To be considering a front facing car seat

[Wilf83]

I'm a ftm & only just heard that a rear facing car seat are the safest. All my friends with 3 year old+ have always had front facing seats after their baby car seats so to me front facing from 12 months is normal but now I'm thinking that it would be really reckless of me.

Thanks for all the opinions. Having read all your comments, discussed the issue with dh (who is incidentally a paramedic) & researched the pro's & con's we have decided to go for a ff seat.

Itsfab - it's pretty offensive too for you to say YOUR children are precious and imply that parents who make other choices are not valuing their children as highly. Was that what you meant to do with that post?

This issue is just the same as sleeping position, when to wean, cycling on the road etc etc. There are lots of ways to do the right thing as parents.

Some studies have shown RF to be safer in certain accidents. That doesn't mean FF is unsafe or parents who chose for cost and preference to go with FF are missing something or taking an extra risk.

There is no excuse for not using a car seat. Other than that then individual preference is fine.

The Joie Stages seat is a Which? "Don't Buy". It says :

This child car seat has passed the regulatory tests required by ECE R44/04 to be sold as suitable for children from 0-25kg. But in our own more rigorous tests, which we believe are more representative of real-life crashes, the Joie Stages provided such bad crash protection in one test that we have made it a Don’t Buy.

They don't have a review of the seat we use - the Britax 2 way elite, probably as it isn't widely available in the UK.

The highest rated ERF car seats listed by Which? are:

Cybex Sirona £375 - narrowly misses being a best buy.

Maxi-Cosi 2way pearl £365 - is a best buy.

Britax Max Fix 2 £275 - narrowly misses being a best buy.

This is making me rething for DC2 as things have moved on considerably since we had DD. Though the 2 way pearl is so much more expensive than the 2 way elites we have - they were £200 each, so almost double.

'Some studies have shown RF to be safer in certain accidents. That doesn't mean FF is unsafe or parents who chose for cost and preference to go with FF are missing something or taking an extra risk.'

I looked up the BMJ paper on this. Rear facing are 15% safer BUT the total number of

I don't really go off which tbh. They have rated some of the safest seats as a don't buy, seats that have had undergone the strictest of tests.

A woman wrote about it on Facebook on her RF info page. Can't seem to link it though.

They gave the britax max way a dont buy as well.

I think that's exactly right Larry. Parents choose which risks to get het up about and then berate others for making a different choice.

I don't particularly rate Which? for this as we aren't idiots and are able to install a seat following the instructions, so that element of their concerns were not really relevant to us. We went to the In Car Safety Centre for DD's car seats and I felt that was as near as we could get to really expert advice.

I'm looking at the Maxi Cosi options that will work with the 2 way pearl that meet the i-Size criteria. We don't have a baby seat at all for DC2 as the one we used is too old to use again. It's great to find a seat that might be really safe, but actually there doesn't seem to be any stock of the Maxi-Cosi Pebble Plus or the base that goes with it, so we might not be able to go down that route anyway.

Indeed. I chose to live somewhere that means my children only need go in a car 2 or 3 times a year and are consequently much safer than all the children on this thread who go in rf car seats daily. I do not think this makes me a better parent!

We all take risks with some things. My children for example will not be in a car often but they will, hopefully, do a lot of horse riding. I suspect that is much less safe.

That was to Helena.

Haha, yes, MUCH less safe. If you google millimorts, you can see how risky various sports, activities are.

However, ultimately, much as most won't admit to it, there is a trade off between safety and utility/enjoyment. I feel sad seeing children in all over wet suits on summer holiday with those kind of Moroccan hats, just in case they get some sun. Or, toddlers wearing crash helmets to toddle, just in case they fall over and hit their heads.

We all die eventually. It is unavoidable. And when you see children scared to indulge in activities we regarded as normal as children, that is the trade off against them being a little safer.

And, yes, this is about this thread. It is MUCH nicer for a child to travel facing forward like a normal human being. I know how happy ours were when they first changed, a few years ago.

There is an obsession with safety which seems to trump everything else in some people's eyes. Realistically, though, the utility and pleasure gained in facing forward (in my opinion at least) greatly outweigh the (marginal) extra risk.

This. If my DD was equally happy and comfortable in a rf seat, I would choose rf for the extra safety. But she isn't. She is SO much happier ff and, weighing all things up, that outweighs the extra safety. Especially since we don't drive that often.

I bet it would be MUCH nicer for children to travel totally unrestrained, like we regarded as normal as children. Why deny them this simple pleasure, as car accidents are rare anyway? Just because that's the law?
OK, if you have a child who really can't stand RF, pukes all over and screams their head off each time so you can't concentrate on driving, then yes, FF makes sense. But otherwise, as you need to have a car seat anyway and you know that RF is safer, I personally would not deliberately choose the less safe one.

IamHelena - of course I didn't mean to imply that. I wouldn't be so up myself to do so. I don't tend to imply things, I just say how I feel.

I speak for myself since I am only in my own head and only my children are mine.

Much nicer for kids to travel in the footwell or the boot! They love it!

larry - have you ever seen a toddler wearing a crash helmet in case they bump their head?

www.rearfacing.co.uk/facts.php

Great diagram showing the head/body proportionality I explained earlier.

Thank you for clarifying Itsfab.

Hollie - the helmets were being sold at a big baby trade show used in an episode of the Apprentice. Not sold all that much as I recall but there were some parents who thought it a brill idea.

I've just googled images of rear facing seats and I have to say I feel sorry for the older children. They look really uncomfortable with their legs up in the air or either side of the chair
Surely sitting with legs akimbo like that, especially for longer journeys is really bad for a child's hips??
I can't believe how uncomfortable it looks and wouldn't feel right making my children sit like this.
I'm totally out of touch by the way, when I had my first DC she was strapped in the backseat in her carrycot, and we thought that was safe

Having legs together is bad for children's hips, not apart. That's why you shouldn't swaddle babies with their legs straight or put them in slings where their legs dangle down.

Honeezreturn - DD is the size of an average 5 year old and can whinge for Britain. She has never mentioned being uncomfortable in her RF seat. She did get pretty upset when I suggested that we turn the seat around to FF. Though I concede that she hasn't tried FF except in my parents' car.

www.britax.co.uk/car-seats/car-seats/max-way

We got ours from the in car safety centre in MKeynes about 1.5 years ago.

We are the only people in real life who have erf seats for our children!

Ok I stand corrected, I told you I was out of touch

omg - we are the only people we know in real life who have erf !

Another serious crash on the A9 this morning. The road is closed in both directions at Dunkeld. This is why I rearface...