Rear facing car seats - why not in UK?

[Norwegiana]

I am just wondering why rear-facing car seats for children are so rarely seen in this country? Where I'm from (you can guess by my nick!) it's very common for children to continue being placed in rear-facing car seats until they're maybe 3 or 4. It's much, much safer, so just wondering why this message hasn't become well known in the UK. My children have been rear-facing until 4, and haven't minded one bit. There is more information here: www.rearfacing.co.uk/

[hellymelly]

We have rear facing seats.My dds are four and seven and the older dd is very light so still (just) fits in her seat.It will need to be forward facing in the next few months though.We have the britax two way seats. My in-laws paid for them,but tbh I would have gone without meals out/new clothes /anything to buy them because they are so much safer. I listen to the Swedes on this.(I do have a Volvo though,so no fitting issues).

[fireflymouse]

Ha ha I've read that 'debate' before, gallicgirl! Made me laugh the Glenn( not his real name) part!

[SkiBumMum]

We have a kiddy impact cushion one for DD1 and love it. I assumed we would get another for DD2 but I'm completely ignorant about rear face seats as have only ever seen them mentioned on here. So....this might be a daft question, but where on earth do their legs go?!

[ProfCoxWouldGetIt]

I think anouther thing to consider is the space, we drive a Peugeot, and we found that any of the rear facing seats wouldn't fit in our car (unless the driver or passenger in the front sat with their head pressed against the windscreen) but our car was obviosuly not designed for car seats because we could only find one brand that would actually work in our car and that turned out to be a maxi cosi

[nicm]

i would say that it depends on the seat, some are obviously more compact than others when fitted. i had 2 rf seats in sils car-a peugeot 206, one in the front and one in the back and they fitted fine. a britax two way elite and a britax hi-way 2.

:)

[worldgonecrazy]

We fitted the Besafe Izi Combi Isofix in our Nissan Micra behind the passenger seat, and there is plenty of room as long as the passenger is under 6ft, which most people are.

I also posted yesterday about the amazing service we received from Besafe. We had a minor problem with the seat (bought 18 months+ ago) and the rep drove to the house and fixed the problem in 5 minutes, all at no charge. That is what I call customer service!

John Lewis are going to start stocking Besafe and other ERF seats. Hopefully as the word gets out the price will start coming down. They're not cheap but they do last for 4-5 years so worth it.

[poppadoodle]

are there any links which show where bigger childrens legs go? im not great on computers....

[worldgonecrazy]

poppadoodle there's a video on youtube .