Rear facing car-seats safer for children under 4 years old

[DarrellRivers]

I read this in the BMJ this morning

in the section to change your practice

I had only read about this on mumsnet before, and will be interested to see how far it gets reported in the mainstream press

Will you be changing your seats?
My youngest is 4 [phew]

Hopefor...no the seats don't take less space...but it shouldn't really go far over the edge of the seat...so, shouldn't make a difference...if that makes sense at all...

Those rearfacing Babyseats, rarely really cater for Babies up till 13Kg, because they are to short, etc....and it is very imporant that the head is in a supposrted position...those 0/1 seats, which are combined rear-and forward facing seats are the size of any forward facing seat, therefore can catr wiht the height as well as the weight....

as for travel sickness when rearfacing....hmmm...non of my Kids were ever travel sick...and I suppose by that measure, you could question that even small Babies couldn't travel rearfacing....

I have my 1m 16kg 3.4y/o DD in a Britax 2 Way Elite (r/f to 25kg). She has only been sick in the car once (on the way to Cornwall) as she was also sick when we were at the campsite leads me to think she wasn't CAR sick merely sick! We turned her around for the rest of the trip and for the way home too but soon put her back rearfacing. She has not been sick in the car since.

Her sister is in a Britax Nordic Secura which has a shorter back but has a recline function so is more suitable for a younger child (she is 83cm 10kg 18m/o).

I am very happy with the seats and will be passing them along down the line when DD3 grows out of her first seat (as yet unborn so I hope to get DD1 to 5 at least r/f).

DD1 has very long legs and she either props them up on the seat back or sits cross legged. When she was forward facing she had nowhere to put her legs and she got pins and needles.

I know it's been said before but I'd much rather have a child with a plaster cast on it's leg (not that there has ever been any recorded incidences of legs broken due to r/fing) than at best they survive the internal decapitation that happens when the spinal coloumn stretches further than the spinal cord. Obviously this doesn't happen in every car accident but it does happen. This little boy survived it.

Not a popular opinion to hold (that rear facing is safer) I'll admit but doesn't mean it isn't true. Forward facing car seats safe but rear facing car seats are safER. No one is a bad parent for putting their child in a forward facing car seat (assuming the child meets the minimum requirements and has out grown their stage 0+ seat). I'll save that judgment for those not bothering with any sort of car seat. I don't think I'm a better parent for rfing my DDs, I just had the knowledge/cash/support from DH at the time when it would actually be meaningful to make the choice i.e. if you find out about ext. rfing when your youngest is 3 then in no way are you unreasonable to not buy a £200 seat to turn them rfing.