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View Full Version : Babies are safest in rear-facing car seats until age of two, safety experts say



bibi571
24-03-2011, 08:36 AM
What do you make of this:


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1368428/Babies-safest-rear-facing-car-seats-age-safety-experts-say.html


Would be expensive!

Barbara

Kimmy050983
24-03-2011, 08:45 AM
Jamie is sitting in a rearfacing car seat (britax multi tech) and he´s nearly 2.5 years old. for me there was absolutely no question about it and i´d rather save on other things than his safety!!

Dizzy Ducklings
24-03-2011, 09:23 AM
I agree that it is safer sitting rear facing, however unless the design a seat for older kids - I think my sons knees would be beside his ears. (he's almost 2 but quite tall)

mama2three
24-03-2011, 09:28 AM
at the risk of sounding ignorant ( again!) where do their legs go? I changed from rear to forward facing when Qs legs were too long to be comfortable - he was around a year old.

crazyhazy
24-03-2011, 09:45 AM
But they do design seats rear facing for older children, they just haven't got popular here yet, but they manage fine is the usa and switzerland. I kept my own two rear facing as long as possible, with a britax first class used rear facing, it goes up to 15kgs and my two were skinny things so it was ok. I only stopped when it got to akward putting them in and out. If I had known the rear facing benefits when I was buying the stage 1 car seat first time round and the rear facing seats had been widely available then I would have got one. In my mind there is no doubt that it's safer and as it becomes more widely known the price of the rear facing seat will come down, although at the moment while expensive they are on par with the which best buy isofix seats.

Ripeberry
24-03-2011, 10:35 AM
If you don't mind all the sick! I feel sick on trains when sitting the wrong way round :(

Penny1959
24-03-2011, 12:55 PM
I would use rear facing seats if mindees legs were shorter. The twins I look after have just gone into forward facing seats in parents car at 14 m because they were being squeezed into their rear facing seats . They were also very grizzly on journeys in parents car - not sure if uncomfortable or just fed up off looking at seat (and yes parents did try mirrors to look in and toys to play with).

In my car they have been in forward facing seats since they started with me at almost 12m and they are not squashed in or grizzly.

Also as a childminder using a 7 seater car I would not like to use rear facing seats in the rear seats of my car as would be difficult for me to see the children when driving and also I would have concerns about rear end accidents because as we all know the rear of such cars is not as robust as salon cars and therefore in an accident the rear of the car would be pushed onto the child rather than the child / seat being pushed more to the centre of the car.

At the moment all but one of my mindees would need a rear facing seat and that would leave me an issue with which one to put in the rear of the car in a rear facing seat.

I am not against rear facing seats for under 2's and I am sure that the rear facing seats are the safest but the design has to be improved for leg lenght and I would like advise on if safe to use in rear seats of 7 seaters

Penny :)

nicoleon
24-03-2011, 01:20 PM
whilst i understand the safety advantages i have to say my DD is big for her age and moved on to forward facing at only nine months. she absolutely HATED travelling backwards and it was such a relief when she moved into the forward facing car seat as journeys were so much more enjoyable...

leeloo1
28-03-2011, 09:52 PM
If you buy proper rear-facing car seats for older children then they are a larger seat which sits further back from the back of the rear seat - its not like putting a 4 year old in a newborn's rear-facing carseat. :laughing:

My (off the percentile chart for height) 2.5 year old DS is in a 2 way Elite car seat by Britax (from the in-car safety centre in Milton Keynes and he has plenty of room to grow yet - and it fits in my tiny 3 door Yaris! DS currently has his legs forward and slightly bent but I've seen photos of 4-5 year old children in them and they just have crossed legs.

All the recommendations I've heard are that children should be in rear-facing seats until they're at least 4 (due to head - total weight ratio) and this is common in some other countries.

PixiePetal
29-03-2011, 07:03 AM
My DS was rear facing at 6 months max. Seats have come a long way since then - he is 14.

He was just too big for it - big baby and 2 stone at 1yr with height to match :rolleyes: His legs were totally screwed up by 6 months. My forward facing seat was an expensive one which laid back well and had good support - it was meant to be rear/forward facing but did not fit in the car rearwards hence we got another seat for that.

He was out of the big seat by 2 1/4 as he was too tall!

clio0602
29-03-2011, 10:00 AM
Dd was in rearfacing britax 2 way elite until she was 2 and I bought a zafira and had no practical way of fitting it. I now have her in a Cybex pallas which is better than 5 pt harness but I would stil prefer her rear facing until she's 4. Children don't mind sitting with crossed or bent legs and some rearfacing seats have more space for legs than others. Also I never had a sickness problem with her at all. I think it should be the law to be rearfacing until at least 2 and the rearfacing seats should be more readily available in this country!