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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To have young baby in a rear facing car seat In the front passenger seat?

42 replies

Chocoholism · 14/04/2014 19:59

With the air bag shut off.
I have a young Baby and if I drive anywhere she can sometimes get a bit whiney that turns into full blown melt down cries and there is not much I can do until I pull over safely.
A friend told me that she drives with baby In front seat if alone as her DD gets upset too, she said that it must get boring and frustrating hurt looking at back of chair!
Does anyone else have car seat for small baby in the front?

OP posts:

Paloma12 · 14/04/2014 20:00

Isn't it illegal?

ChazzerChaser · 14/04/2014 20:02

The problems with it are getting distracted by the baby and therefore being more dangerous. And also if it's a 3 door car if they're in the back they're in the main body of the car which will stand a collusion better than by a door. But it's all about weighing things up. People do do it.

StatisticallyChallenged · 14/04/2014 20:04

No its not illegal Paloma.

Original poster

Chocoholism · 14/04/2014 20:04

Just looking (stupid iphone)

OP posts:

AnythingNotEverything · 14/04/2014 20:10

It's not as safe in the front as in the back. I believe children should be in the back, in a rear facing seat for as log as possible.

I know mums who have a dummy especially (and only) for car journeys for the exact reasons you mention.

dyslexicdespot · 14/04/2014 20:10

It must be horrible driving with a screaming baby but it isn't safe to have them in the front seat.

StatisticallyChallenged · 14/04/2014 20:14

It's not as safe. It's not an absolute - safe or not safe. There are a lot of choices to weigh up

We have to transport a littlie in the front of our car - no choice, we have 6 in car seats and it's the only way it fits.

I can also see why people who have babies who hate the back of the car would do it. In the event of a crash, it is less safe for the baby to be in the front. But the chances of having a crash could well be reduced if it's the difference between having a screaming banshee in the back, or a quiet baby in the front.

cardibach · 14/04/2014 20:17

I did it. It's a risk assessment: which would make you less safe? A baby screaming in the back or a baby in the front. We have become too risk averse in this country. I also think that in a 3 door car the front Is safer as more easily accessed by emergency services if the need arises.

Original poster

Chocoholism · 14/04/2014 20:18

My little one will not take a dummy so I can't do that, to be honest I don't think I would put her In front, we don't drive often enough now as I try to walk or use public transport but it is very distracting when she's crying.

OP posts:

JingletsJangletsYellowBanglets · 14/04/2014 20:18

We did it in the past. The screaming was so distracting, it made driving much more dangerous.

littleducks · 14/04/2014 20:19

I did for a while. I was terrified he would silently stop breathing. I don't have an airbag though so feel more confident than having one switched off (apparently in some very rare cases they can still detonate)

Since about 2 months as Ds is bigger I have him in the back with a mirror so I can see him. And lots of toys as he is a screamer. An arch of hanging things and stiff clipped to hang from head rest.

He didn't appreciate a dummy!

scrivette · 14/04/2014 20:20

I used to do it as I struggled to get the car seat into the back at first and my other car is a two seater.

littleducks · 14/04/2014 20:21

Oh and I have a 4 hour drive alone with the kids this week. I'm considering putting him back in the front then, despite having room in the back.

ToriaPumpkin · 14/04/2014 20:24

I used to do it for long journeys as the screaming made me want to rip out and eat my own eyeballs after a while so driving in that frame of mind was obviously not safe!

Fortunately when he was big enough for an upright seat the screaming stopped as it seemed to be mostly down to the position he was in in the infant carrier exacerbating his reflux. Having suffered with reflux in my second pregnancy he has all my sympathy as lying crunched up like that would make me bloody miserable too.

MontyDonnsgirl · 14/04/2014 20:26

I did. Our front seat has isofix fitting so we had the baby in the front in a rearfacing seat with the airbag off.

littledrummergirl · 14/04/2014 20:34

When our dcs were little passenger air bags were not the norm. The fire brigade safety talk that we were given advised us that turning the air bag off may not stop it from working in an accident and the force would cause serious harm.
The only way to be certain was to remove the charge.
We didnt have an airbag passenger side so it wasnt an issue for us.
I think I would put my dc in the back if I had one now, I would consider their safety my priority. I do remember what it was like to drive with a screaming baby though and the concentration it took to block it out long enough to get to a safe stopping point.

Offler · 14/04/2014 20:35

We had to have dd in the front as our car's rear seatbelts were too short to strap the seat in! We did have a very elderly Passat though. She went forward facing at about 14 months as that seat fitted in the back ok.

We had bought a newer car (with airbags, air conditioning, electric windows..woohoo!) when we had ds and I think he's always been in the back and has generally had dd to entertain him!

StackALee · 14/04/2014 20:41

I did, because the car seat we had wouldn't fit safely in the back and we didn't have an airbag I the passenger seat anyway. It was lovely. He was also front facing in the front for a while, Until I got a new car.

StackALee · 14/04/2014 20:43

Ah, sorry. As a very little baby he was in the back, though a friend of mine was really confused by why I didn't have him in the front which i thought was strange as I had always assumed you put then the backif you can.

maddy68 · 14/04/2014 20:46

The baby will be fine. Far less distracting in the front seat than in the back IMO.

27onesies · 14/04/2014 20:46

I always put DS1 in the front in his rear facing car seat. There have been no problems at all and many peaceful trips out in the car because of it!

hotcrosshunny · 14/04/2014 20:50

How old?

My dd screamed. Screamed in the car seat. She has reflux. It got better when I could take out the foam insert bit - I think around 3 months I did tjat? Then by 4 months she could keep a dummy in and it was fine.

I avoided driving too!

Shukran · 14/04/2014 20:52

How old is the baby? My daughter hated her car seat for about a month at 5/6 months then suddenly was fine with it. It was a long month but she stayed in the back as the city I live in has some of the worst car accident stats (granted it's because there's no seatbelt/car seat culture here, so more likely to be injured) and awful drivers.
The only mum I know who's baby has always screamed in the back has the biggest 4x4 with airbag off so she knows she's likely to come off better in a crash.

MontyDonnsgirl · 14/04/2014 20:55

Surely rearfacing in the front is safer than forward facing in the back?

Ilovemydogandmydoglovesme · 14/04/2014 20:56

When I had dd1 I still had my Clio and if I put her in her rear facing seat on the front seat she was more or less physically in the middle of the car. If she went on the back seat she was only a couple of feet from the end of the car. I felt she was much safer in the middle of the car on the front seat.

My next car was a Passat estate, and both the front and back were more or less in the middle, the bonnet and the boot were enormous.

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