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?

"I think you ABU tying a breastfeeding comment into your surprise that THOSE mothers aren’t using RF."
Yes, she is basically saying mothers who ff don't care about the safety of their children.

@TabbyMumz They say that as long as child is over 4-5 years, can sit still without moving and is over 15kg then they can go into a high back booster seat.

FWIW .. Millitary transport aircraft use rear facing seats as in an accident your pushed into the seat so the whole seat takes and absorbs the impact forces rather than just a couple of thin straps.

Can't remember what the figures are now but your body takes on the weight of best part of a ton under impact forces from as slow as 30 miles per hour!

Thats why you get rear seat passengers to strap themselves in!.

When i were a lad we used to nick car bulbs out of the wrecks in the local scrap yard I often wondered why the sterring wheels of most cars were bent thats the cheast and body of someone doing that in an accident, that was before seat belts were in common use.

Me and mates couold never get it pulled straight, massive forces are involved in shch impacts!

Not many survived such accidents:(

Ahhh it was MumApr18 who said that!!!

My 3.5 year old is still rear facing and I am also kinda surprised at how many kids aren't

Our Dd is still rfing and I read she should be until two years old then can Ff, is that correct? I have a few friends who Ff (babes are a similar age-1)

I think most parents know but put the child FF as rearfacing is too boring for their clever little children. Not stimulating enough. That's at least the standard type of response friends give on this topic (I don't speak to random strangers about it) .

@Sundancer77 Can rearface past 2 years old

At 4 or 5 years, my kids had really long legs and wouldn't have fitted rf though. They wouldn't have fitted age 2!!!

We have a tiny 2 seater car. My dd still rear faces at 1.5 but my son is 3 and he just doesn't fit. Maybe if we get a bigger car.

I see lots of RF'ing. But your post includes no evidence and is rather "alert the church elders". Get over yourself

I had no idea that people sat their children facing forwards in a car seat?! I thought this wasn’t even allowed. I’d keep my DC rear facing for as long as humanely possible. Guess I’m lucky they love the car and find car journeys soothing - always fall asleep! So I don’t have to worry about them crying on the journey like some other pps.

My nearly four year old is rear facing still. I seem to be the only one. I don't think life is black and white but seeing as it is so much safer I would like to see it more common place.

sun, guess this depends on the seat. But recommendation is to keep the RF as long as possible. Mine were RF until 4.5.

too boring for their clever little children

you don't like your friends much do you?

Ah, I see op, in that case maximus gave a pretty good list of reasons, car sickness etc.

I’m surprised by this. Most of the children I see being dropped off at DD’s nursery seem to be RF, definitely the under 3s. And when we looked at car seats in 2017 as complete novices both John Lewis and Mothercare went big on emphasising the length of time different seats could RF perhaps because those ones tend to be more expensive. The people I know with DC my daughter’s age (nearly 2) who are FF it’s for a specific reason like carsickness.

I used the which recommended seat when dd grew out of her maxi cosy, which at the time was kiddy. Rear facing wasn’t a thing. People generally know rear facing are better. People know they should be using car seats and yet a few still don’t. Not everyone makes the best choices in life about everything. And the best choices for you may be the worst for them for more than one reason.

Guess I’m lucky they love the car and find car journeys soothing - always fall asleep! So I don’t have to worry about them crying on the journey like some other pps.

How old are they?

I actually don't see how its safer. Surely if hit in an accident, the seat would wobble as not as well secured rear facing and could squash the child into the back seat?

Also OP don’t see why you’re getting such a hard time on here - I never understand why a parent would be angry about hearing what is safest for their child? I’d always be happy to hear stuff like this (if I didn’t know) - grateful for the information. It’s weird how people are so hostile to stuff like this.

I read somewhere that some countries in Europe have it as law that the children have to rear face until they’re 4 and their rate of childhood death from car crashes is considerably lower than ours. I’m not sure if there is truth to that though.

My friends baby died in a car crash when he was 13 months and forward facing because of the force that came at him from behind. She says she has never really forgiven herself because she believes that if her son had been RF he would still be alive.

How could anyone who's been on MN for more than about 20 minutes not know that RF is safer? That's about how long we go between threads about it.

Anyway I live in a country where the appropriate-sized FF is seen as best practice and toddlers are frequently given lifts in older siblings' child car seats. Not the babies though, they tend to have them on their laps in the passenger seat

icantthink

its not what op is saying, its v much the attitude she is saying it with.

That was the case for us ritz. Couldn’t afford to buy a whole new set of seats, also we could barely fit a rear facing baby carrier in so didn’t fancy our chances with a red 4 yr old.

I’d rather as a pp said, people were made aware of how low the minimum standards are for car seats. I was horrified when I found a which report on the differences between the cheaper group 0 seats, I’d bought a cheaper spare one for holiday and the thought of just how unprotected they were in it made me feel ill.

Also the amount of people I know who still go by height rather than weight for moving up seats. The five point harnesses are only rated for up to 18kg. Had to move DC2 up earlier than I thought due to this.