When were rear facing car seats the norm/law?

[Hmmiwonderr]

I know rear facing car seats were invented in the 60s, but when were rear facing car seats the norm/law in the UK? I'm struggling to find this online and I'm curious. I was born late 90s and car seat laws have changed since then as I need to keep my 1 year old in her infant car seat until she's a certain height.

I don't really understand your question - are you talking about when the norms changed from using forward facing car seats to rear facing? Or the laws specifically? Or just what has changed since the late 90s? (This is my interest so I will happily chat about all of these things!)

Rear facing car seats for toddlers were invented in the 60s but really only in Sweden - the rest of the world were not generally using car seats at all at that time, mainly as a comfort device if anything. If you've seen the old memes with what looks like a metal baby swing hooked over the back seat, that was about it! And carrycots placed on the parcel shelf or in the footwell, or babies held in-arms.

The first car seats in the UK were forward facing, for toddlers, and appeared in the early 70s. This was the kind of thing. Rear facing seats for babies were first sold in the early 80s.

As an 80s baby, my mum now feels horrified that the safety precautions they took as new parents (which at the time were seen as excessive) was strapping the carrycot into the car. No mention of car seats. We also had lots of trips in the early 90s with more than one child to a seatbelt, youngest sitting on the oldest’s lap etc.

Same when I was a kid on the 80s. My grandad had an estate car and all the kids would pile in the boot with the adults in the actual seats!

Norms and laws. I'm wondering about babies and toddlers in car seats in the 20th century eg when it was law for babies to be rear facing (guessing sometimes in the 90s?) and in the 70s and 80s did babies and toddlers just sit on someone's lap?

A really quick google would answer your question OP.

@Icanwalkintheroom @LuckysDadsHat my parents had similar experiences! Born in the 70s. I know children piled into cars, but were there no safety precautions for babies and toddlers?

It wasn't even mandatory for rear seat passengers to have a seat belt until 1987.

Car seat laws were introduced in 2006, until then it was only a requirement for a car seat to be used if one was available

You're very strange to comment when you don't have anything useful to say. I've actually looked and I can't find anything about babies and toddlers (other than Sweden coming up with rear facing car seats but I don't know when it was the norm in the UK). It's just people sharing stories of when they were in primary school and just piled into cars, sharing seat belts, sitting in the boot etc.

As a baby, I went from north of Aberdeen to northern England in my carrycot in the boot of my Grandad's estate car with a bungee cord securing it down

When I was a child in the 70s/early 80s most cars didn't have rear seats belts and I can remember when wearing them in the front became law.
Yes babies were held in arms or put on the rear seat in a carrycot (if you had rear seats belts you might even pop it through the handles to 'secure' the carrycot in place.
I used to curl up on the floor in the foot well while my siblings took up all the seat space (bastards).

Extended rear facing car seats (beyond infant carrier size) only became law in 2013 in the UK.

history of car seats

I think the crash statistics made it clear that babies (with their big, heavy heads and weak necks) were much safer when facing backwards during an impact. I think this was in the early 00s when infant seats faced backwards.

Yes agree with the above. My son was born in 2013 and they were just coming in then.

I'm more talking about when it was law to have your young baby rear facing in an infant seat rather than a toddler in an extended rear facing seat.

My 2 were born in the early 2000s. Both had a rear facing carrier from birth until about 6 months - I thought is was the law that they had to be restrained, but may be I'm wrong. After that they went into child seats with baby inserts that were forward facing, as did all my friend's babies. I don't think I saw any rear facing seats at that time.

I think me and my bro had a booster seat as toddlers (mid 80s).

And my parents always insisted on seat belts and no overcrowding at a time when that was more common. But I think as tiny babies it was the carry cot strapped in.

Dad had been in an accident in the 70s and his seat belt saved his life so he was hot on that so he always paid extra to have rear seats belts fitted until that became mandatory in new cars (mid 1980s??).

It wasn't even law to wear a seat belt in the rear seats until 1991!

A friend's dad was a policeman and he insisted that my friend wore her seat belt under her arm pit as he felt it was more secure for children below a certain height. That would have been late 80s I'd imagine.

My DC were born in 2010 and 2012. Their first baby car seats were rear facing but it was the norm to put them in a forward facing seat by about 12 months. I don't remember hearing anything about extended rear-facing at that time and certainly didn't know anyone who used an extended rear-facing seat.

Law 1st of March 2017. Up to 15 months at least.

I googled for you.

When I was a child our first car didn't even have seatbelts in the back. When we got one that did, my parents gave me a cushion to sit on so the seat belt fit better.

Not really answering the OP’s question but my father fitted a front facing child seat in our car in 1969. It was a Britax make, if I remember correctly.

https://www.mrsshilts.co.uk/britax-celebrates-50-years/

Exactly what I was going to say .

Yep, 80s kid here too! Often in the boot! In saying that, I think there were less cars and people drove slower

My elder ones were born in the mid 70's. Baby went in carrycot on the back seat, unrestrained the others just sat next to it.

When we did get car seats a couple of years later [ very uncomfortable by todays standards ] they had to be secured in the car by drilling holes in the floor of the car to fasten them in. So once in, there they stayed.

There were no rear facing car seats in the 70's in the UK as far as I am aware.

There was also no law at the time to say your child had to be in a car seat, it was a personal choice.

My children were born in the late 90s. They were in baby seats until about 8 months & then regular forward facing seats. That was the norm then.
I remember lying down on the back seat of my parents' car in the late 60s/early 70s. They actually had some kind of reins/child seatbelt fitted in the back for me as they didn't trust me not to roam around.
I once went all the way to the south of France with me & my friend strapped together in the front seat.

Babies were rear facing a long time before 2017 but I'm unsure the exact year. It was only in 2017 when car seats were based on height rather than weight so you were mistaken.