Car seat study!

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here
I'm so relieved to see this report has been done- I will try and get hold of a copy if I can.

I want to know.. if you have a 3/4 yr old in a rear facing seat, what on earth do they do with their legs? wrap them round their necks?

The woman on BBC1 talking about it right now reckons that children don't naturally sit with their legs out, so will have their legs crossed

If a 14 month old will kick their legs such that the rear facing car seat will move... what will it be like with a 3 year old in it! Certainly some car seats can be fixed very securely to the car, but many are held in by a seatbelt. The seatbelt is designed to move, so if the child pushes against the back of the adult seat with their legs, the car seat will move.
I therefore consider it to be impractical given the current types of car seat in everyday use and in the current design of cars. With cars with ISOFIX and ISOFIX seats it may be more practical - but many cars do not have ISOFIX, even when they do have ISOFIX it isn't available at every seat position.

How many years until every new car has ISOFIX in every seat position (excluding the drivers seat)?
How many years until everyone can afford to buy a new car?

The 4-point ISOFIX system (which was in the draft standard) showed the best results according to ROSPA/Britax Source but due to the high cost, in 1995 the 2-point ISOFIX system was chosen.

The ISOFIX standardisation project started in 1990. It's been around a while and there has been some uptake of it. However I feel it will be some time yet before all cars driven in the UK have ISOFIX and all carseats sold are ISOFIX.

This is Not New News... there is a press release dated June 2008 about this subject Source: ANEC

Looking at the ROSPA Conference notes, plus the PRNEWSWIRE release, both are connected with Britax.
Yes it is good that this sort of thing is being discussed. Not so good that it only appears to be one manufacturer... why is Which and Britax providing this information and not the Governement test labs in Crowthorne?

Are there any rear facing seats on the market - what brand are they

Group 1 rearfacing car seats sit a bit further back than Group 0 rear facing car seats, so there is more room for the child's legs. Children are also much more flexible than adults and don't seem to mind bending their legs or crossing them. Contrary to popular belief they do not need to wrap them round their necks.

If you go to www.rearfacing.co.uk there is a gallery with lots of photos of children of different ages in rear facing car seats.

If you look here, this is my son when he was 15 months old. He's now 26 months old and his feet can just about touch the back of the seat. I've no intention of moving him from this seat until he's about 4, maybe older. It's a maxi cosi mobi - a great seat imo.

www.flickr.com/photos/25974702@N08/sets/72157606144845712/

try rearfacing.co.uk rearfacing.co.uk or this from a Swedish site that imports seats to uk.

Very informative - will be keeping dd rear facing till at least e or 4

That was for LeninGrad - re seatbelt v Isofix when rearfacing

had started another thread about this here with link to BMJ article

we've got a britax two way elite from the milton keynes in car safety centre. ds is 21 months and loves it (seriously). its tethered in - quite complicated - but seat is firmly attached in about 4 places.

only found out about rear facing gp1 car seats on mumsnet so thanks!!!

the council car safety office in MK can't believe they're not available in the UK. even a lady in mothercare in bristol knew they were safer and wasn't sure why they didn't stock them...

I totally agree. DS is nearly 18months and he has only gone into a forward facing seat just this week.

We did look at the rear facing Group 1's, but DH remained unconvinced about them.
We did get a great forward facing car seat, which was rated 2nd in What Car's survey. I think if I was still doing the rush hour drive to DS's old nursery every day I would have been more insistant at looking at the rear facing seat as I was having to take ds through a notorious accident blackspot, happily he is now at a different nursery which is walking distance away!

Some parents see it as a milestone to be reached when their baby moves out of r/f baby carrier even though instructions are pretty clear to keep baby in the previous seat for as long as poss and not move up as soon as it reaches the minimum for the next.

Ds had a lovely Maxi cosi (the zebra one) in which he was in till about 20 months I think as max weight was around 15 kg and it was larger than standard infant carrier. I kept being asked WHEN am I going to move him up as if I was keeping him back??? as if it were a stage to get past however many times I explained it was safer - even to parent with children same age who'd moved up ages ago.

catski - either that's a REALLY huge seat - or your DS is gorgeously diddy . My DS3 (25 months) can dangle his feet properly over his (admittedly forward facing) britax car seat

i agree mspontipine about the stage thing - really annoying. ds was in his maxi cosi till 16 months no prob at all (and hes 75th centile for height)

its all about education...

It IS a big seat FAQ! He was 15 months when those pics were taken, but his feet can touch the bag of the car now (if he stretches his legs) at 26 months. There are smaller seats on the market (such as the Brio Zento), I think the Mobi is one of the biggest.
I agree about being forward facing seeming to be some kind of new developmental milestone (another one I've missed!).