rear facing car seats

[beautifulgirls]

Please can we have a campaign to promote rear facing car seats as a safer option than forwards facing until aprox 4yrs old. This is the law in many countries, whilst some of these seats are actually made here and exported! The companies who make them do not promote them in the uk as apparently parents don't want them. I suspect the reality is that many parents are actually unaware of the fact rear facing until 4yrs is 5x safer in an accident than forwards facing, and they are assuming the current 9mth recommendation is as safe as they can get.
If we can get more information out there consumer pressure should hopefully see more availability. Things have started to change slowly, but more can be done.
Thanks

Wasn't aware of any of that , why is it different in the UK? If they are safer then we should be using them.

Take a look here for all the info. The UK just isn't putting out the information enough to educate people. A young child has a much weaker neck than an older one and the potential for spinal injuries from whiplash in a forwards facing seat is very real. If you compare test results from the rear facing car seats, and statistics from countries that use them for longer too it is clear that they are a much safer option to have your child in when small than our forwards facing ones. If it is not law then the least we can do is educate people so they have a choice.
Also worth seeing but emotional video so be warned!

they are widely available now from Bumpto3 (grobag's customer website) but the problem with them afaik is that they are quite hard to fit, require more space in the back seat so fit in fewer cars than the maxi cosis/britax which are the norm in UK.

i have seen a lot about them in the press/baby mags/online.

I agree - people need to know about this option. I have a 5 month old and only found out they existed a couple of weeks ago

I used the following for more info:

www.rearfacing.co.uk/ and
www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=9319408923

Can't believe Halfords and Mamas and Papas don't stock any - and I don't think Mothercare does either (if so I couldn't find them easily). Halfords say they are looking into and training people up so they can sell them online and then fit in the stores.

We need to spread the word!

I couldn't agree more :) Please see www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_campaigns/1117847-Rearfacing-Car-Seats-Until-4-years-old

for a topic I posted on this just last week :) :)

We need to get more information our there and urgently - and somehow prevent the likes of the large retailers (who don't seem to stock the RF seats like many of the independant ones) persuading parents that the seats they have are as safe as any on the market in the uk ......

Yes, I would love to see this campaign too, I only found out about rear facing seats from mumsnet (thank you to all the posters that helped me!). Fortunately it was when DD was tiny so she has always been rear-facing. There are some models that will fit in a smaller car.

A lot of people think I am weird and paranoid for having a RF seat

I totally agree with this. I too only found this out by chance. I am a researcher by trade and so unfortunately spend hours researching everything I buy :( I know ! But I find it so hard to believe that so many people do not have all the information when it comes to buying car seats. It's appalling. Come on Mums net - do something that will improve the safety of 99% of the 1-4 years olds in this country.

Yes please, I want to back this up too. I only happened on rear facing by chance too, and I am so glad I did.
It's amazing the amount of people who don't know about it, and the retailers that actually do sell the rearfacing seats (well one that I encountered) were not allowed to promote the seats in the UK for some strange reason. Odd.
You just have to look at the carseat.se site and see all the reasons and stats for why it is so much safer for our children.