rear facing car seat articles

[somewoman]

This doesn't seem like *entirely* the appropriate place for it, but here goes!!

A couple of years ago there were a lot of articles about that discussed rearward facing child restraints and how many countries have rearward facing until the age of 4, yet we allow it at 6 months or 7kg or whichever comes in whatever order (didn't matter for me, I kept mine rear facing until she was old enough to learn to unbuckle, then had to move her so that I could keep an eye on her and make sure she was still wearing a seatbelt).

The topic has been raised in twitter by someone absolutely incredulous at talk of increasing rearward facing age to 2 in the USA, and I wanted to point him at those countries whose laws are the age of 4, and what research and car seats they have available. Does anyone know any off the top of their heads, or where one might find some articles on such?

Thanks in advance!

[feeb]

Google Sweden child car seats and you should get info.

My SIL has been talking about ordering a seat from Sweden but I dont think it would be legal here to use it.

Hope you find what you are after.

[mummydreamer]

i was going to say sweden as well, cause i remember something about their laws being until 4. yeh its so weird how varied the car seat laws are all over the world i think ours are pretty safe, but i know for a fact they could be a lot safer, especially with regulations on newborns, etc. hope you find some that help you out!

[~clover~]

I didn't know that. I know that the US its 12 months.
I still have DD rear facing at over 7kgs. I'm waiting as long as I can, but all mine got so frusterated that I turned all the others between 5 & 7 months.

[Feijoa Mum]

I kept mine rear facing for as long as I could and Lady is now almost 13 months and still rear facing.
I heard on the news the other night that they are recommending till at least two for here in Australia now too.
I cant remember what channel it was on but I guess it was either 7 or 9

[STARRYSKY]

There is also a you tube video that clearly demonstrates (with crash test dummies) the differences as to what happens on impact with rear or forward facing seats its quite scary really! There is alink to it on BB somewhere...

[~clover~]

So it'd be ok if you got pulled over now with them rear facing when older? My kids all have really long legs, I'm not sure how long they could sit like that?

[Liz]

They still need to be within the limits of the car seat. Pretty sure all the car seats available here are only rear facing til 12kg. Length of their legs isn't a factor, but fitting in the restraints and their weight is We stayed rear facing for a long time quite easily because my kids were fairly lightweight. DS still fits in the 5 point harness of his maxi rider at the age of 5! We haven't converted it to booster seat yet We'll keep this next bub rear facing as long as possible too. It's just too dangerous to have them facing forwards

[CrazyLady]

So it'd be ok if you got pulled over now with them rear facing when older? My kids all have really long legs, I'm not sure how long they could sit like that?

Pixie ended up getting ill because her legs were squished up and squashing her tummy. We turned her at 7 months but living in a country town it's a little safer.

[ladybirdflies]

My LO is almost one and still rear facing we plan on keeping her that way for a while yet. My sister is in Norway they keep them rear facing until four. So you could look up Scandinavian countries for articles. They have the lowest infant mortality rate in car accidents.
Volvo recently releases their own article and recommendations. They talked about the reasons why it was safer to be rear facing for a child in an accident and one of the reasons was because their head is much heavier then their body until about 4 years of age and the support of being rear facing until 4 reduces the impact on the head and neck. There were other things too. I think if you go to the volvo website they have a section on child safety.Safe Child Restraint in Modern Cars: Australia V Europe - Cadoges.com Blog - this is Cadoges.com watch this film about why Australia is lacking so badly in child safety!

[nickle730]

Perhaps we need to lobby for rear-facing child restraints for larger children (and appropriate education and law changes) to be made available here in Australia? The seats would need to comply to Aus/NZ safety standards. I'm not sure how to go about that...? There is a bucket-load of evidence that rear-facing reduces the incidence of head and spinal injuries to an infant/small child in a crash. There is a slightly higher incidence of leg injuries (fractured femurs are more common) but which would you rather - a broken leg or a spinal injury?

[Miss.September]

Seats all have different capacities - mine could go rearward facing until 12 kgs, so DD wasn't turned around until she hit 18 months and she reached the weight. I heard something on the news the other day, channel nine I think, that said they were beginning to look into making it law that babies/toddlers need to be rearward facing until the age of 2. If I can find the report, I'll come back and add it.

[ladybirdflies]

You know, this has got me thinking... I have a tiny 7 year old. If adult seatbelts can do some serious internal damage on a small child, why are we allowing our children out of the 5 point harness if they are still so small??? In USA they have to be in 5 point harness until they are 8. The sash belt that we use with our booster can do alot of damage. hmmmmmm, switching back until I look into this more.

[RainbowBrite]

Here in Australia you can only keep them rear facing until they reach the carseat's weight limit...for most seats that is either 9 or 12kg...then you have to turn them around.
Unfortunately you can't buy seats here that have a higher rear facing weight limit...hopefully as more people realise how much safer it is they will start to produce hight limit seats.

My DS is 15mths but only 6kg so he will be rear facing till at least two.

[DANNIIM]

I have a 25month old and there is just no way he would fit rearward facing, he's just a really big boy with long legs to boot - not 100% sure what our Safe n Sound goes up to rearward facing though.

[Fleur]

Here in Australia you can only keep them rear facing until they reach the carseat's weight limit...for most seats that is either 9 or 12kg...then you have to turn them around.
Unfortunately you can't buy seats here that have a higher rear facing weight limit...hopefully as more people realise how much safer it is they will start to produce hight limit seats.

I was trying to explain this to MIL the other day... Pie is still rear-facing at 20 mths & 11kgs, a shopkeeper spotted her like that the other day & said to MIL that legislation has been passed making it illegal to turn them before they are 2. I said to MIL that although that might be preferable I thought it was unlikely seeing as we can't get seats to suit over 12kg here
Will be interesting to see if it is brought in though.

A YouTube search brings up heaps of stuff on rear facing and why it's better.

[Beach Mama]

Here is a thread that discusses it, it is a pity that car seat makers don't cater for kids to sit rear facing to an older age in Australia. In Canada though their car seats only have the seat belt bit and no clip - how weird is that. My BIL and SIL came out and we were talking about the differences.

[feeb]

DS1 was turned at 16 or 17 montsh as I needed seat for DS2. DS2 still rear facing at 14 months as not yet 12 kg.