News Article: Car seat guidelines may be revised

Jeanum

Admin - CPS Technician Emeritus
Staff member
Re: ERF article in local newspaper!

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/news/lif/2010/01/07-42/Car-seat-safety-Whats-a-parent-to-do.html

i was so suprised to see this in our local paper last night!! i hope lots of parents and pediatricians read it.

This Associated Press (AP) article is evidently making the local rounds and being picked up by more local media. :thumbsup: I merged your post with an ongoing thread about the article in the News, Press Releases and Media forum. :)
 
ADS

mum2two

Active member
The article was in my local paper...but the picture showed FF 2 and 3 year olds and major belly clip on the 3 year old...of course so far all the comments are from idiots who have never ERF before...I'll post a comment when I have time.

http://www.pantagraph.com/lifestyles/article_13da80f8-f630-11de-80f3-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=story

So I left a comment, boy those goofballs who know nothing irritate, me I felt like getting in shouting match but kept my comments informative (Hopefully).
 

kmarcus

New member
jeanum, thanks for putting my post here...i'm new here and have never looked at this part of the website before.

i posted a reply on the pantagraph, too. gosh, i just don't understand someone saying that their husband not having enough leg room is a reason not to keep your child as safe as possible. what could possibly make someone MAD about better child safety education?? i don't get it!!!!! and honestly, SO WHAT if your child's legs are slightly uncomfortable???? what would you rather have, a child with uncomfortable legs or no child??? my son isn't uncomfortable at all and he's in civic in a a boulevard, and i know they have little leg room compared to other seat.

anyway, i shouldn't take my anger out on you all. :eek:

not sure i was as "nice" as mum2two...
 

littleangelfire

Well-known member
Fairway is only like 10 minutes from me. At least I know I'm not totally alone in the area. Well, lovinwaves lives like a half hour from me. I already commented on the article - lovin had it posted to her FB the other day, so I posted it to mine, too. That freakonomics comment was idiotic. Yeah - b/c some guys, with no actual knowledge about the subject, say its ok well then it must be! Hmmmm...I wonder if the comments section will let me post a link to a rear facing crash video?
 

Mom2FiveGirls

Active member
What an awesome article!!!

As for the comments...I can't say I'm surprised... I did a presentation on the need for car seat laws to be more strict (requiring RFing until at least 2 was one of the points...as well as requiring kids to be in a harnessed seat until at least 4 years and 40 lbs and requiring kids to remain in boosters past 8 years/80 lbs) and I was honestly shocked at some people's responses. Some of them were SO idiotic! It was an argument based research class and my topic was by far the most heated...more so than gun control, the death penalty, abortion, talking on cell phones and driving, welfare abuse, and a handful of other topics. I wasn't expecting that...lol.
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
Britax seats are notorious for their lack of rear-facing legroom, low harness slots & (now) fairly low rear-facing max weight.

"Notorious" seems a bit unfair. In fact, Britax was the trend-setter for many years, with their Wizard and Marathon products being among the best for weight and height limits allowing for extended rear-facing for most of the last decade. It's only been within the last six months or so that other models have substantially leapfrogged them, particularly in rear-facing weight limits. I hope they've noticed!
 

mum2two

Active member
I just wish they had used a kid actually RF in the article....and not wearing a bulky coat with a belly clip...but the article was nice to see.
 

Spam

New member
It was in our local Sunday paper. I got all excited and said carseat article!! :eek: My mom read at least, maybe she gets a little more why I have A still rearfacing.
 

Maedze

New member
"Notorious" seems a bit unfair. In fact, Britax was the trend-setter for many years, with their Wizard and Marathon products being among the best for weight and height limits allowing for extended rear-facing for most of the last decade. It's only been within the last six months or so that other models have substantially leapfrogged them, particularly in rear-facing weight limits. I hope they've noticed!

The Evenflo Triumph Advance, The First Years True Fit and the Sunshine Kids' Radian have all been out for several years...a sight longer than six months. The AOE, however appalling a booster it makes, has always had plenty of leg room, as has the Uptown and then the Avenue.

Britax has had more than enough time to notice.
 

SafeDad

CPSDarren - Admin
Staff member
The Evenflo Triumph Advance, The First Years True Fit and the Sunshine Kids' Radian have all been out for several years...a sight longer than six months. The AOE, however appalling a booster it makes, has always had plenty of leg room, as has the Uptown and then the Avenue.

Britax has had more than enough time to notice.


Again, with my own emphasis-

"Notorious" seems a bit unfair. In fact, Britax was the trend-setter for many years, with their Wizard and Marathon products being among the best for weight and height limits allowing for extended rear-facing for most of the last decade. It's only been within the last six months or so that other models have substantially leapfrogged them, particularly in rear-facing weight limits. I hope they've noticed!

If leg room is the main feature of interest, there are now seats like the My Ride that give plenty of RF leg room and high weight limits. Of course, there are drawbacks with that seat as well. http://carseatblog.com/?p=2589 . There's a compromise to every design. Increasing [RF] leg room either means changing the angle and/or reducing the distance to the front seat. That can be a drawback, especially in smaller cars. Fortunately, not all designs are alike, or there would be some vehicles where you simply could not find a model that worked well. Perhaps they did notice and decided it was not worth the compromise? Or perhaps they opted not to kludge a quick solution onto an existing product and opted to wait for a next generation product?

I can't address their current marketing strategy, but my opinion is that "notorious" was a bit extreme, given that they set the current trend of higher weight and height seats in motion.
 

Jeanum

Admin - CPS Technician Emeritus
Staff member
Re: Interesting Article

Yes, that AP (Associated Press) article has been making the rounds on other sites and into some local newspapers. I moved and merged your post from Articles, Reviews and FAQs into an earlier discussion thread in our News, Press Releases and Media forum. :)
 

Jonah Baby

New member
I like the way this article was based - pushing to the idea that parents are simply not given the correct information or are not given the information at all (bringing into line Pediatricians.)

If all Pediatricians were up-to-date, we would have a huge increase in children surviving accidents. I think if any new guidelines are produced, Pediatricians need to be some of the first to get a hold of it and to spread the word. I hear from so many parents "I only did what my Pediatrician said/suggested."

We see how safe Sweden's children are compared to ours through the crash tests and crash injury statistics - we need to begin implementing the same sort of structure Sweden used to get the information out there and solid in parents minds.
There should no longer be any room allowed for confusion or misinformation on child passenger safety. You Techs know all too well how deadly this lack of information has been.
 

Admin

Admin - Webmaster
Rear-facing to higher ages is cetainly a very good idea, but it wouldn't solve all the other issues we have in the USA in regard to childhood traffic fatalities, including-

Lack of education on installation and proper use

Impaired and distracted drivers

A vehicle fleet comprised of many less safe vehicles well over 10 years old, including a large percentage of massive pickup trucks and truck-based SUVs.

I venture to guess that even if rear-facing to 4 or more years old was prevalent in the USA, the fatality rate for child passengers would still be no where near what you find in Sweden due to these other variables.

According to the CDC WISQARS database, 139 babies under 1 year old died in 2006 from motor vehicle traffic causes. A total of 116 one year old babies died from motor vehicle crashes. A total of 121 two year olds died from motor vehicle crashes. The trend is the same if you include all years 1999-2006. Alone, this information is not really a useful to compare rear facing to front facing, but it does indicate that there is clearly not a huge increase in deaths at age 1 that might be associated with when most people turn their kids. We clearly need to reduce the high number of fatalities to our children, but it is quite possible that extended rear facing may not be the panacea we might think, given the other problems we have in the USA.
 

kidnurse

Active member
I wish there was an easy way to forward these articles on, like the forward buttons on some yahoo articles. I am not only technophobic, but also technologically impaired. My daycare provider thinks I am nuts to leave my almost 30 lb, 16 month old rearfacing, and I can tell she is annoyed by it when she takes him in her car. She was thrilled to turn her peanut of a barely one year old, forward facing in a GN. Shortly after finding this site I sent out a mass e-mail to everyone I know with any contact at all with children the web address so everyone could get better educated, but mostly I sent it so that she would understand why extended rearfacing is so important to me. What she got after reading here was that others here like the GN and she felt reassured that is was a good carseat. I do like the GN, but not for the smallest 1yr old I have ever met! Anyway, if there is an easy way to forward these articles on internal decapitation I would love to know how. I cannot cut and paste for life of me, so if there is a very easy way to forward articles that is the only way I could do it.
 

Andie

New member
I wish there was an easy way to forward these articles on, like the forward buttons on some yahoo articles. I am not only technophobic, but also technologically impaired. My daycare provider thinks I am nuts to leave my almost 30 lb, 16 month old rearfacing, and I can tell she is annoyed by it when she takes him in her car. She was thrilled to turn her peanut of a barely one year old, forward facing in a GN. Shortly after finding this site I sent out a mass e-mail to everyone I know with any contact at all with children the web address so everyone could get better educated, but mostly I sent it so that she would understand why extended rearfacing is so important to me. What she got after reading here was that others here like the GN and she felt reassured that is was a good carseat. I do like the GN, but not for the smallest 1yr old I have ever met! Anyway, if there is an easy way to forward these articles on internal decapitation I would love to know how. I cannot cut and paste for life of me, so if there is a very easy way to forward articles that is the only way I could do it.

If you go to the link in the original post, you have options to send it by email, facebook, etc. Top right corner of the article.
 

Admin

Admin - Webmaster
Also, for forum threads in general, there is an "Email this Page" option at the top of the thread. Use the "Thread Tools" pulldown menu to find it.
 

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