To wonder why parents choose to forward face their child from a young age?

[incognito1991]

Genuinely no judgement I’m just curious, when I had my DD 2 years ago, I knew absolutely nothing about car seat safety and admittedly I still don’t know a lot. When looking into it I learned that children are so much safer rear facing for as long as possible and defiantly between the ages of 0-4. I have removed myself off some car seat safety groups as feel they can be too much sometimes but I was wondering if this is the best guidance why do parents choose to forward face from the legal age?

Travel sickness in our case. No fun sitting in the back on long car journeys with a vomiting toddler.

One of mine screamed blue murder when rear facing. Forward facing, not a peep. The screaming created more of a risk (as it was hugely distracting for me as the driver) in my opinion.

Because when a seat is sold legally, the presumption is it is safe.
And they are safe. Its just there are safer seats.

Plus a seat is only safe if used properly. A badly fitted, loosely strapped rear facing seat, with loose items in the car will be more dangerous than a well fitted, properly adjusted FF seat in a well packed car. Human error is a big risk factor.

According to my brother it's because his DC were so advanced and clever

Vomiting from travel sickness, constant screaming, unplugging themselves from the seatbelt in protest - all of these are unsafe and undesirable when driving!

I mean, I think you've answered it yourself. "I knew absolutely nothing about car seat safety". Some people don't know, see that something is legal, and assume it's as safe as the other legal options.

Also, forward-facing seats are usually significantly cheaper than extended rear-facing ones. Not everyone can afford a fancy Swedish +Tested seat 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because they were safely strapped into their car seat.

My younger child started losing the plot in the car while rear facing at about 18 months. It was happening consistently because she suddenly realised she was the only one rear facing. We decided it was safer to have a happy kid and a focused driver.

backwards facing wasn't a thing for me 20 years ago.
What I find somewhat weird, is, if backwards facing is safer, why aren't cars designed with the back seats rear facing?

Age 2.5 for our second child, she vomited approximately a mile into journeys when backwards facing and she was so car sick it was awful for her. First child we did it longer. I weighed up the other safety factors, our driving, type of car and where we were driving and made decision based on that. I suppose I could condescendingly ask why people stop breastfeeding before 2, or use screens etc etc but I assume the majority of people are making the best decisions for their family and child based on individual circumstances so I don’t.

I honestly can't remember what I did with my eldest (big age gap) but I can't see my toddler physically fitting in a rear-facing seat until 4. She's really long (98th percentile) so her legs are already folded/crossed in a rear facing seat at 1.5 years old. I'm more than happy to be told there are rear-facing seats that comfortably accommodate a 4 year old for a long car journey but I can totally see it getting to the point that I'll be basing the decision on height not age (which most of the guidance is based on for movement between different seat types)

We had one child who gets travel sick when backwards facing, and one who is is being assessed for ASD and ADHD and would have huge meltdowns and try to get her arms out/unclip when backwards facing. It was safer to FF.

Travel sickness here too, both of them. Much safer to be forward facing than potentially choking on vomit.

DD was about 2 when we moved her to forward facing, we also deactivated the airbag and put her seat in the front. The reason was because she would scream and unclip herself when rear facing in the back. 90% of the time I was in the car with her alone, I decided that the increased risk she would face of injury was less than the increased risk of getting into an accident due to distracting me when I was driving.

I had every intention to rear face until 4 but DS has motion sickness and was vomitting when rear faced. Nothing in life is risk free, we all make calculated decisions that are best for our families.

You put your children in cars???

Keeping them at home us much safer

Why are you putting your child deliberately in danger??

Oh travel sickness is the most common I’m seeing here, I completely understand that

Yes I remember seeing a post in one of the groups I used to be part of and someone was justifying rear facing by saying most accidents are from being rear ended, therefore rear facing is safer. Makes me think if I was in a head on accident, would rear facing be pointless

My nearly 4 year old is still rear facing and she is tall for her age. Children's bones are more flexible than adults and are usually more comfortable than having them dangling forward facing.

To answer op, I think most people go by what is legal sadly and 15 months/9kg depending on the seat is the minimum and most people think its safe else they wouldnt be sold. Its not even the cost of car seats when a lot of people spend £1000 on a pram only to replace it for a lightweight travel version a few years later but refuse to spend a few hundred on a life saving car seat that would last years.

My daughter has always been gigantic. She is incredibly tall. She's 7, over 135cm and isn't legally required to use a care seat. Although, we still do. She was incredibly uncomfortable by the time she was 3 rear facing.

Yep, car-sickness. Vomiting and hysterical crying are both far more dangerous IMO.

Lots of adults can't even travel backwards in a train, so it's hardly surprising that children can't do the same in a car!

Because:
a) the vast majority of car seats are forward facing.
b) rear-facing car seats are usually much more expensive than the forward-facing ones.
c) most children are calmer when forward-facing, as they can see where they're going, see other passengers in the car, see their parents etc.
d) children are less likely to suffer from motion sickness if facing the direction of travel.

We couldn't fit a rear facing seat behind the driver seat when DH was driving so DC1 had to forward face once we had DC as we weren't going to buy a new car at that point.

DC2 screamed on every journey he was in his rear facing baby seat, had to put him in DC1s seat once for a short trip and it was like having a different child.

Travel sickness for us too, within minutes of leaving the house. The sickness was guaranteed, whereas crashing the car is not, so I felt that there was a far higher risk of choking than there was of injury from a forward facing seat.

So the child can see where we are going and be part of the conversation. Annoyingly I couldn't switch off the front seat airbag, then they would have been in the front seat from a younger age.