is it too early for a forward facing seat?

[Shelsy]

Hi all, Im new on here but really need a bit of advice! My dd just turned 7 mths yesterday and is extremely long for her age! She is still in a rf seat but her feet hang over the edge! She looks quite uncomfortable when she is in the car as she has to rest her feet up against the back seat.

I know you are not supposed to put children in ff seats until at least 9 mths or until they can sit up for 30 mins alone. My dd can sit up for approx 10 - 15 mins unattended. I bought a ff seat which is from 9 mths - 4 yrs some time ago but is it too early to start using?

Really grateful for all comments xx

oh my lord, I honestly didn't realise that car sets of all things were as contentious as FFvBF and all that other nonsense that mothers of small children torture themselves with.

Thank fuck I am past all of that, and for the record my DC were fine in ff car seats, were fine with being bottle fed and although there is no empirical evidence to back that up, tis true nonetheless

Funnys - they were fine in FF seats as presumably you didn't have a serious crash? I don't think it is contentious, just that car safety is a fairly important issue and there are good reasons for putting children in the correct seat for their age and weight.

LOL, just the respose I expected. I am such a dinosaur Besides Rhino THERE IS REALLY NO NEED TO SHOUT

Oh and would love to see your 'evidence'

response

Try looking up infant/ child crash research funnies. It's all there.

well, no I won't because a) my DC survived their 'FF carseat hell' and b) I wasn't the one quoting masses of research backing up my argument.

BTW the only thing I have an issue with is folk on this thread being incredibly rude and patronising

Last year I saw a family with 4 kids in the local b&q carpark. All the kids were in the back row of the car without car seats. Presumably no seat belts either as the car sits 3 at the back. I'm sure chances are the kids are still alive and kicking now. All the older generation in this country didn't grow up with seat belts or car seats. There werent any air bags either. I can so see car safety features being pointless.

I was being sarcastic btw. Sorry funnys but we survived is a stupid response to car safety issues. Why do you even bother with car seats? I'm sure you were carried on your mums lap as a baby.

I was when during ds's 8 month check (carried out at 7 months for reasons best known to themselves) the hv said, and I quote, "you can get rid of your baby seat now, he weighs 9.2kg so definitely ready for a normal ff one"

I shit you not.

Thanks onetwo

The info on this thread has been really useful to me and my particular situation. Thanks for taking the time to respond

For anyone else with a Nissan Micra, the Besafe Izi Combi Isofix X3 fits in that very nicely with enough room for a passenger in the front seat too, as long as the passenger isn't over about 6'2".

British Medical Journal article on why rear facing is safest

I agree with the PP who commented on rear-facing children being able to see more. My daughter has a great view out of the rear and side windows. I have seen children in ff seats and they can only see the back of the seat in front of them. Rear facing seats seem to be higher up so they get a better view.

Funnys -I don't think anybody has been rude. It's common sense that you cannot actually say how safe your children are until you crash and then see what happens. Obviously that's an experiment none of us want to make!

Same here MyDog! And when I said, no, actually I would be keeping him rear facing she insisted it wasn't safe because he was over 9kg!

I had a look at www.rearfacing.co.uk and it seems there aren't really any retailers around me that sells ERF seats. Do all of you live near Milton Keynes and buy from in-car safety (which has been mentioned many times in the thread). Or do you buy them unseen from the web?

My car hasn't got isofix so will have to do with 3-point harness fit. The ones close to me only sell the recaro polaric which seems to require an isofix.

Oh and also I have a honda jazz so there isn't that much room in the back either. A bit worried if I bought online, it won't fit.

onelittlebaby I got a local independent baby retailer to get the first Besafe seat in for me. The second one I ordered online from securatot and it arrived very well packaged.

If you contact Besafe they may be able to help point you in the direction of a stockist.

onelittlebaby I trawled the local independent retailers and did some research online as well. Out of 4 local retailers 3 sold erf but the other dismissed them as a fad and not safe. He also told me that until maxi cosi and britax sell them he wouldn't stoxk them. He didn't know that they did sell them. I have the recaro polaric and iy is a good seat

I did a lot of research into which erf seats would fit my car (was looking for isofix, so at least didn't have ot check seatbelt length).

I corresponded with retailers, asking various questions. and then imported from Sweden (this was at least 3 years ago, probably nearer 4). seats (BeSafe Izikid) arrived fine.

I am about to make the journey to the Milton Keynes centre (am not local - it's about 2 hours away) because I am expecting dc3 in the summer, and want to be able to fit 3 seats across my car (Honda CRV, if anyone knows ).

dd1 is in a hbb, currently a Britax Kidfix; dd2 is in the BeSafe Izikid (she is 5, but only just over 15kg, so don't really want ot put her in a hbb just yet if we can avoid it), and we need a new infant carrier, as ours is 7 years old now (and thus not in the best shape). changing seats, and the fuel cost/time spent going to In-car safety centre will work out far cheaper than changing the car (which I don't particularly want to do anyway)

I've not done it myself, but a lot of parents who have gone down the ERF route managed to source a seat via their local Volvo dealership, so that may be an alternative?

oh yes, our first ERF seat was a volvo seat - we had a volvo at the time.

ironically, it fitted better in our audi A2 than it did in our XC90