Brand New to Rear Facing past 1 yr.

Bryana'sMomma

New member
Ok I'm brand new to this big deal on rear facing as long as possible. I don't need to RF because my DD is to big but if I have more children in the future or babysit it'd be nice to know.

I see all these pictures of kids RFing and they look huge. They're legs look they have no where to dangle or lay comfortably. And my first impression is will they're legs break in a accident? Forgive me if I sound ignorant or rude I'm just curious and this is all new to me.

I FF my dd at age 1 like I was told to do back in 2002 when carseat education and awareness hardly existed. I never even heard of the brand Britax or the benefits of 5pt. harnessing until maybe 2003/4 .

I also live in the suburbs of Mpls.,St.Paul and around here I NEVER see kids RF unless they're infants. I know my daughter is in kindergarten and probaly the only one in a 5pt. harness, some kids her age around here ride in boosters but there are alot who don't. Kind of surprising I guess. My daughter's friends constantly make comments that we use carseats and boosters like were aliens or something.LOL I live in a townhouse complex with 33 units. I know all of my neighbors. My daughter is the only 5 year old and up that uses a safety seat or booster. Our laws here are anyone over 4years/40lbs doens't need to but that is about to change soon to 8years/80lbs.
 
ADS

scatterbunny

New member
Would you rather have a broken leg or a broken neck? :p Meant in a light-hearted way, of course. ;) But seriously--there are no documented cases of leg or hip injuries due to extended rear-facing, while there are countless cases of head and spinal cord injuries that could have been prevented had the children been rear-facing.

Older kids who are still rear-facing are verbal enough to let parents know if they are uncomfortable. That simply isn't happening. :) When rear-facing the child is slightly reclined (though older kids don't need a 45 degree recline angle, they can be very upright if it is more comfortable for them, and more upright is actually safer). When rear-facing the child has a place to rest the legs (vehicle seatback); when forward-facing the legs just dangle most of the time, which can cause for some sore legs/backs and cranky kids.

Some more great info can be found here:

http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/StayRearFacing.aspx
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;109/3/550
http://www.thecarseatlady.com/car_seats/rear-facing_seats.html
http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html

Edited to add that it's rare here to see kids rear-facing over 1 year/20 pounds, too. A friend of mine turned her 2yo back RF after I showed her the compelling safety information. A pregnant friend plans to keep her baby RF as long as possible. But the info just isn't readily available so most people don't know. They do what's always been done, without question.
 

oxeye

New member
Jenny's post pretty much covered everything, but I wanted to add a bit on the comfort part. I can't stand sitting somewhere with my legs dangling for more than a few minutes. In fact, I'm sitting here at my laptop on the couch with my legs crossed in front of me, because even sitting at the couch with my legs on the floor isn't the most comfortable position for me.

So there really isn't an comfort issue. When my 3.5 year old was still rear-facing, if she wanted to stretch her legs out, she just hung them off the side of the seat. I never had one complaint from her about comfort. :)
 

skaterbabs

Well-known member
My daughter greatly preferred RF to FF. In fact, she would SCREAM bloody murder FF. We thankfully had a Cosco Touriva (same thing as the Scenera basically) that RF to 35 lbs, so she would be FF in her MA and RF in the Touriva. We were ][ this close to ordering a swedish seat with a higher RF limit because she was so miserable.
 

ThreeBeans

New member
We just turned DS, 2.5 FF this past month at 33 lbs. He's a lanky child and was quite comfortable sticking his legs any ol' place :p
 

Jumanji

New member
Are there any videos rear facing without being tethered? Also, are there any video forward facing with tethers. Kind of odd that those vidoes are opposite. I don't have seats that can tether rear facing so I'd like to see that. Also, it is law here that we have to tether forward facing.
 

Jumanji

New member
"The rear-facing videos shown here are of a rear-facing seat that is Braced and Tethered."

This is below the video clips.
 

skaterbabs

Well-known member
On which site? because the NHTSA clips are not of tethered RF vehicles, and often those videos are assumed to be tethered when they are in fact not because of the cables.
 

skaterbabs

Well-known member
Those are Swediah seats. Someone else may have a video of a US seat, however the still picture towards the top is of an untethered seat.
 

joolsplus3

Admin - CPS Technician
The FF tethered seat would be equivalent to that video, because it has a shoulderbelt lockoff on that seat, which effectively reproduces a top tether's function. (www.carseat.org has still pictures of tether versus untether, though). The RF seat is braced with a foot under the base, a regular RF US seat would recline more downwards, then bounce back toward the seatback. It's hard to come by pictures and videos of seat tests, the seat makers tend to keep them secret, unfortunately.
 

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