'Rearfacing Saves Lives' Article

Hello all,

This is the time of year I send out an email about carseat safety and winter. I also add on links as to other safety forums and websites.

One of my favorites was an article on here. It was about RF the child for longer period of time, how the UK RF their children for (I think) to max 5 or 6? There was a Youtube video in the middle of his sad story that shows FF vs. RF in a crash.

If memory serves me correct, the article was about this persons son or grandchild, who was put in FF too soon, and unfortunately harmed in a crash.

Does anyone remember this article?

The original story

http://www.car-seat.org/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=667349

The blog with video
http://www.joelsjourney.org/

Hello Christineka,

Thank you for the quick reply, however the first link does not work, could you repost please?

Nevermind, I did not see there is refeence to the site from the blog.

Thank you again!

Typically, in the UK babies are rear-facing less time than in the US. They don't even have a 12 month rule- it's a nine month rule . In Sweden, though, children rear-face much longer- until 4 or 5 (sometimes longer).

Yeah, UK only RFs until 9 months--there's an ERF movement there, but it's slow-going.

To clarify more, in Joel's case, he was at the RFing maximum, I believe (which in the US is 33 or 35 lbs). So basically, the parents had no choice but to put him FF. He would have been safer RF, but there aren't any US seats to accommodate that. (Of course, his story is an excellent reason why parents who CAN keep their children RF, should.)

LISmama810 said:

To clarify more, in Joel's case, he was at the RFing maximum, I believe (which in the US is 33 or 35 lbs). So basically, the parents had no choice but to put him FF. He would have been safer RF, but there aren't any US seats to accommodate that. (Of course, his story is an excellent reason why parents who CAN keep their children RF, should.)

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As I recall the story Joel's parents turned him FF because his doctor said it was OK, not because they had to due to their seat. Yes he was at the limit of some seats (33 lbs), but could have gone a little longer in a 35 lb seat. I don't think they ever said what kind of seats they actually had.

sparkyd said:

As I recall the story Joel's parents turned him FF because his doctor said it was OK, not because they had to due to their seat. Yes he was at the limit of some seats (33 lbs), but could have gone a little longer in a 35 lb seat. I don't think they ever said what kind of seats they actually had.

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I don't know at what point his parents turned him FF, or if he could have stayed RF for another 2 pounds. The point of my post was to reduce any blame that may be put on the parents. Some people have big/heavy kids who need to be turned earlier than we'd like. Since OP presumably wants to send the info to people to encourage them to keep their kids RF, I just wanted to point out that you still have to work within height and weight requirements.

LISmama810 said:

I don't know at what point his parents turned him FF, or if he could have stayed RF for another 2 pounds. The point of my post was to reduce any blame that may be put on the parents. Some people have big/heavy kids who need to be turned earlier than we'd like. Since OP presumably wants to send the info to people to encourage them to keep their kids RF, I just wanted to point out that you still have to work within height and weight requirements.

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Point taken. I'm one of those parents that will likely have to turn their big child FF earlier than I would like. I was certainly not trying to imply that people should feel guilty for turning their kids FF if they have no choice, nor that parents should feel obligated to buy a new seat to get an extra 2 lbs RF. I just felt that a key part of Joel Grandfathers story was that they were frustrated that they were told by their doctor to turn him FF. Seemed to me that if they had been told he would be safer RF, they would have done it and it is possible we wouldn't be having this exchange today because he likely wouldn't have broken his neck if RF in a 35 lb seat. The story loses a little power to me if there was nothing that could have been done to prevent his injury, i.e. if he truly was too big to RF in any seat available in the US.

I certainly don't think anyone blames Joel's parents (or the parents of so many FF kids that could be RF) for the fact that people just don't know how much safer RF is. We've got a long way to go in making that common knowledge.