Confused about what car seat to buy next for dd/ forward or rear facing?

[JuicyLips]

Hi, am not sure what car seat to get for my dd. she is 8 months old and nearly out of her current car seat already so am thinking about buying one now so it ready for her when she no longer fits.

The problem is now I've heard that rear-facing ones are better than front-facing I feel I should get one that is rear-facing (or one that that can be both) as I dont want to compromise dd's safety, but at the same time they are a lot more expensive, and part of me thinks that surely rear-facing seats are only 5 times safe one way in an accident but not the other and front would be better in an accident other way round? Also as I did not know about this when ds was a baby he went into forward-facing when it was time for him to go into bigger car seat and "has been ok so far"(dh's words to me when approached with the subject, but then again luckily we've never had a serious crash). I dont like to think that we could be endangering her by putting her in an inferior seat. It is all so confusing to me. Can anyone clever help put me straight me with what I should get? Thanks x

I can't recommend any specific seats as my own experience is not with those available in Europe. However, with regards to being forward or rear facing, there is no doubt that your DD will be safer if she is rear facing.

The current guidelines say that a child should not be turned forward facing until they weigh at least 10kgs and can sit up unaided for at least 20 mins. However, that is a bare minimum and keeping them rear facing for longer than that is far safer.

With regards to rear and forward facing being safer in opposite direction crashes, that is true. But, think about the physics of the crash situations.
When in a head-on crash, the car forward moving car decelerates rapidly. The child's body is strapped in to a forward facing seat, but the child's head is not. The body decelerates with the car, but the heavy head doesn't and the baby's neck takes the strain.
In a head-on crash in a rear-facing seat, the baby's head is protected and cradled by the seat. No neck problem.

In a rear-end crash, the car is (probably) stationary and is hit from behind. The car accelerates forward. A child in a forward facing seat is protected by the seat as the head is cradled.
A child in a rear-facing seat is likely to have their head thrown forward as the car accelerates due to the force of the crash.

However, the head-on crash involves far stronger forces and far more likelihood of a broken neck than being rear-ended when stationary. The child is safer in a rear facing seat because the acceleration when being rear-ended is unlikely to be enough to cause such major injuries.

Does that make any sense????

yes it does make a lot of sense. thank you for the reply! is very helpful. So definitely rear facing sounds like the way to go. Thanks!

I glad you understood all that and that it was helpful.
If you want to scare yourself at all, there are lots of videos on this topic on youtube. They show crash test dummies of children in the two types of seats.
I'm glad you've decided to go rear facing anyway. Lots of people turn their children early and it's really not worth the risk.