m posting here versus the other boards because, like many, we’d planned on maxing out our seats RF. He’s 96%+ for height and 88% for weight, but we felt pretty confident we’d get to 3.5. I guess I’m just looking for either evidence-based tips to fix his motion sickness, or (more realistically) any evidence/reassurance that 2-2.5 is safe enough.

Edit: RF=rear face, FF=forward face. Sorry for assuming everyone knew the acronyms, I was in an immediate post-puke panic. It won’t let me edit the title.

 

[lightnow23]

@pulickalbrothers Can I make a plea to explain what the heck acronyms you are using before you use them? I’m so tired of people turning phrases into acronyms before anyone knows what you’re even talking about.

 

[oxid]

@lightnow23 Especially after we just had a huge thread asking for folks in this sun to do better with the acronyms? I had no idea what FF was and it took a while for me to figure it out. Like.. I didn’t get it until I saw the word seat.

 

[paulgilldrums]

@oxid Right after that post came one with ABA in the title, no explanation in the post, and the comments were alphabet soup. I thought FF was formula fed.

 

[jerm_goduke]

@lightnow23 I 100% thought they meant formula fed. What is the actual point making Front facing an acronym?!

 

[mobai]

@jerm_goduke Like 95% of the acronyms in parent subs feel a like they're meant more to gatekeep who does and does not belong more than it's meant to assist discussion.

Like I might be reading too far into it but many of them feel entirely useless and they rub me the wrong way.

 

[jerm_goduke]

@mobai Oh I totally agree. They only even said ff once so it's not as if it was a phrase they were repeating over and over. Stupid.

 

[caterine]

@lightnow23 Yeah I really thought the headline was referring to formula fed, no forward facing.

 

[martyiy]

@caterine Same here; I was wondering what that had to do with motion sickness

 

[alliah]

@martyiy Same here. I also wondered why they were concerned that 22 months was too early to wean from breastfeeding.

 

[commissionerfd1]

@lightnow23 FF = forward facing (car seat)

RF = rear facing

 

[victor3]

@commissionerfd1 Thank you!! I was totally lost as well.

 

[sunsetrose]

@lightnow23 Yep - I’m in a lot of parenting subs and FF is usually formula fed.

 

[alliah]

@lightnow23 At least in the title!

 

[guevaraj]

@pulickalbrothers OP, I don’t know if this will reassure you or not but I recently asked a question hear around the data surrounding extended rear facing and the answers are here.

TL;dr: extended rear facing (past age 2) does not appear to confer any statistically significant reduction in fatalities. There is still a credible mechanistic pathway and a lot of theory on how it might confer additional benefits but those theories have not shown up in the data around crashes - that is, we haven’t seen that kids who are extended rear facing are dying at lower rates in car crashes in the real world.

The post and its answers get into why but really it comes down to a few things:

• car seat usage is not evenly distributed. More crashes happen among more dangerous drivers and more dangerous drivers are also less likely to be compliant around car seat safety
• car accidents that are serious enough to risk fatality but also survivable at all are rare. Accidents that are survivable but only in a rear facing car seat (not any car seat) are even rarer
• many people do not install or use car seats (forward or rear facing) correctly

The safest car seat is the one you use correctly every single time you get in the car. If that means forward facing at 2 instead of 4, it’s still the safest car seat for you.

 

[kirag]

@pulickalbrothers FF?

Edit: forward facing? Just type it out. Not everyone is hip to the lingo.

 

[abraham7777]

@kirag Seriously, how annoying. I figured it out from context but I’ve never seen “FF” as common acronym.

 

[kirag]

@abraham7777 The acronyms kill me. I’m a SAHD with MODI twins in a HCOL area. I don’t need to talk about FF or RF car seats or anything else. Just spell it out. Please! The short hand is driving me nuts.

 

[christina564]

@pulickalbrothers Might also want to get little one’s eyes checked if you haven’t already. I’ve read that can cause motion sickness.

 

[intermediary]

@christina564 Our nurse asked this at a checkup once - might be worth a try?