To be shocked people are actually rear-facing their primary age kids

I agree op. It’s all very organic mum.

as long as the seatbelt covers where it’s supposed to I don’t see an issue.

mine have been in a high back booster forward facing since about 3 I think. Can’t quite remember. Maybe 4.

there was a time we didn’t have any sort of child seats at all and we survived.

Yes exactly because car sickness happens every time you get in the car whilst a severe accident like that is thankfully incredibly rare and sickness also carries its own risks of choking or distracting the driver.

The majority of deaths occur in children who are either not using a seat or its been incorrectly fitted and/or isn’t appropriate for their age. A DC using a correctly installed forward facing seat from a well known manufacturer with a good ADAC score is still incredibly safe. Rear facing would be somewhat safer still, definitely not the 4 times safer you often see quoted but there’s no actual evidence for, but forward facing in a proper seat is not dangerous. There’s lots to weigh up when choosing a seat including obviously safety but also space in the vehicle, the comfort of the child and cost.

I turned mine forward at 18 months. I’ve never seen a DC more than about 2/3 in a rear facing seat ‘in the wild’ either. I think it’s one of those things where the people that do ERF are very vocal about it, which isn’t a bad thing because car seat safety should be on everyone’s radar, but that doesn’t necessarily reflect what most people actually do IRL.

I find this topic hard to comment on as I get so badly car sick it horrifies me to imagine sitting backwards in the car! 😂

If it’s the advice now and the kids aren’t car sick it doesn’t sound that shocking logical to speaking as it doesn’t do them any harm, and sounds like it’s safer.

Mine are a bit older so that wasn’t the advice in those days - didn’t have rear facing seats that went up to that age

I was shocked people rear-faced after the initial 9 months in the baby seat, the poor kids! In a few years all passengers will be rear-facing, noses to screens, in the interests of "safety".

I have to say also, that we had big tall kids. They were all grown out of their erf car seats height wise by around 5ish

So already another car seat thread has descended into condescension.

• FF isn't actually unsafe. Its just rear facing is safer in serious crashes. If they were unsafe, they wouldn't be sold
• If you walk into a high street shop especially 10 years ago, RFing seats were unheard of They couldn't give advice on something they didn't sell. They were only available from specialist shops. There were 2 on the country when mine were young (10 years ago!). Mothercare and Halford were the "experts".
• the biggest danger is incorrectly fitted seats or no seat at all. Not a well fitted FF seat.

While we are at it... itsca good time to remind people about coats. Thick coats shouldn't be worn in car seats as they stop the straps from functioning properly in a crash... the coat compresses leaving the straps too loose.

In short... RF safer, but FF not unsafe.

Yeah and that is fair enough if you feel the risks would outweigh the benefits for your particular family. But it still doesn't change the fact rear facing is safer for the child in a crash.

Also, this isn't a new thing. My eldest is 15 and had an erf car seat, at that point there were only a few available in the UK but it was definitely talked about a lot. I'm surprised there are still people who have genuinely never seen or heard of it. Even Mothercare staff 😉

This was always our go to for purchases and advice, far more up to date than most.

https://incarsafetycentre.co.uk/

Quite common round here. We rear faced all of ours until they outgrew.

I love how you lol at internal decapitation. Maybe take your advice from car safety experts.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DMIxl0RsP1N/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I totally get the safety benefits of extended rear facing, however I have only heard about it on here.

I genuinely haven't seen anyone with rear facing children over the age of maybe 1 or 2 where I live. So I wonder how common it is?

My DC are teens now and I don't know of any extended rear facing children when they were younger.

I don’t know anyone who rear faces beyond 18 months either, OP. I’ve never seen it. We had to turn both of ours forward facing as soon as we could because they get horrendously car sick if facing backwards. It wasn’t safe with them vomiting in the car, especially when on the motorway and I couldn’t stop immediately.

everyone is just trying their best, in the circumstances they’re in. No one needs to be preachy of judgey.

A child being sick is not only a massive distraction, irs also a choking risk. Its not safe either.
So its a balance between safety in the very rare case of a catastrophic crash or the everyday risk of sickness.

Times change, the issue when mine were small was using booster seats past 3! My mil thought it was weird because their cousin just used a cushion . The law changed to 135cm tall when mine were already 4&6 so plenty of parents had already stopped using them and didn’t want to restart though mine had high backed booster seats anyway, dd1 used hers until 11, dd2 until 12 (and even then she barely was on 135cm). As for forward v backwards, the most important thing of all is that it’s properly installed and fits your car model with the belts adjusted correctly- my dd was in a belted forward facing seat in a freeway crash and was fine, if she had been rear facing the police said she may not have been because of the boot crumpling and it actually pierced the back of her seat just an inch from her back. The seat was brand new having only switched to forward that day!

When I was in primary school, we were shocked to find any primary aged children using booster seats (and none were using car seats). Safety advice changes over the years and some parents will always follow that more strictly than others. The current advice is that rear facing is safer.

I think alot of people see car sickness as a lesser evil to death or severe injury in a car crash.

No it’s not shocking for a parent to be making the safest choices for their child. It should be commended. It’s excellent that extended rear facing in this country is starting to catch up with other countries

You think it’s “really irresponsible” not to want to make your child car sick every journey?

Shocked people want to use the equipment available to keep their kids safe? On busy, narrow and fast roads?

Id be more shocked at parents who DONT do all they can to keep their children alive.

i would certainly look into it. It is much safer.

In a lot of scandavian countries rear facing to 4+ is standard. The rules here tend to focus on the minimum rather than the safest

It's actually safer to rear face. Forward facing in a harness is incredibly unsafe as in a crash the head will be thrown forward at force but the body will be held down by the harness. This could put a lot of pressure on the childs neck and spine and can lead to internal decapitation. Children should only forward face when they are tall and heavy enough to be able to move into a high back booster with a seatbelt.

We have the Axkid One 3, the amount of leg room is insane. It will hopefully last my child till 5/6 depending on height/weight.

At least they are in a car seat, in the car next to my DD parents had belts on, the 3 kids of different ages not a car seat or belt on either of them

You were “shocked”, OP - really 😂

How dare people follow safety advice that you don’t, eh?

I rear faced my son until he was 6 and outgrew the seat. I don’t think it’s shocking to buy something with that purpose and use it until outgrown. Why would I have spent more money on a less safe forward facing seat instead just because he’d started school? That would have been shocking!