For considering forward facing a two year old...

[RowboatsinDisguise]

I recently took DS’s ERF car seat out and gave the covers a good scrub and rinse as with potty training (wee only!) and general life debris they were utterly rank. In the meantime we’ve been using a spare group 1 FF seat. I much prefer it! It’s about a million times easier to strap him in (being heavily pregnant this is a massive factor), he’s happier chatting to me and seeing what’s going on, if he starts shouting I can work out why pretty much immediately... it’s just so much more pleasant for both of us!

Is it really so awful to want to keep him FF? I know why ERF is recommended. I’ve seen the crash tests. I know the stats. But I also know that the overall likelihood of being in a crash remains low and that forwards facing seats do still provide protection. I just don’t know what to do now!

You are being unreasonable to even think about FF until they are atleast 12!

In the various debates about ERF the question of the OP has been a bit lost.

RowboatsinDisguise As you’ve said you know the information, already have the seat etc. What you need to decide is whether for you personally the convenience factor outweighs the safety. Essentially, you’ve got to think how you’d feel if something (while low risk) happened and there were injuries that could have been prevented with the better seat. At 2, I don’t think I’d have changed for convenience but I would have done for severe vomiting.

Just make sure your group 1 isn’t a team tex/ own brand crappy one. I was shocked seeing some of the safety information on those seats.

I would add that in your position OP, once the new baby is here you can justify to your elder one that they both face back because it is safer, and the bump getting in the way will not be an issue! Unless your dc is vomiting and howling to distraction, I would go back to RF.

We turned our daughter to ff at about 18 months, she just screamed and I couldn't take it anymore.
I did my research but I was more likely to crash worrying about her throwing up than others! It's your judgement. And the odds of you crashing and it being such a sudden stop to snap their neck is so unlikely. Car seats are amazing now and the protection they get is 100x better than what our parents had. From Studies I read the major difference is up to 2 years old. After that the differece in injuries between rf and ff was negligible but that was the studies I read there are soooo many out there. Your child your decision.

You are being unreasonable to even think about FF until they are atleast 12!

Hahah at the very earliest!!

Most people where I live ff from around 1. Certainly by 2.

Not us though. I’ve been questioned and told I’m lucky because other people’s kids wouldn’t manage to rf until 5 like mine did.

I don’t care though because my only concern was keeping my children as safe as they could be.

*Rear facing is another one of those things that only happens on mumsnet. In the real world I don't know anyone who rear faces a 2 year old.

This^

DS1 rear faced until about age 3.5. DS2 is 2years 9 months and is forward facing now as he gets travel sick and is much better forward facing. I don't like it but I cannot scrub a car seat (and much of the back of the car) after every journey.

My children were all FF by 12 months . So how do older children manage with absolutely nothing to look at on long car journeys..and where do their legs go !!! If god forbid you had an accident I cannot imagine the damage to their legs and spine ! I worked in AE in Brighton in the early 90s and do not recall a tragedy involving a toddler in a FF car seat . I also worked In Sydney in AE in the late 90s and again I cannot remember any young child being badly injured in a FF car seat .

@Grandmi

My children were all FF by 12 months . So how do older children manage with absolutely nothing to look at on long car journeys..and where do their legs go !!! If god forbid you had an accident I cannot imagine the damage to their legs and spine ! I worked in AE in Brighton in the early 90s and do not recall a tragedy involving a toddler in a FF car seat . I also worked In Sydney in AE in the late 90s and again I cannot remember any young child being badly injured in a FF car seat .

Being rear faced is exactly what is prevent spinal injuries, why on earth do you think rear facing would lead to leg injuries?

Its fairly scary that someone claiming to have worked in A&E doesn’t know about internal decapitation.

Well I'm a awful mum according to Mumsnet for putting DS 16 months ff because he throws up after every journey when rear faced.

There wasn’t as many options for rear facing when my 2 were younger. I kept Dd1 in her infant carrier until she reached the limit. As she was small it was about 17 months.
I wanted to keep my second child rear facing longer. I could put up with the constant screaming but I felt it time to change when they escaped their chair on the motorway. I found no matter what I did she could escape. The only thing that worked was an adult sitting in the back with her which want possible all of the time.

Wtf op.
Just because it is easier for you... you are willing to risk your kids life.

Laziest thing ive ever heard. Shame... shame!

@Kitmerow

You are being unreasonable to even think about FF until they are atleast 12!

My son is nearly 13 and was 150 cms or so when he was 12 how on earth would he have sat Forward facing till then - where would his legs go?

I have checked and I believe the UK rule is rear facing is up to 13kg (about 12-15 months) when my son was small it was on weight generally I beleive

Travelling at 60mph instead of 80 is also a hell of a lot safer, but I don't see all those rear facers doing that .....

Just because it is easier for you... you are willing to risk your kids life.
Laziest thing ive ever heard.

You are risking your kids life by even having a car. Don't be so lazy and catch the bus.

@Pluckedpencil

Travelling at 60mph instead of 80 is also a hell of a lot safer, but I don't see all those rear facers doing that .....

So all forward facers are also speeding while texting, because overall the risks are still small?

@Grandmi they can see out of the side and back windows, shock horror they can actually see more!

Internal decapitation happens in FF seats. RF seats prevent the head and spine.

"Just because it is easier for you... you are willing to risk your kids life.
Laziest thing ive ever heard."
That's such sad thing to say to anyone. And so embarrassing, how could you say something like that. It's absolutely fine to do ff. When they are older, they dont have any protection.

I always find it weird how disproportionately fanatical get about reducing a tiny risk further. DS (2) FFs because it turned him instantly into screaming and crying, sometimes to the point of being sick, every journey to being happy and content in the car. I don't think it's the best safety decision we could have made.

However, we have also made choices to deliberate shaped our lives so we no longer have to use a car on a daily basis, and we've chosen to move so that we can live in an area of much lower air pollution. I don't know anyone else who has done these things, so they choose to put their child at risk daily for convenience. Many of them also feed their child processed meat, even though it's a known carcinogen. I don't actually judge for any of these things because we all make our own risk decisions and choices but I do think it's odd to fixate so strongly on one thing. I don't know if it's because it feels so tangible and visible, whereas letting your child breathe in the pollution from cars is 'only' damaging them in ways you can't actually see?

I tend to think that for the people that are fanatical about it, it's because it somehow proves to them and the world that they are a good parent, better than others who dont do the same. So in their head, ff is bad and rf is marvellous. Rf wasnt really a thing when my kids were small, you only did it when they were very small and as soon as they were out of carry cot size they were all ff. I'm not aware of there being any deaths from this or less deaths since rf became a thing. They soon just go onto booster seats or no seat at all and then you wonder what all the fuss was about.

@pineappletop

Sorry so unsafe for that age. I'd rather safer over easier any day of the week

She's not strapping the child to the roof of the car, she'll be in a car seat which has been designed and tested for the purpose of keeping her safe. 'So unsafe' indeed

I've never known anyone to rear face a two year old 🤷🏾‍♀️

So RF is safer because statistically you're more likely to have impact into the rear of the car. What if you get hit head on? Surely then the reverse is true, and FF is safer? From the side does it make much difference? I do agree it's sensible if possible to RF in line with guidance, but I wouldn't feel guilty in making an informed decision not to.