How long do you rear face your child

Hashem_Yaazor

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 3:05 pm

My 3.5 yo is still RF. He has a ways to go limit wise in today's car seats, but definitely roomier in the Radian vs Safety 1st Guide 65. I'll probably turn him around this summer so I can put my baby (almost 17 months now) in his RF seats since I like them RF logistically. I will either get him a new seat or move him into my 5 yo's (she'll be 5.5) and get her a new one...still figuring out how I want to do it.

seeker

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 4:16 pm

As long as allowed by the car seat manufacturer guidelines. It protects the child's head/neck/back better in case of a severe accident C"V. I chose car seats with high limits with this in mind. One DD was in it until about 4 years old, the other one more like 3 1/2 because she is taller. The first one actually complained of being LESS comfortable forward-facing at first, because her legs were dangling with no place to put them (if I had just shopped for toilet paper or paper towels I put them under as a footrest for her...) - she eventually got used to it but I'm just mentioning this because often people think rear facing is uncomfortable for the kids. I think my taller DD was getting uncomfortable when we decided to switch her but as I said she was already pretty close to 4 at that point, so the rear facing lasted quite a while.

Hashem Yaazor, why not just move your 5.5 to a booster seat?

amother

Babyblue

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 4:43 pm

My dc is two so legally she can be switched around
Dr said we can switch around dr asked us if she was still rf.
I was planning on switching her by pesach when we clean the car.
But now I'm thinking to still keep her rf but then it will be hard to get the baby's car seat in the car.

ectomorph

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 4:50 pm

Blessing1 wrote:

My kids where miserable in the car till I turned them around at 1.

this. I have not seen any statistics comparing fatalities between rear and forward facing car seats... Just a bunch of anecdotes.
I feel that if the statistics existed, they would be used.
So I forward faced at 15 months when my child was getting bored.

gibberish

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 4:51 pm

seeker wrote:

They raised it to age 2, not sure if that's NY or the whole US but I think all.

Definitely not all US (law here is 1), however the AAP recommends 2 years, so we follow their guidelines.

amother

Saddlebrown

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 4:55 pm

We still RF (rear face) my 4 year old. It is so much safer. She is a bit on the small side, which makes this easier, but we purposely got a carseat that would allow RF until age 4 at least.

At age 4, the vertebrae in the neck and spine become much more stable because of the shift to more bone vs. cartilage, which can stabilize the neck/spine in the event of impact (=car crash), and this makes it strong enough to withstand certain types of impact that a younger child's neck/spine cannot withstand (and by cannot withstand, I mean incur serious injury like paralysis or even death). This is why it's important to RF until age 4, because being RF significantly reduces the impact on the neck and spine in the event of a crash, as opposed to FF (forward facing). In much of Europe they keep their kids in rear-facing car seats until age 4 - Sweden has kids RF until age 4, and has the world’s lowest highway fatality rate for children under 6 in the world, with almost no deaths in any given year. In the USA, where the guidelines are to RF until age 2, car accidents are the number one cause of death of children.

I am so happy to be able to keep my kid in the safest position for as long as I can.

amother

Firebrick

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 5:02 pm

I turn them around at around a year ..... my current baby was miserable rear facing he would cry whenever we in the car just the sight of the car seat and he would cry just turned a year and switched him around he is loving it as he can finally see out the window without the car seat head rests in the way

ETA : sorry about the run on sentences and incorrect grammar ..... kids home and I've had quite a day lol !!

amother

Saddlebrown

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 5:09 pm

ectomorph wrote:

Scientific papers have the statistics:

And I quote: "Effectiveness estimates for RFCSs (93%) were found to be 15% higher than those for FFCSs (78%)." - read the article here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p.....8309/)

And I quote again: "The calculated injury reducing effect of rear facing and forward facing seats was 96% and 77% respectively.". Read here: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/704630_2

If you want one that studies kids aged 1-4 years old, try this article: https://www.researchgate.net/p.....6.pdf

Some more info on the science of why, including some statisitics: http://csftl.org/why-rear-faci.....uide/

Some info on the physics of why RF is safer than FF: http://thecarseatlady.com/why-.....cing/

And that's your science for the day Smile

gold21

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 6:01 pm

amother wrote:

I hear.

I have the same approach to the Back To Sleep campaign- always use common sense when deciding what is best for your child. If your kid is miserable on his back, it's not working for you. If it works for you, then why not, especially if statistics support it.

ectomorph

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 6:04 pm

amother wrote:

These are all predictive statistics, much like Hilary Clinton was predicted to be the winner by as much as 98% in this election.

I want to see data on injuries or fatalities for rear vs fwd facing between 12-24 months (or the associated sizes. ).
The data exists or should not be difficult to produce. I suspect it is not published because it is statistically insignificant.

I worked as a data analyst.

gold21

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 6:11 pm

ectomorph wrote:

I like.

seeker

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 6:36 pm

Of course there will always be kids with idiosyncrasies but I wonder if some of the discomfort has to do with the seat rather than the direction. At least one of my kids was miserable in the rear-facing infant seat but got a lot happier in the rear-facing convertible when I switched. There's also a little leeway in the angle adjustment of the rear-facing convertibles. Between both the angle and the shape of the seat, it felt more like a seat rather than a newborn curved/lying position. I also had one convertible seat that was much cushier than the other.

Wondering why so many amothers on this thread... embarrassed to link safety statistic articles? Scratching Head

Note that fatality statistics are not as helpful as injury descriptions. Someone can be permanently paralyzed or brain damaged lo aleinu without changing the fatality count.

amother

Coral

Mon, Mar 13 2017, 8:32 pm

I change my kids at a year. By 10 months my kids are usually not so happy in the rear facing. I think it has to do with the fact that I have kids that are always getting nauseous and when you are in a car rear facing it will definitely be worse.