to be annoyed that SIL has started forward facing her DD?

[GnocchiNineDoors]

She is 9 months. I know this is the 'minimum' age, however when I said "god, they grow so fast didnt realise she was passed the minimum weight" she said it was age. I replied that I thought it was weight, but apparently "some are age, some are weight"

I have seen the videos of 'internal decapitation' and have read up on rear facing and the benefits and want to do it as long as possible.

I actually feel cross that they don't look into these things and have turned her forward.

Before cars had belts in the back, I fell out of a car that had not had the back door closed properly. I broke my leg and my arm, and had we been 1 minute further down the road and turned onto the dual carriageway, it could have been a lot worse. I was 9yo.

My niece is 3 yrs old & i would find it quite funny if she was still in a rear facing car seat. At that age she could be doing anything behind the seat & you wouldnt know. Also she could quite easily unbuckle herself.

We were involved in a car crash when my dd was under 2yrs old. Driver hit my DDs side of the car trying to swerve to avoid us(we were sitting at red traffic lights). My DD was in a ff car seat & there was nothing wrong with her. The driver was going probably between 40-60 mph.

How many children under 4 die per year in car crashes? Is there research on how many of these would have been likely to survive if placed in a rear facing car seats? How many children per year in the uk are decapitated by being in the wrong car seat? I never knew that could happen. Are rear facing safer because you are more likely to have someone hit you from the back? If it was a side or front impact would it still be safer to be rear? Before mumsnet I had no idea people put their children in rear facing seat beyond 9kg.

It's not fair to say people don't research things. If you google car seat law or look on the retailers website it does give a lot of prominence to age. It's easy to see how people think its age that matters not size.

Forward/rear facing makes no difference for side impact crashes. Forward facing is safer for a rear shunt. Rear facing is safer for a frontal impact. Rear shunts however tend to be least serious; frontal impacts are the most serious kind of accident.

But the most important thing is that they are in a car seat at all and that it is correctly fastened.

Casualty statistics (UK)

Can't find any UK stats on numbers of children in car seats at time of injury, I guess because the figures are so low - 15 deaths per year - that figures are meaningless. There are figures from other countries, though.

Internal decapitation is a rare event.

I put my dd in a forward facing seat around 9 months according to manufacturers guidelines, she is very tall and grew out of her first seat quickly. While rear facing seats may be great, they are pricey, and with being a student and my dd only travelling by car a handful of times a year I thought forward facing wasgood enough.

Thanks for the info Bertie. That link to the stats is interesting, even though so few die there are a lot of seriously injured children. I always assumed rear facing was safer when hit from behind because instead of their head going forward it would go in to the seat.

It's the Volvo branded Multi-tech that I have. I paid £160 although I think the price has gone up a bit now. It you buy the Britax branded version it's about £300 I think!

Gnocchi that's the conclusion I've come to. RF is safest, then impact cushion, then five point harness. The reason the impact cushion is meant to be good is that in a crash, rather than the head flying forward, the whole body moves over the padded cushion. The Kiddy Guardian pro I've got was about £225 but when they're ready for the high-back booster you just take the impact shield away and use the seatbelt on it's own.

That would be true if you were hit from a standstill, it's the fact that you're travelling forwards in the first place which is the important factor.

If you're travelling in a car at 30mph and the car crashes, everything inside the car will continue to travel at 30mph unless it is stopped by something else. So in a rear facing seat, the body, neck and head are all stopped by the back of the RF seat. In a forward facing seat, the body up to the shoulders is stopped by the seat straps, but the head and neck themselves aren't restrained, just attached to the shoulders. So the head will be thrown forwards at 30mph and stopped by the neck leaning forwards reaching it's longest point (if that makes any sense at all...)

In a rear impact you don't get a sudden stop, you get a sudden acceleration from behind, so it has the impact of going very suddenly forwards - you might have experienced this in a powerful car which suddenly accelerates, or on a rollercoaster. You feel almost stuck to your seat as the sudden movement pushes you backwards.

Mine was FF at 8 months its not the end of the world as long as they are not tiny babies.

If there is going to be a big change in this country to ERF, then the prices of those car seats are going to have to come down. I have not switched DS (11 months, 10.5kg) yet, but his head is about to pop over the top so I am going to have to soon.

We are probably going to need 2 car seats because both myself and DH could be transporting DS to/from childminders on any given day. We have already bought a Maxi Cosi Priori for 90 quid. The absolute cheapest of those ERF car seats is about 200 quid, and that is before you factor in the jouney to go to one of the few places in the country to get it.

I am hoping to twist DH's arm to get a ERF for DS's second car seat, but upwards of 200 pounds is not to be sniffed at.

I think the whole issue of car seats on this country needs to be seriously looked at and some manufacturers also need a kick up the backside.

Not only the availibilty and price reduction of ERF seats but also the availibilty of 5 point harnesses past 18kg....I know a few ERF seats go to 25kg but no others apart from a very expensive SN seat do.

I have had Mum friends who had to put their DC's into a High Back Booster with adult belt at three ,as they had reached the 18kg limit,they were horrified at having to do so. DS was lucky being a small thing as he is just coming up to the weight limit at 6 1/2 so was still (until the weekend) in his 5 point harness (Group 1)

I know when DS was at pre-school almost all the DC's were in HBB with adult belts and many were smaller than DS.. I just dont know why people seem to be in a rush to ditch what must be the safer option for a young DC, a lot of DS's schoolmates are using just boosters.

I have just sold DS's car seat cover to go toward the cost of a HBB, I'm not convinced that cost always comes into it as the ones I have seen going for the cheaper/rush to the next stage option have money for other things

The stage 1,2,3 ff seat my SIL has purchased cost £150. An extra £50 for a safer seat is all it would cost then. To tgem.

Gnocci... as someone up thread pointed out... these 1-2-3 seats are sold as being for '9 months to 12 years old'..... and some people my sil take that as meaning the seat will last that long, not that that is the age range. So they see it as £150 for 12 years

Does anyone know why the car seats, like the britax first class, that are RF up to 13kg and FF up to 25kg can't remain RF beyond 13kg?

Sorry don't know where I got 25kg from!