Rear facing kids seats

[DKL]

How old were your children when you swopped from rear facing to front facing?
Rear facing seats are huge so rule out any sort of 2+2 and I had hoped we'd be swopping before he is one but that looks unlikely!
Thanks

[bint]

9 months or thereabouts. Recaro seat that has innards that can be removed as he grows so he'll be in it a while too.

The recent thing seems to be pushing towards having kids in rear facing seats for as long as possible, 5+ years even!

I'm not concerned about Michael being front facing and with an isofix seat even more so. However we are looking at a seat for the Lotus shortly that won't be isofix, he's 2.5 and desperate to have a go in it!

[feef]

AIUI the law in Europe is for rear facing until age 4, and I believe there's talk of something similar being introduced here, but I have no idea on timescales or how far along the process is. As my boy is now 4, I stopped looking into it

[Urban Sports]

My lad was just over 12 months although he could have stayed in it longer but he was the right height and was getting frustrated facing backwards.

[Zod]

feef said:

AIUI the law in Europe is for rear facing until age 4, and I believe there's talk of something similar being introduced here, but I have no idea on timescales or how far along the process is. As my boy is now 4, I stopped looking into it

No, it isn't. Not even in Scandinavia.

[Urban Sports]

feef said:

AIUI the law in Europe is for rear facing until age 4, and I believe there's talk of something similar being introduced here, but I have no idea on timescales or how far along the process is. As my boy is now 4, I stopped looking into it

Bowlocks, think about it the child would be bent like a banana

[LooneyTunes]

Urban Sports said:

Bowlocks, think about it the child would be bent like a banana

It's more a case of the rear facing seats for the slightly older kids being bloody massive!

I think we stopped rear facing our eldest around 3 1/2, simply because lifting him in and out became a PITA (compared to him climbing in/out by himself).

[feef]

No.. you're right. I misread the article, it's a legal guideline in Scandinavian countries and in the US, but not actually law.

I still maintain that there is, or has been talk of implementing it in the UK tho. The report that many campaigners are quoting is this one

http://www.anec.eu/attachments/ANEC-R&T-2008-T...

[Beer Man]

Both of mine switched to Stage 2 (front facing) when they were about 1.

Attempting to put them in a rear facer up to the age of four is nothing short of ridiculous. Where the hell are their legs supposed to go??????

[phil4]

We moved ours from rear facing to front facing with the weight guides on the maxi-cosi seats, so about 12Kgs we moved him into a front facer.

We use ISOFix in two of our cars, and a non-isofix works well with the 4 point harness in the other.

[Urban Sports]

Beer Man said:

Both of mine switched to Stage 2 (front facing) when they were about 1.

Attempting to put them in a rear facer up to the age of four is nothing short of ridiculous. Where the hell are their legs supposed to go??????

Exactly.

[DKL]

Thanks all.
I had 10 months in mind but had no idea where I got that from.
Recommendation seems to be that you keep them in their rear facing seats for as long as the seat guidelines suggest - so our 0+ one is to 13kg or about 18mths.
There is also the suggestion that kids of that age come to less harm in accidents in rear facing seats and that yes their feet seem to climb the seat upright!
There certainly is talk of making it mandatory to keep children in rear facing seats for much longer. You can get group 2 rear facing seats but they are rare in this country apparently. That would go to 4 years old or so, so yes they will be huge!

Edited by DKL on Tuesday 28th October 19:54

[runboy]

We've got a Britax max fix extended rear facing car seat which our 26 month old uses and has done just before she was one. She's tall for her age and fits fine currently but we'll see how she goes over the next year. It's a big seat but fits in our Mazda 3 with the front seat slid back all but one notch.

[Zod]

I predict that two people will arrive in this thread: lenats, an evangelist for rear-facing seats (a good-natured one) and bobbles, who works for Britax.

[Urban Sports]

Zod said:

I predict that two people will arrive in this thread: lenats, an evangelist for rear-facing seats (a good-natured one) and bobbles, who works for Britax.

Or people who don't want their child's body contorted into the shape of an Arab's dagger.

[Impasse]

The logic behind the rear facing seats is the potential for damage to the child's neck in the event of an accident. Before their body matures, the weight of their head being flung forwards can cause irreparable damage should the car biff into something.

Child size crash helmet and HANS device FTW.

[Urban Sports]

Impasse said:

The logic behind the rear facing seats is the potential for damage to the child's neck in the event of an accident. Before their body matures, the weight of their head being flung forwards can cause irreparable damage should the car biff into something.

Child size crash helmet and HANS device FTW.

None of that is in any doubt.

[Sevo]

We used (and will again for our son) rear facing till 3ish. The seats are bulky and expensive but fit in a golf and our daughter was perfectly content and comfortable.

There's some evidence they're safer, enough to convince us. It does limit your ability to buy a sports car though, as I'm currently grumbling about.

[mygoldfishbowl]

23. She was always very short for her height.