extended rear facing?

[tessas212]

Who practices extended rear facing (carseats in the car - rear facing past the 1 year AND 20 lbs law)?

If no, why? If yes, how long do you plan to rear face? How old is your rear facing child now?

 

[ChildByGrace]

No I didn't and I don't plan to.
The seat that we gave to to aged 9 months and we kept our son in it until then however I didn't like that as he was so tall that he was so scruched up in the seat that I feel it was dangerous.
Our daughter is 5 months and I plan to put her in a forward facing at 9 months unless I feel she is still too tiny for the seat we have.

I am a bit reticent to believe it is any safer to have them rear facing especially up to aged 4 which is what they would like it to be. I can't see how you could fit them in like that

 

[tessas212]

Rear-Facing Carseats and Safety

Rear-facing car seats spread frontal crash forces over the whole area of a child's back, head and neck; they also prevent the head from snapping relative to the body in a frontal crash.
Rear-facing carseats are NOT a safety risk just because a child's legs are bent at the knees or because they can touch/kick the vehicle seat.

CPSafety - Your online child passenger safety resource

When a child is in a forward-facing seat, there is tremendous stress put on the child's neck, which must hold the large head back. The mass of the head of a small child is about 25% of the body mass whereas the mass of the adult head is only 6%! A small child's neck sustains massive amounts of force in a crash. The body is held back by the straps while the head is thrown forward - stressing, stretching or even breaking the spinal cord. The child's head is at greater risk in a forward-facing seat as well. In a crash, the head is thrown outside the confines of the seat and can make dangerous contact with other occupants, vehicle structures, and even intruding objects, like trees or other vehicles.

Rear-facing seats do a phenomenal job of protecting children because there is little or no force applied to the head, neck and spine. When a child is in a rear-facing seat, the head, neck and spine are all kept fully aligned and the child is allowed to "ride down" the crash while the back of the child restraint absorbs the bulk of the crash force. The head is contained within the restraint, and the child is much less likely to come into contact with anything that might cause head injury.

Won't my child be uncomfortable? Where do his legs go?​

Many parents have the misconception that children are uncomfortable or at risk for leg injury by having their legs up on the vehicle seat or bent when kept rear-facing. First, children are more flexible than adults so what we perceive as uncomfortable is not for children.

Second, there is not a single documented case of children's legs, hips, etc. breaking or being injured in a crash due to longer rear-facing. There are plenty of cases of head and neck injury in forward-facing children that could have been prevented if the child had remained rear-facing. However, even if a leg or hip were broken or injured, it can be fixed. A damaged spinal cord (from forward-facing too soon) cannot be repaired and subjects the child to lifelong disability or death.​

The second link has two comparison crash test videos - one in forward facing, one in rear facing. Please take the time to watch the short clips.
​

 

[ChildByGrace]

Thanks for the info. I am still sceptical though. My son is 2 1/2 now and for him to still be rear-facing his legs would pretty much be over the back of his seat - he is sooooo tall he is regulary mistaken for a 4/5 year old and wears that size clothes if not bigger


Also yes a broken leg can be fixed but that doesn't mean they will be left without a disability. My mom was in a car accident and she 'only' had broken legs but she can hardly walk now (10) years on

 

[tessas212]

Better difficulty walking than paralyzed or dead (as the link said).

 

[ChildByGrace]

I feel unable to comment

 

[tiredwalker]

Our dd is almost 20 months, weighs 23 pounds, and is still rear-facing. We'll do this until May when our next is born and we can not longer fit two carseats rear-facing. The reason we do it is that it's safer and her carseat allows for it. Her legs are getting a little long for the whole thing, but she'll be facing forward soon.

 

[angelsamongus]

As soon as I could I turned my little guys around. About a year. The next car seat they had was not one that could be turned around. If I could have afforded one that could do rear facing I probably would have. Next one will probably be the same.

 

[CrystalBrooke]

No. Emily had been scrunched up for a couple of months before she was the right weight to be turned around. I don't plan to do extended rear facing in the future either.

 

[ido]

I did not practice extended rear-facing with either of my sons and will not with my daughter. I follow the 1 year rule, rather than the 20lb rule, though - b/c my kids tend to pass 20lbs before their first birthday.

I'm all about keeping my children safe, but I think we reach a point where we're trying to wrap them in proverbial bubble wrap by some of the "precautions" we are encouraged to take.

JMHO

 

[epiclesis]

I plan to practice extended rear facing, but not to the point of like 4 years old like the common ERF.

They make a couple of car seats now just with the intention of extended rear facing, such as the MyRide which goes rear facing up to 40 pounds.

I will probably go until about 2 years old, unless there are issues with how baby rides in the car, or if his size does not allow for it.

 

[IreneAdler]

I am just past the point of having to care about this thankfully. Mine both were rear facing for a year, then front. I find that the majority of things like this recommendation are about worse case scenario and not reality (like: don't let them play with dogs because dogs kill kids.... yeah, super rarely...)

Anyway, I'm glad to support people doing whatever they feel is necessary to protect their kids, so if ya wanna, go for it.

 

[tessas212]

Driving is the most dangerous thing we do all day long. Accidents happen. People get hurt. People die. I'm realistic enough to know that I can't think "Oh, it won't happen to me" because the odds are that one day it might. Car accidents are a leading killer. Dog bites are not.

I plan to rear face my child until he meets the limits of whatever convertible seat I have. Right now I have the Graco SafeSeat that rear faces until 30 lbs. After that, I want to get a Radian that rear faces to 45 lbs.

 

[epiclesis]

Driving is the most dangerous thing we do all day long. Accidents happen. People get hurt. People die. I'm realistic enough to know that I can't think "Oh, it won't happen to me" because the odds are that one day it might. Car accidents are a leading killer. Dog bites are not.

I plan to rear face my child until he meets the limits of whatever convertible seat I have. Right now I have the Graco SafeSeat that rear faces until 30 lbs. After that, I want to get a Radian that rear faces to 45 lbs.

Good luck with your baby not exceeding height for the infant seat. Most babies don't even last a year in an infant seat, let alone the weight restriction, due to height.

 

[ChildByGrace]

Not that cost should really come into it but I have just looked up the available rear facing seats in the Uk. It'd cost us $330 for one that goes up to age 4. But that's only from 12months so you still need the one that we have at the moment at $100. If they want us to do this for safety reasons then they need to bring the cost down. I know you can't put a price on life but over $500 on car seats over the course of 5 years or so is alot. And that only takes into consideration one child. If you have twins or even triplets or even just 2 of different ages!!!!

 

[ChildByGrace]

Also looking at the available seats my son would have major trouble fitting in them. He would be too tall and too wide

 

[tessas212]

Good luck with your baby not exceeding height for the infant seat. Most babies don't even last a year in an infant seat, let alone the weight restriction, due to height.

My son was born large - 9 lb 13 oz and 20 inches. He's still in his infant seat at 19 lbs. But like I said, ours rear faces until 30 lbs. When he grows out of it, whether that be weight or height first, we'll move him into a rearfacing carseat that will hopefully rear face until 45 lbs. If I'm correct, the Radians rearface from infant to 45 lbs, so we could have bought it and put him in the same day home from the hospital, I just didn't know any better at the time. I could have completely skipped the bucket seat.

The convertible I already have rear faces until 35 lbs, and is less than $100. There definitely are affordable carseats out there. Check out the Safety 1st Avenue.

 

[IreneAdler]

Driving is the most dangerous thing we do all day long. Accidents happen. People get hurt. People die. I'm realistic enough to know that I can't think "Oh, it won't happen to me" because the odds are that one day it might. Car accidents are a leading killer. Dog bites are not.

I plan to rear face my child until he meets the limits of whatever convertible seat I have. Right now I have the Graco SafeSeat that rear faces until 30 lbs. After that, I want to get a Radian that rear faces to 45 lbs.

I would normally agree with you if I lived where I did before, but at this point I drive max 2 miles a day, less than 20mph. The liklihood of a properly restrained person suffering life threatning injuries is minimal at best here. It's great you feel the need to go one step further. I can't help but think you're really set on pushing your agenda though. It's like you don't appreciate anyone who doesn't want to do it the way you think it should be done. I'm not sure I understand why you're so vehiment about it. (I'm not trying to be rude, I just see you seemingly rebutting anyone who even said "I don't and don't plan to" even though they didn't say "it's the best way" or "I don't think it's necessary" or whatever)

 

[ido]

My son was born large - 9 lb 13 oz and 20 inches. He's still in his infant seat at 19 lbs. But like I said, ours rear faces until 30 lbs. When he grows out of it, whether that be weight or height first, we'll move him into a rearfacing carseat that will hopefully rear face until 45 lbs. If I'm correct, the Radians rearface from infant to 45 lbs, so we could have bought it and put him in the same day home from the hospital, I just didn't know any better at the time. I could have completely skipped the bucket seat.

The convertible I already have rear faces until 35 lbs, and is less than $100. There definitely are affordable carseats out there. Check out the Safety 1st Avenue.

I think it's great that you are passionate about things like ERF seating and vaccinations, but you seem more like you are creating these threads to campaign in favor of these issues than to just get a "poll" of what people prefer.

Not everyone is going to agree with your POV. To continue to "push" a point when others have already stated it's not for them or isn't something they can afford is a bit insensitive and off-putting.

I think it's great that you can afford to purchase car seats whenever it pleases you, but not all of us are able to do so and to suggest that we should be able to afford it when it's very possible that we can't - or simply just don't want to ERF seat our kids - makes it seem like you think we don't care about the health and well-being of our children...which is quite far from the truth.

JMHO

 

[tiredwalker]

I'm a little crazy about the whole thing for my children. However, I survived childhood with no carseat at all. I got all of my vaccines and don't have autism and I used to ride around in the bed of our truck with my sister (I was three). There are a lot of studies and products that can make a person flat out crazy, but the honest fact is that most kids are going to be just fine.

I bought the Britax Boulavard for both children because it's cheaper for me to spend $340 on one carseat up to 65 pounds than to keep buying every 20-30 pounds and storing all of them. We're not rich folks by any means, but we choose to spend more money on safety items than a buckets of toys and other baby doodads (good crib, a good carseat and a few toys made in the USA and that's it).

One thing that I try to remember when dealing with babies is that for most of time, when a person had a baby, they had two boobs for feeding and a long peice of cloth for carrying the baby and that's it, and the human race survived. If we take a few precautions, most of our babies will be just fine.