Car seat article:

2 Is The New 1: Rear-Facing Car Seats Until At Least Age 2/

thoughts?

what about leg room?

p.s. no flaming or fighting. i was just wondering.

Message edited 5/12/2010 10:21:13 AM.

Re: Car seat article:

This has been debated many times on this board.

Basically the legs can be cramped, up on the back of the seat, crossed, you name it when they are rear facing.

The potential damage to the legs while cramped and rear facing is nothing compared to the potential damage to the neck and spine if they are sitting forward facing too soon. You are talking about broken neck, paralysis or death.

ETA: Oh, and my thoughts are that my 5 month old DD will be rear facing as long as possible. We will get her to 2. DS was turned forward facing at 15 months, but that was when the recommendation was 1 year. Had I known this information back then, I would have kept him rear facing until 2 also.

Message edited 5/12/2010 10:21:05 AM.

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All for it. We will keep DD rear facing as long as possible.

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someone here said in best

rear facing, in an accident, a broken leg = cast

foward facing, in an accident, a broken neck = casket

that's all I needed to hear...KJ will stay rear facing as long as possible

Re: Car seat article:

Re: Car seat article:

I kept Rylan rear facing until 18 months. He was very squished but the ONLY reason I switched him was because it was getting impossible to get him in the seat. He used the back of the front seat to straighten his body and I was actually using so much force to get him to sit I was hurting him.

I hope I can keep Xavier rear facing longer. The squished cramped legs didn't bother me or Rylan...they can always bend their knees out.

Re: Car seat article:

Also, I have never read anything about any child having their legs injured while rear-facing. I have read a few places that have said there were no reported injuries.

Rear-facing = no leg injuries
Forward facing = potential serious neck injuries

Re: Car seat article:

Legs and hips are meant to bend. In the event of a collision, a child's rear facing car seat will cocoon, their legs will bend in towards them and the seat actually absorbs the majority of the crash forces and distributes it evenly across the child's body.

In a forward facing crash, the head and neck will absorb a majority of the forces, which can lead to a broken neck, or worse, death in a young child who's spine has not completed development. When babies are born, their vertebrae are in 3 pieces and the spine itself is quite stretchy. Spinal cords, however, are NOT stretchy, and the combination of crash forces, immature vertebrae and a non stretchy spinal cord can lead to "internal decapitation" where the spinal cord is actually severed and the head separates from the spinal column.

There is also evidence to show there are more broken legs suffered in forward facing children, while there are no reports of rear facing children having broken legs in an accident. Many older children who have RF and FF have reported that RF is actually more comfortable for them as the FF seats tend to leave their feet dangling which causes them to fall asleep.

Swedish children routinely RF until the age of 4-5 and go straight to boosters. FF harnessed seats are virtually unheard of there. They have an extremely low mortality rate of children via auto accident (in the single digits, I believe.. some accidents are just unsurvivable)

We are following the Swedes and RF'ing DD and this baby i until they are booster aged, so long as there is a seat out there that can support them in the height/weight department that long. (which for DD shouldn't be a problem since at 2 yo she is only 19.5 lbs)

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after our car accident, all I thought about was..."could you imagine if I had him forward facing"

I'll miss seeing his little face in the rear view until 2 but it's better then. . ugh I can't even finish the sentence.

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thanks ladies. I think I'm going to talk to DH about it tonight.

Message edited 5/12/2010 12:08:15 PM.

Re: Car seat article:

I think it's great! Our kids ride rear faced until 2 ...

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DD is 15 months and still rear facing.

If I wasn't due with #2 and having to put the other car seat back in the car, DD would stay rear facing as long as possible.

However, her seat will not fit rear facing on the passenger or driver side, so when we install the infant seat back in the car when she is 18 months old, we will turn her seat forward facing.

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DC are rear facing still at 16.5 months and I plan on keeping them that way until they are 2, maybe even longer.

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My DD will go foward facing at 13 months when the new baby arrives. There is no way my older DD can get in and out of the car with 2 rear facing seats considering in my car they have to go behind the passenger and driver. so no room for my 9 year old to squeeze in between them.

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All for it. Found out about this a year ago. DS will stay rear in my car until at least two. He is forward facing in my DH's car only because he has an eclipse and we could not fit it in his back seat. We mostly use my car for 90% of DS outings.