To think most parents don't know that rearfacing DCs is safer?

[mumaw]

I'm in Facebook groups that specialise in advice for mainly extended rear facing car seats. It's proven that rear facing your child is much, much safer (in fact 500% safer) than front facing.

But I never see anybody RF'ing their child and don't know anybody that does either.

Is it just a case of parents not knowing that its safer?

@Sunshinegirl82 but will they fit in a coach? because width/seatbelt length in a problem on those. And do they take up lots of space in my relatively small flat when I only use it every few months?
They are also more expensive than others that will do him until he's 12 and no longer needs a car seat. Therefor why would I pay premium prices for a car seat that only does up to 4/7 if it'll be used maybe once every 6 months? (because we've only used our baby carrier more due to visiting family more when I am on maternity leave) that's a grand total of the car seat being used 6/12 times, as he's already a year old and still fits in his size 0+ car seat.

Yes I will argue about it. Because the joie don't fit my needs none of them fit my main need for a car seat.

@grisen none of the rearfacing ones will fit a coach or can be safely installed in a taxi (i.e. in limited amount of time). they either have a foot, or a 3rd tether. i was thinking about getting one before we know that our youngest also gets severely travel sick

Our rear facing one just seat belts in, it doesn't need anything extra.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland if you struggle to get an infant seat beging your DH, are you sure you have the minimum safe distance between the FF carseat and the seat in front (55cm). It's really dangerous if you don't (in even a minor collision you child would hit the seat in front).

OP people just don't believe how much safer it is. We rear face DS, he's 3.5. only one other friend does (she's actually just bought a 25kg RF seat for her eldest to move in to). It'll become the norm in the future I hope, like it is in Scandinavian countries.

@grisen if you'd just rather forward face then that's fine. You said you didn't think there was a seat that suited your needs and so you had no choice but to forward face so I made a suggestion.

The Tilt is not a big seat, it doesn't have a support leg or require a top tether. It belts in similarly to an infant carrier. It provides the option to either RF or FF, it retails for about £75 so is at the cheaper end of the car seat market. It seems on the face of it that it would be worth a look at. Completely up to you though obviously, it was just a suggestion.

I don't know if it would fit in a coach specifically but Joie customer services are really helpful so I'm sure they could give you some steer on that specific point if you were considering the seat.

@ChildminderMum i had problems fitting a big infant carrier in a coach. seatbelts and distance between rows are waaaaay too small for an extended rearfacing seat, sorry! same for many taxis (mainly outsidd tge uk)

@myself2020 seatbelt length may well be an issue with some vehicles. If there was a general preference to rear face then something like the Tilt/Stages would give the option to RF when possible but FF when that wasn't an option. Both RF and FF use the seatbelt only.

@Sunshinegirl82 cool! for us it isn’t an option due to travel sickness, but good to know for others

I know, and when in my car in a spin seat he is rear facing.

I found when trying to find rear facing belted seats (as needed for DH and DGs cars) that the available seats either didn't fit or were at risk of buckle crunch and that the number of things that could be done "wrong" (not keeping seat resting on front seat, buckle in wrong etc) made rear facing feel more risky than putting him in a correctly fitted FF seat.

Stages needs a long seatbelt for RF its a v bulky seat. I could only just get it RF in a bmw.

Bonjourfreddie did you try the short belt method? It tends to work well. There's videos on youtube.

I have no idea what that is! I got it in in the end but he ff now so no issues anymore.

It will change slowly as you have to rearface in new style car seats until 15months. I think my youngest was about 2 when we stopped as our car is very small and it wasn’t causing problems. Slightly off topic but I’ve been wondering whether it’s still safer if the actual seat is rear facing- maybe that will become a thing .

I think knowledge of RF and safety is growing and so are the number of products on the market. We didn’t extended RF with DS 1 and 2 but have until aged 3 with DS3. We’ve had to stop at aged as he was kicking his brother so much it was a massive distraction having them argue in the car-we turned him FF and it’s resolved the issue.

myself2020 and grisen we've put the Every Stage in coaches, ski buses and taxis loads of times. We've sometimes had to put it in one of the front row coach seats (ie so there's no row of seats in front), but most of the time it fits fine.

Needs a seatbelt, but we've never had problems with a long enough belt either, and we use Zipcar so we've tried it in plenty of different makes of cars.

RF car seats are far more expensive, I just couldn't afford one

@chocolatebuttonsandcheese I think that certainly used to be true but the cheapest seat that allows you to RF upto 4 costs around £75. There are several others available for around £100 or less. There are definitely now options at lower price points.

Mine will rear-face as long as is possible with her size- the seat is til 4 years.

Most of my friends babies rear face. The ones who don't, I think had an aspect of 'yay he can forward face' like 'yay he's in the pushchair now/ not the lay flat pram'.

Some parents are keen for their child to grow quickly and engage in new age appropriate things.

I think most mums would know rear facing is safer as there's a lot of talk about I found.

I have a Joie Spin 360 for my DGS, he is 2 years and 9 months now. It swivels to face the door to get him in and out. He always says, "That way?", indicating FF, and I say no, he goes the other way in my car. I don't know if he's average size for his age but he fits without difficulty and I will rear-face him for as long as I possibly can.

Both his parents have Maxi Cosi seats which do not swivel. They both forward face him, and have done since around 18 months. They said nobody dropping off at nursery had children rear facing after 12-15 months, nobody in their former NCT group did, and it was 'just easier'. Easier to pass the child food and drinks, toys or comforters from the front seats, easier to look at him, easier for him to get in and out himself (and now he undoes the straps himself - well, not in my car, but in theirs).

Easier for him to sustain a catastrophic injury, or to die, if forward facing in an accident. We have had such rows about it I no longer say anything, he's their child and they're sure they're right. I'm sure they're not.

It's far easier to pass things to a rear facing child from the front seat.

Yep. I have DD's seat rear facing behind my seat and when we're stopped I can post things to her easily. I just reach up over my shoulder and post things through my head rest.

My parents bought our spare seat as it's mostly for use in their car and they insisted on buying ERF even though it cost £30 more than the FF Britax I'd shortlisted. I'm lucky that my parents are willing to move with the times and understand that although I was FF as a child and survived, that it is now understood to be much safer to be RF.

Incidentally, I saw a documentary a few years ago about a train derailment (I think it was the one on the West Coast mainline) and the expert on that said that it's loads safer to rear face on trains too, so this is not just some car seat specific idea that overly cautious parents are pedaling.

On September the 19th it will be illegal here to forward face before the age of 2 years.

Also, kids will have to be in a harness until 55 pounds and a booster until they are 8 years old or weight 80 pounds.

I think it likely that the UK will raise the age for rear facing eventually. I'm expecting that they will phase out non isize seats (which will mean RF until 15 months as a minimum) and then push the age up further.

Under 2 is when the impact of RF on injury reduction is greatest so age 2 makes sense.

I had no idea about RF seats until my DD1 outweighed her infant carrier at just 6 months old and I suddenly realised she was WAY too young for the next stage seat. If it hadn't been for that, I'd never have known they existed, but I'm grateful she's so enormous as it means she (and subsequent siblings) have had safer seats because of it.

For what it's worth, I know parents make all sorts of decisions about their kids for all sorts of reasons, but I do find the "my child is too tall" excuse a bit annoying. My DD wasn't even on the centile charts until a year ago (she's now 5) because she is so tall. She has an issue with her tendons because of her rate of growth, making her much more inflexible than most children her age. She rear faced in a 25kg seat until 1 month before she turned 4, when she said her legs were starting to be sore sometimes. We regularly do 2hr trips each way to visit grandparents, and 13hr overnight trips up to Scotland. She never had an issue until this point. And she sat behind 6ft 6 DH in a Skoda Fabia.

If you have a tall child, and you want to rear face for longer, we found the in car safety centre incredibly helpful with finding a solution for us. It's absolutely doable if you want it to be.

We regularly do 8+ hour car trips and ds rear faced until was 4 and flat out refused. Lots of others also rear faced for the same length of time.