Stepdaughter just texted me for car seat help

msg221

Well-known member
Well, first she e-mailed me telling me that her job share partner was asking for convertible seat recommendations for her 10 month old daughter so she was asking me for some. I guess this apparently got other office staff in a discussion about car seats and when they learned that Ethan (32 months old) is still rear facing, they started to give Kristy a hard time about it. She said it turned into quite the debate and then texted me asking for help (the tone of it almost sounded like a plea for help, like they were really giving her a hard time) with actual studies and stats since she didn't have any to back up what she was telling them (probably from what I told her about ERF!). I was able to find some old threads here to studies. Thank goodness I was able to access the full PDF of these studies rather than just the abstracts since I can access them via my school library's web site. I saved them and am planning to print them off to read later.

I also gave her the link to Joel's Journey and told her watching the video about Joel should be enough to change their minds about FF their kids too early. I told her to just stand firm and feel good about keeping Ethan as safe as possible!
 
ADS

CTPDMom

Ambassador - CPS Technician
Good for her for keeping her ds rear-facing, and for trying to educate others!

I answer car seat questions as part of my FT job, and this is what I e-mail to parents who want to read further about extended rear-facing:


"This site has an excellent, thorough explanation of WHY rear-facing is so much safer:

http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html

The American Academy of Pediatrics has been recommending rear-facing to the limits of a child’s convertible seat since 2002.

Here is their 2010 Car Seat Guide. Note on the chart for Toddlers and Preschoolers it says

"It is best for children to ride rear-facing as long as possible to the highest weight and height allowed by the manufacturer of their convertible seat."

http://www.healthychildren.org/Engl...fety-Seats-Information-for-Families-2010.aspx

In April 2009 the AAP, still trying to get the word out effectively, put this article in their newsletter. It stresses to the limits of the seat, or at least to age 2:

http://aapnews.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/30/4/12-a

Here is an excerpt from a study of actual crashes involving children between the ages of birth and 2 that was done by Injury Prevention in 2007. It says, in part:

Results: Children in Forward Facing Car Seats (FFCSs) were significantly more likely to be seriously injured than children restrained in Rear Facing Car Seats (RFCSs) in all crash types.

http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/13/6/398.abstract

On this page, a car seat technician (CPST) has compiled a bunch of pictures of kiddos safely riding rear-facing long past age one. You can see from the pics that long legs do NOT pose a problem, and that these kids are not unhappy about being rear-facing to age 3, 4 and beyond in some cases!

http://www.freewebs.com/sacredjourneys/apps/photos/album?albumid=3103947

At the very bottom of the page are some crash test videos that are helpful to watch. They show how much more protected a rear-facing child is:

http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/StayRearFacing.aspx"
 

msg221

Well-known member
Good for her for keeping her ds rear-facing, and for trying to educate others! I answer car seat questions as part of my FT job, and this is what I e-mail to parents who want to read further about extended rear-facing:



Thanks for the additional info. I just e-mailed it to her!
 

Kat_Momof3

New member
Good for her for standing up for her decision and reaching out to you for the info to back it up!

I would think the AAP recommendations and NHTSA ones and the fact that many companies now say that kids should rf as long as possible on their sites, in the manuals, etc. would be enough for them, but I guess they were defensive.
 

msg221

Well-known member
After talking to my stepdaughter tonight, it just sounds as if this person has the same general misconceptions about kids RF past the age of one. She mentioned to my stepdaughter that E must be uncomfortable since his feet touch the seat back and that it is going to hurt his growth to have his legs like that (first time I've heard that one). E is FF in his dad's car because his dad could not drive comfortably since E's seat was in the way and he couldn't move the seat back all the way and is RF in mom's car. He has never mentioned anything about having to switch back and forth. She also mentioned that she gets "made fun of" a lot by friends and acquaintances for keeping E rear facing at nearly 3 years old. I'm proud of her for not listening and doing what she feels is best for her son.

She said she didn't want to get in a big debate over it with her co-worker and I told her I completely understand. I just wanted her to have the correct information so she could understand why RF is considered safer and it's okay if their feet touch, etc. She can read through what was forwarded to her and make her own informed decision.
 
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Stacy

New member
That poor girl! I know how it is, my family thinks it's nutty to have my 2.5 year old backwards. I showed my mom a couple of videos the other day (including Joel's, which his granddad updated since I first saw it), and now she said she sees why I want to keep her backwards! I don't know why I never thought to show her these before :doh:.
 

Ninetales

New member
My mother and mother-in-law are totally for ERF. I know, I'm super lucky! I didn't even have to show my MIL Joel's video, she already thought it was a good idea, and just telling her about Joel was enough to confirm it. Plus it has her considering talking with a friend of hers whose son and daughter in law "can't wait" for their boy to turn 1 so they can turn him around.
 

afdani1984

New member
This is kind of sad, but sometimes I don't even bother sharing the links to sites like Joel's Journey with people, because you know they just don't care..and I don't like to waste my time.

Case in point, one of my FB friends (whom I've never met IRL) posted a photo of her newly 1 yr old daughter asleep in her car seat, FF. One of her friends commented back and said something to the tune of..please tell me she is still RF. Mom replies back and says..nope she's not because the law says 1 year, 22 lbs and walking on their own (Is this actually the law in Canada? What does walking on their own have anything to do with carseat safety?) and that her child greatly exceeded those regulations, and that she was too tall to RF and her legs were up to her chest. From the photos it looks like she is in a Graco MyRide or the Canadian equivilent. And I'm pretty sure there are people still RFing older kids in that seat. Her child does not look THAT big, even thought apparently her pedi says she is the size of a 2-year old. The friend replied back again and said, please do some research..mentioned some info about greater risk of internal decapitation, ect. Someone else chimes in and pretty much says the ERF supporter needed to get off their soapbox and stop calling the mother a bad mother. Which the ERFer never mentioned. At this point I chime in with something to the tune of..applauding the ERF supporter for spreading the word, how we had planned to turn J at 1 yr & 20 lbs but another friend of mine showed me some info that changed my mind, and how i'd rather my son break his leg than his neck and the info really was worth looking into. The mother pretty much said her pedi was the one who said to turn the baby and that he knew what he was talking about. I really wanted to reply back and say doctor's do not know everything, as an example telling me my then 8 week old should not be eating 6 oz's of formula, paid no attention to my concerns about his excessive reflux, which turned out to be the reason my son was eating so much..because everything he ate came back up. It took me ignoring them telling me I shouldn't be switching his formula..and doing just that..to get him straightened out. But that's a whole other story. I also wanted to add that the laws are the bare minimums. Instead I mentioned that if they were going to continue to FF the shoulder straps should be at or above the baby's shoulders, that it was hard to tell from the photo but it looked like they needed to be moved up. Once the grandmother started chiming in..I exited the conversation because I knew there was no use passing on information that wasn't even going to be looked at.

Sorry this was so long winded, but this has been busting at my craw for a few days and I knew if I vented here you guys would understand.
 

msg221

Well-known member
Well, I am happy to say this all turned out very good. My stepdaughter's co-worker e-mailed me, first thanking me for all of the information and then to ask for help with seat recommendations! I think it was very helpful for her to be able to have the correct information right there, rather than going on what she has probably just heard about (as in the old 1 and 20 info!).

Anyway, her car seat dilemma is going to be one that I will need help with, so I will be starting a new thread once I get more information from her!
 

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