to think its not ilegal..

[biddysmama]

to have my 13 month old dd rear facing in her up to 13kg car seat (britax first class)

car was parked and mil's other day sil saw dd's car seat and told her to tell dp that its illegal to put a baby over 12 months rear facing

she has a 9 year old, i told dp its not true, he says she knows what shes talking about, her cousin with a baby told her..

obviously i know jack all despite researching the safety of my baby and he wants to forward face her and now we are arguing about it

i'm also pretty pissed off he assumes she is right and i am wrong!!

Of course it is not illegal;, in fact it is much safer.

Ds had to stay rear facing until 18 months as he was so tiny he wasn;t big enough for forward facing seats until then.

Dd went rear facing up until 2 and a half occasionally when we went on holliday and it was easier to use her rock a tot in hire cars.

Absolute rubbish.

Someone on here posted recently about rear-facing seats for older children, so I'm sure it's not illegal.

Thread here
Car seat laws here Doesn't mention rear-facing being illegal for over 12 month olds.

of course its not illegal! sil obviously just thinks it because of the way most car seats are labelled in shops...

The current guidelines state that a baby has to be at least 12 months old and a certain weight before going forward facing. At least, not must go forward the moment they hit that milestone.

That is ridiculous! It is much safer to keep her rear facing until she outgrows the weight limit. The age ratings are just a guideline - weight and height are the most important factors to look at.

RoSPA website info here

Most baby seats up to 13kg will take babies up to about 15-18 months, the only reason that 9-12 months is cited is because with the older rearfacing seats that went up to 10kg, advice was to turn them round when they could sit unaided at 6-9 months. We now know it's much safer for babies and toddlers to travel backwards, as their big heads in proportion to their bodies put them more at risk of neck injuries in a frontal crash. So it's advised to keep babies facing backwards until they outgrow the baby seat.

In the USA the law is that babies must not be turned forward facing until they are at least a year, could she be confused with this?

No its not illegal, tell your SIL to research it instead of listening to her friend who has a baby. Because your baby is now 13months does that mean you dont know jack.

idiot.

they dont have to be 12 months (in the UK) as most forward facing seats say from 9 months+. They need to be at least 20lbs to forward face too. If your lo is under the weight limit for the rear facing seat and their head is not over the back of the seat then they can stay rear facing until they are too heavy/too tall for the seat.

This is from the car seat law website quoted earlier:

Rearward-facing Baby Seats

Group 0: for babies up to 10 kgs (22 lbs) roughly from birth to 6-9 months, or

Group 0+: for babies up to 13kg (29lbs) roughly from birth to 12-15 months

They can be used in the front or rear of the car. It is safer to put them in the rear. DO NOT put them in the front passenger seat if there is a passenger airbag. Rearward-facing seats provide greater protection for the baby's head, neck and spine than forward-facing seats. So, it is best to keep your baby in a rearward-facing seat for as long as possible. Only move them to a forward-facing seat once they have exceeded the maximum weight for the baby seat, or the top of their head is higher than the top of the seat.

Although I must say that a lot of people seem to be misinformed about this - my HV tells everyone at the 9 month check "Oh your baby is over 9kg, you must get a FF car seat now, it's safer!"

YANBU

Total and utter bollocks.

Volvo's own car seats for toddlers are rear facing because its safer. We got one for that reason at considerable expense at the time, a decade ago - fortunately rear-facing seats are more commonly available now.

(its safer for adults too, come to that, think about military transport planes)

I don't know the legality but perhaps your MILs confusion is because it is extremely dangerous to have a child under a year old forward facing - that should be illegal. Their spines are simply not strong enough and can break . After that age its sort of ok but still best to keep rear facing as long as possible.

heres a link
[[http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/jun11_2/b1994 and BMJ, no less]

it's 5 times safer to rf! get your dp, mil and sil to look at www.rearfacing.co.uk! then convince dp that you need a rf seat to age 4 just to annoy your ils lol!

Sorry don't know haw to link properly read this thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/954974-to-wonder-why-more-people-don-39-t-buy-re ar

Rear facing is much much safer. She is misinformed as well as unpleasantly bossy. Illegal - what a lot of tosh.

It's safest to pay a fortune to import a rear-facing seat for older children when she does get over the weight limit, as well. Your MIL doesn't know what she's talking about.

I didnt think it went on age anymore at all. i thought it was on weight?