Rear Versus Forward Facing Carseat

My kids are beyond this age, but I've never heard of kids staying in the rear-facing seat this long. How in the world do they fit?? My kids outgrew their rear-facing seats around age one. They were just simply way too tall. I would not think it is safe at all to have their legs in the seat like that. Not to mention that my daughter got horribly carsick in a rear-facing seat.

Rear facing is 500 times safer for a child, any child. Even adults are safer rear facing, but its not usually possible.

A childs spine does not ossify until 3-6yrs of age. Until that time, there is nothing but soft tissue holding the spine to the skull. Think of it this way, if you put a twizzler (the spinal cord) into a spiral phone cord (the spine), and hold both ends and give it a yank, what will happen? The twizzler (spinal cord) will snap, and the phone cord (spine) will stretch. The spinal cord can only stretch approx 1/4" before it snaps. But the spine can stretch a few inches. When the spine ossifies (hardens) to the skull between 3-6yrs of age, a childs chances of internal decapitation reduce greatly. However since you cannot tell exactly when your childs spine will ossify, its best to keep your child rear facing for as long as possible.

These are not new recommendations. EVERY car seat manufacturer has recommended it for years, the NHTSA has recommended it for years, and AAP has recommended it (and made an official statement last year) for 10yrs. This is not new information, but its becoming more well known because people are researching, actually reading their car seat manual, access to the internet, and they are learning to do better.

The AAP recommends children remain rear facing for as long as they fit into their rear facing convertible car seat, or at least 2yrs and 30lbs. Yes, we all know the law is 1yr and 20lbs, but that law is horribly out of date and it takes YEARS to update laws. Look how long it took to pass the new booster seat laws.... at least 8yrs in many states! Besides, I don't need a law to tell me how to keep my children safest, when you know better you do better and right now its very well known that rear facing to the max is safest.

Convertible car seats in the US will rear face to 33-45lbs (depending on model). A rear facing car seat is outgrown when the child goes over the rear facing weight limit or there is less than one inch of hard shell above the childs head. Feet touching the seat ,crossed legs, these are NOT a reason to turn a child around, and there has not been a documented case of broken legs in a rear facing child. In fact, the most common non threatening injury to a forward facing child in a crash is.... broken legs!

In a rear facing child in a crash, the car seat holds the childs body, cradling it into the seat. In a forward facing child, the head, arms, and legs are thrown violently forward. The difference is astounding, and even in a minor collision it could mean life or death.

Sure, a child is 'fine' forward facing... until a crash. Its not worth the risk. IF your child is still within the limits of her convertible car seat for rear facing, leave her that way! Especially in a van where you have tons of room!

My youngest rear faced until 35mos in a Britax Marathon. He was 35mos old, 33lbs, and 42" tall when he went forward facing. Certainly not a petite child, and he was perfectly happy. I have a Ford minivan, and I was of course easily able to get the seat installed in there. I was also able to easily get it installed into a Chevy Aveo subcompact without even having to adjust the front seat to make it fit rear facing.

Find a CPST to help you install it at www.safekids.org if you need help. But keep her rear facing. There is not one 'pro' to turning her forward facing until she outgrows the seat rear facing. You have an amazing car seat, use it to its potential.

Google 'internal decapitation', 'extended rear facing', and 'Joels journey' for more information on why to keep your child rear facing. Look for rear facing and forward facing crash test video's on youtube (they are a real eye opener). And if you have any questions or need links, please feel free to send me a message.

Here's some brief info from the AAP:

http://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/30/4/...

I would rather my little one feel a bit cramped than suffer from serious head and neck injuries if, God forbid, we were involved in a crash. The guidelines are constantly being studied and updated. The study listed in the link above indicates that toddlers are 5 times safer riding rear facing. It's only a few more months till she's two. My 20 month old is still rear facing. Would she be happier front facing? Probably. But her safety is paramount to me and she'll survive rear-facing for a few more months.

Hi, We have an Odyssey and Britax Boulevard car seats (the biggest ones they made at the time). We have bucket seats and the car seats fit fine. We did however, need to put the seats as far back as they would go while our twins were rear facing. And the passenger seat needed to be up quite a bit to. My husband's seat rested on the back of the car seat, as he is 6 feet tall. We kept them rear-facing until they were 18 months old. We would have kept them longer but their little legs were squished by the back of the bucket seat. They couldn't stretch them out any longer. I would make an appointment with the Highway patrol or a local police department to make sure the seats are installed correctly, we did and we are glad we did. It gives us peace of mind. Don't forget to have them checked again when you turn the seats forward-facing.

My youngest is almost 5, so I had not heard of this latest rear-facing thing, but it's always been my understanding that as soon as a child's feet can touch the seat back, they are too tall to be rear-facing. Well, whatever - my older daughter screamed her head off when we would put her in her car seat, and she just wouldn't stop. On one particularly memorable trip when she was 9 months old, she screamed for 4 hours WITHOUT STOPPING. Finally our nerves were so shredded that we pulled over, turned her carseat to forward-facing, and that was that. Granted, she was 23 pounds by then, and we had a Britax car seat with the side impact protection, etc. I couldn't imagine how a car driver could drive safely with a screaming baby in the car anyway, so I felt it was safer to have her quiet and happy rather than screaming non-stop with me a nervous wreck behind the wheel. We were in a pretty bad accident not long after that, and she was absolutely fine. I turned my youngest around at 1 year since her feet were pushing on the seat back, and likewise she has always been fine, even in an accident.

Here's the thing, I know child safety advocates mean well, but realistically if you cannot be sure that your car seat is properly installed and fitting into your car as it's intended to, and/or your baby is too tall to be rear-facing anymore, then just turn the car seat around for heaven's sake. In theory, I ought to have my 70-pound 7 year old in a car seat even though she's 4'8". I mean, I have friends who are grown-ups DRIVING the cars who are that height! I guess if we were all going to be really, really safe, we'd wrap our kids in bubble wrap and never let them leave the house, but that's not going to happen either. There comes a point where you just have to use your own common sense.

Maybe the laws in your area are different, but I was under the impression that rear facing was for infants upto 1 year old, or at a certain weight....I think 20-25 lbs. Once your child has met either requirement, it was time to turn them around for forward facing as they won't fit into the rear facing seat properly.

Please see a certified car seat specialist in your area. Most likely the fire department or police department, if not them, they should know who to contact about it.

The majority of car seats are not installed in the car properly nor is the child strapped in properly for them to be of full benefit to the child anyway. Visiting your certified car seat specialist will help you with all your car seat issues.

EDIT
Here is a .pdf link to the car seat requirements for CA
http://www.chp.ca.gov/community/pdf/4_steps_for_kids.pdf

There is no question that rear facing is safer. As another poster said, there are tons of videos, if you need that to be convinced. Car-seat.org has a page that explains all the reasons it's safer. But honestly, it's well-known that it's safer, so why not just do what's best? I recently asked if others had had difficulties keeping their kids rear facing as they got older (3 or 4) --did the kids object? Almost everyone said no problem, they just never gave their kids a choice. Kids usually sit with their legs bent or curled up no matter how much room they have, so it's really not the issue many adults think it would be.

There are many places with certified technicians that will install your car seat for you for free: most fire stations, but other places too. Just Google it.

These are LAWS, they are really not open to interpretation....check out www.carseat.org for your laws and what's needed to adhere to them.

Hi M.,

I know you've gotten a lot of responses, and I see you have already said you will keep your baby rear-facing. I just wanted to add one more comment (my 2-cents!). All you have to do in addition to watching the crash test videos is ask your daughter's pediatrician. My explained it to me in medical terms and I listened attentively...and wondered how there is so much misinformation out there!?!? Why do parents think that if their baby's feet can touch the back of the seat that it equates to outgrowing the seat? There is a safety factor for seats and the head position while seated, and yes, for weight. But as my pediatrician explained (and some websites), the risk of their legs being injured is really low. My Aunt works at Shriner's Hospital for Children (Sacramento) as a medical coder. That means she reads charts all day long on children who are injured (how it happened and what the medical ramifications are). Spinal cord injuries are a major risk for children forward facing. If you think the sound of a fussy baby is bad (as many respondents noted), try the void of any sound because your child is now in a vegetative state due to not being rear facing. Am I being dramatic? No--I'm telling you what has happened to real families out there. My kids are now 4 and almost 2...and both happily rear facing. They don't know any different and neither one has EVER complained about their legs (my 4 year old sits with them out-stretched or crisscross). They have plenty to look at, both out of the side windows and out the back (we've removed the head rests in my MDX so they can see a bit better out of the back window). It may be different in your Honda, but again...she won't know what they are 'missing'.

Also, rear facing seats is a lot like nursing. In many (most) other countries, they keep their children rear facing and nursing a lot longer--often until age 4 or 5 for both situations. We somehow think in this country that it's wrong and freakish to keep our children rear facing or nursing past a year. We face a lot of unwarranted judgment and questions if we go outside of this uneducated norm. You do what is right for your baby and what you feel in your heart. To inform my family and friends who kept asking when I was going to turn my 1st around, I sent out an email, "Here are some fascinating links...see the test crash for yourself...wow, can you believe how much safer they are when rear-facing...etc.". I never got questioned again.

Good luck in your search, and thank you for listening to my impassioned two cents!

There is a militant group out there that believes in rear facing until practically high school. I'm sure you'll be barraged with videos. To each his own, but my kids were simply too big for that. By one year, they were already crammed rear-facing. We were literally in countdown mode so their legs wouldn't be so crunched after their first birthdays (rules may be different now, but for our kids, one year was the age). Not to mention, having the Britax seat rear facing in our Honda Odyssey meant the front passenger had to sit with his/her knees in the dashboard.

Changing to forward facing is wonderful! Our kids were so, so much happier that way because they weren't so crunched up. They could now see the DVD player, so long car trips were bearable, and they could see everyone else.

The only thing better than going forward facing is the move to the booster. Rear-facers hate boosters. But it makes life so much easier. Need to transfer the seat to another car? Just lift it up and out. No more shredded hands and exhaustion from trying to reinstall massive, ornry car seats.

Just my two cents ... again, you're going to be inundated on this one. Just do what you feel is best for your family.

I have a 3 year old so I haven't heard about the "new study"... Check the laws in your state/area. The way I remember it, it's 12 months AND 20 pounds before you should turn them around. Not sure if that was a safety guideline or a Florida law... Seems to me that a bigger child would be extremely uncomfortable and crammed facing backwards, and would be strong enough to push with his feet against the seat where it may not be safe---???

WOW- militant? Seriously?!

Alright, I guess if being concerned about your child's safety and being the best advocate for you child that you can be is militant, I guess that is a compliment. And no child is still in a carseat in high school.

Becky said it all best. And honestly, if your child never knows anything else, they don't complain. If they never get to ride around without a seatbelt, they don't know any different. It would never occur to me to not use a seatbelt, because in our family they were NOT optional. No questions or arguments allowed. Same thing goes for carseats. Yes, they are going to be happier forward facing. But they would be happiest playing on the floorboards. That doesn't make it safest.

This is a website that will give you the information on where you can get certified technicians to install your carseat for you. http://www.seatcheck.org/ If you can't find one registered on it, call your fire station and police department, they will be able to direct you. In our town it is the police dept. Good for you for keeping her rear facing, and I hope you decide to keep doing it. :)

I turned all mine around before they hit 12 months and they have all been fine. Even in a rollover accident. I have 4.

I changed my son around to forward facing right at 12 months, of course he was already 27 lbs though. He absolutely loved being in the car after the change! And with the carseat fitting right, I know here in NC you can take it to any fire department and they have trained some on properly putting in carseats, so you might wanna try that!

Just what you said, that the "newest" study says it's safer to leave them rear facing until two. I turned my kids as soon as it was legal because I couldn't deal with the crying in the car anymore. Once they were turned around all that stopped because they had something more than the back of the seat to look at.

You've gotten lotsa good info here for keeping your daughter rear-facing so I won't answer to that. You asked about fitting the car seat properly into your new Honda minivan. I have the Odyssey ( I never spell it right) that I just LOVE! We got it when our youngest was 6 months old so he was still in the infant seat. Got that easily installed. Once he moved to the Britax Round-a-bout, it was an even easier installation thanks to the LATCH system that's part of the car as well as the car seat. All new carseats (not sure what year this started) have LATCH which is absolutely fool-proof in terms of installing the seat. I am the car seat installer in our house & I found the Britax directions very easy to follow. Make sure you push down on the seat part of the carseat while buckling in the LATCH part so it fits snuggly. But, if you're confused, call your local CHP & make an appointment to have them install the carseat. It's free. First they in stall it & then they pull it out & have you install to make sure you can do it properly. Good luck!