To think he shouldn’t be forward facing??

[Georgiiii]

At age two?

Told that if legs are longer then shouldn’t be backward facing as it’s dangerous. I thought backward facing was supposed to be the way as long as possible?

lol yes . Clearly you love your children and i don’t. But not aggressive at all.

I don't think you and I have the same definition of high risk...

OK, if I was putting my child at risk of death and someone told me, I'd say, thanks very much for letting me know, I won't do that any more. I wouldn't say they were being aggressive and I wouldn't knowingly risk my child's life.

Understanding of car safety has come a long way relatively quickly. Ds is 15 and when he was a baby people thought him still being rear facing when he turned one was late! He was 18 months when he moved forward facing which for the time was very late - most turned at 9 months.

Sadly it seems some people still can’t keep up the advancements in understanding and still want to rush up the next size seats. I don’t get it, ds was 12 before he stopped using a seat as that was when the seat belt fitted him properly.

Surely comfort depends on the person. I’m an adult and I look at rear facing children with their legs crossed, or on the seat with their knees above their hips or whatever and think I’d be far more comfortable like that. I find sitting at right angles like very uncomfortable and if my legs were dangling I’d really really struggle. Maybe because I’m hypermobile, but these threads do make me a bit jealous of seating positions ERF children have available.

I'm not going to argue with strangers on the Internet. You do you and I'll do what I thinks best. My son is safe. And luckily I use the bus mostly so there ya go

I think some of the issue is that people think of moving up car seats as some sort of developmental milestone as opposed to a safety issue and are set in the mindset it's something they have to do at certain ages.

I would be pointing it out in the store that their sales person is giving incorrect advice!

https://thecarseatlady.com/when-should-your-child-turn-forward-facing/

There's a kid in this article that is much older, rear facing with their legs up the back seat. The sales guy is projecting his own comfort and flexibility!

Another issue I think is because research and knowledge has moved so quickly on this in the last few years, some people feel really defensive about it because they made a decision even just a few years ago based on what was known at the time, and now it's 'less safe' they think it's some sort of judgement on their parenting.

But it's the same with loads of stuff related to kids or anything in life really where science and research progresses and changes our understanding.

'Back to sleep' is a good example. No one thinks parents who put their child to sleep on their tummies before it the risks were widely known about are bad parents, they just didn't have the information we know now, and same goes for car seats. It just takes time to filter down.

While the advice you've been given is incorrect, a child can legally go forward facing from 15 months old and when they meet the seat's height requirements. So assuming that, you can do whatever you feel most comfortable with.

I’m aware of the small risks to both FF and RF travel.

I am aware RF is safer.

I am also aware that we choose to do things that are arguably risky all the time (even travel by car) because of the perceived benefits.

no one is criticising your choices. But i have made a different one.

I have a joie 360

But it's not compulsory, no matter how much you dislike it, so you don't have any jurisdiction to tell @teatoast8 what to do.

I mean, really it's safer not to take your kids everywhere in a car!

People on here get really intense about car seats. I get the dangers. But also my child would be safer in a £40k 4x4 than the crappy car I drive. They'd be safer if we never drove. They'd be safer if we lived somewhere else. You make your choices.

A child screeching constantly in a rear facing seat is more likely to distract the driver and be in a crash too, right?

I agonised over this. My son grew out of his rear facing seat (height wise) at 3.5 and we couldn't afford one of the bigger rear facing ones so have chosen to have him forward facing since.

I'd definitely keep your son rear facing for as long as possible.

Define safe? Define risk?

You're using a tone on this thread that implies you think FFing is akin to injecting heroin.

That tone indicates you have little understanding of risk assessment.

No child, or adult, is ever guaranteed to be safe in a car. Or walking on a pavement for that matter. A RFing seat is safer than a FFing one, but it's a reduction in a very remote risk anyway. No correctly fitted, legal, size appropriate car seat is dangerous. We're talking degrees of safe.

Implying PP doesn't love her DC as much as you love yours because of her choice of car seat is out of line.

Statistics seem to suggest that (correctly fitted) forward facing car seats reduce the risk of injury in a collision by around 50%, rear facing by 85-90% - there isn’t now plenty of evidence to suggest that rear facing for longer is much safer.

And that is the combined speed so each car actually only going 16mph

ETA: for a front-on collision

100%.

Driving while you have a screaming, crying, vomiting rear-facing child in the backseat is much more dangerous than driving with a happy, quiet forward facing child.

Agree with all of this.
Spent some time in cars in Sweden and my Swedish friends were much more aware of the risks of children facing forward in seats. Normal for children to be rear facing there until four at a minimum.

It is legal so you're not doing anything wrong but have a google, there's lots of evidence that facing backwards is way safe in an accident for little ones

Look at the law.
Look at the safety advice.
Make up your own mind. You have to be satisfied not the man at halfords

I'll be keeping my son forward facing.

Define "high chance". For an average crash, what's the probability of that sort of injury?

In fact, the generally accepted "thing", which I'm also happy enough to accept, is that rear facing is four times safer. The thing that often gets forgotten is that the risk of dying in a car crash is thankfully very low. So that "four times safer" lowers your relative risk lots, but your absolute risk only a little. Which means it may be entirely appropriate for a parent, for various reasons, to make a risk-benefit assessment and forward face a younger child. (The obvious reason is a child who gets distressed and is distracting the driver, raising the chance of a crash in the first place, but there are others.)

Rf is best till 6/7 but we had to ff dd at 3 as she is absolutely huge (22kg) and has ASD so it just wasn’t possible or practical to have her RF any longer