Rear facing car seats - are you worried ?

[2bayumimum]

We've got the usual front facing car seats for both our dcs. The eldest is 3years and the youngest, 10 months. Having read all the information that came out last week, with regards to rear facing car seats being safer for children up until 4 years, is anyone deciding to replace their front facing ones ? We've got two cars, so four car seats, so replacing them is going to be expensive, but the cost is secondary, if the rear facing ones are truly safer ? The trouble is, one week a report says one thing and then another report comes out which totally contradicts what was said previously !! What is everyone's thoughts ?

Thanks

I wouldn't change on the basis of one report for the reason you have mentioned. If, however, a governmental authority came out and said rear facing seats were safer then I would change, because those authorities tend to aim to provide evidence-based advice (looking at a wider range of available research).

In Sweden it is law I think
My daughter in law is Swedish and her paramedic friend said all the accidents she visited in forward facing seats were bad

Due to the weight of a childs head a rear end collision causes the head to jolt forward (they call it internal decapitation) you should look at the u tube footage on rear facing seats

As you say you cannot put a ost on a child's life

surely the same would happen to a child in a rear facing seat if there was a head on collision? i havent read the reports im just working it out in my head.

It is well documented that travelling rearwards is safer for everyone (except the driver of course!).

If it was me though I would be putting the youngest back into their rear facing seat (as he is unlikely to have atually grown out of it at just 10m unless he is very tall or heavy). I wouldn't buy new seats though.

The other thing you could sonsider is if you would need to buy 4 seats? DCs only go in DPs car for very short journeys, very occassionally. If youhave a similar set up you could replace 2 of the seats and use 2 of your current ones in the less frequently used car.

ctually the head continues moving in the direction the car is travelling in all crashes (i.e. forwards unless the car is reversing). It is because of the momentum combined with sudden braking of the car but any unrestrained objects in the car will keep moving forwards (including everyones head).

Direction of travel is irrelevant/

I am considering replacing ours (was going to use DSs old one which he has grown out of for DS3) Anyway, I have a few months yet as he is still in his carrier. I am hoping there will be some more out soon as there are few in the shops.

I have a 3.4 yo and a 1.4 yo. My 3.4 yo - I will be keeping him forward facing as he is too big for a group 1 seat anyway. My 1.4yo is currently in a rear facing britax first class combination seat which will last her til 13kg at which point the UK instructions say you need to turn the seat forward facing - depending on how old she is when she gets to 13kg, I will probably get a new rear facing large seat. In your position, I'd get your youngest child a rear facing seat.

Research into RF vs FF child restraints has been done over the last 40 years and has shown pretty consistently that children travelling RF are safer.

It is not a legal requirement for children in Sweden to travel RF - but there is a seperate test that car seats must past before they can be sold, and that test measures the stress on the neck in a frontal impact at a predetermined velocity (frontal impacts are used as the majority of impacts include a substantial frontal element, and there is more potential for a high speed colision). The neck of young children is particularly fragile as the head is proportionately large and the verterbrae have much more flexibility than in an adult and so (if the shoulders are restrained) the energy in the head is absorbed by the spinal cord itself - the spinal cord can snap, leading to internal decapitation.

No FF Grp 1 seat with a 5 point harness has passed the test and so, to all intents and purposes, all Grp 1 seats in Sweden are RF.

I'll be very interested to see whether the Kiddy Infinity Pro, which is FF but doesn't use a 5 point harness will be approved for sale in Sweden.

In your situation I would probably get at least one RF seat for you youngest, but would most likely leave the 3 yo FF now.

My DD is in a rearfacing carseat, she's coming up for 2. I'm expecting another baby next month and this baby also will be in a rear facing car seat up until he/she is 4.

I would buy them one at a time but I would definately replace them, I feel so guilty I turned my first child FF at 8 months because that was the advice at the time. thank god we never crashed.

You should definitely replace the 10 month olds with RF. My DD is 10, and even when she was little the advice was to keep them RF till over 1 year minimum for the grisly reason Morfar explained.

We also purposely got a Volvo with no passenger airbag and then got the Volvo RF stage 2 seat when DD outgrew the baby one - there weren't really any others available back then.

This is not a new, unproven piece of research. Its good that you don't nowadays have to buy a Volvo to get an RF seat!

i have two seats that say use rf up to 9kg and then ff after that. i take it that means they are unsafe to use rf after 9kg? also, my ds1 is 4, are there any rf seats for this age group? and what do they do with their legs? probably a really stupid question.

thanks loopy, i checked again and my carseats say rf upto 13kg so apologies for that. not sure why i thought 9kg. i had look at that website too, its very informative. thank you.

I turned my DS (now 3) FF at 9 months as was the advice at the time. DD is in a britax first class si at 10 months and is rear facing and I will keep her that way as long as possible.

I did not realise that you had to turn them (in that car seat) FF at 13kg? Is anyone definite on this (will ring britax maybe). She is an oompa lumpa (however you spell it lol) and was 10 or 11 kilos a month ago. I hoped I would have a long time left in this seat RF.

On Britax's website it does state that the First Class is suitable for RF till 13kg only. We got a Concord Ultimax when DD was 7 months and she outgrew her infant carrier, and then bought a BeSafe IziKid at 18 months to keep her RF. Its such a pain they're not better advertised....

I wanted to keep C rear facing when she outgrew her infant seat but when we tried them in our car, they sat so high up that I couldn't check the blind spot as it was blocked by the seat. I felt that this was also dangerous, especially on motorways. They also take up more room so we couldn't fit it behind the driver's seat as the seat would have had to go so far forward that my husband wouldn't be able to drive the car.

Are these common problems or do we just have a stupid car? (Honda Civic)