forward or rear facing...

[kirstenriley]

After seeing the other thread re the proper restraint issue of children in the US, i saw another you tube video of a 7 mth old (front facing) and everyone saying she was waaaaaaaay to young to be front facing? Is it age or weight? I always thought it was more based on weight?

[Crazy Monkey]

I would go by the specifications on your car seat but wouldn't turn bubs until at least 6 months and could had good head control... JMO

[*Sal*]

I think most recommend weight of 8-9kg before you turn them around. Head control is a major factor too :yes:

[Seekrit]

American standards are different to Australian as well, they're rear facing for 12 months normally (hence why Britney was snarked with her 9 month forward facing)

[Lirael]

I think most recommend weight of 8-9kg before you turn them around. Head control is a major factor too :yes:

actually, head control has nothing to do with it as for the first 12 months a bubs neck and bones are very soft, and it can cause a great deal of damage to them if they are not rear facing as long as possible. nowadays, most carseats are rear facing til 12 kilos.

[bekkyboo]

As Cel said, nothing to do with head control...

G is a huge bub, and even in the 12kg seat he would be turned and he is only 8 months.

We had to turn G when he was around or less than 4 months old. He was and is a BIG boy. Not only was he over the weight limit, but he could kick the backseat, and the shoulder straps were as high as they could go and they were below his shoulder line.

The golden rule is, Make sure the seat fits the child, no matter the age.

The ambos (who fit here, and my dad is one) informed us, it is far far MORE dangerous to make a child stay reversed if they are no longer fitting in that seat, as the seat is designed in a certian way to protect them. If they arent fitting in the seat, than it isnt protecting them, is it?!

[Lirael]

good point bek:yes:

[Trumpet]

My DS is 18mths old and only 11 kgs - he would chuck a narny if I still had him rear facing. I had advice from my doctor as to when she thought it was ok to turn him around.

[SassyMummy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRP7ynNI8mI&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b

Found that earlier... and although it's American (I assume), it's made me want to turn my 18 month old back around to rear-face.

It's been made by some woman who's trying to tell her sister to turn the carseat rear-facing for her daughter. It's a bit of a *****y way to get your point across, but it makes sense. I want to turn DD back around now...

[Areca]

DD is 14 months old and still rear facing...length wise she is fine (shoulder straps fit in the right spot), she still has about 3kg to go until she reaches the weight limit so she will stay rear facing until then.
Americans do have different requirements when it comes to babies in car seats....for a country that hasn't made not wearing seat belts illegal in all areas they are way way way ahead of us in child safety IMO.
If your baby is too big for the seat, like Bekkyboo said, turn them around....if not leave them be. It really is a lot safer.

[theycallmemum]

I did a ton of research before I turned my son around and read quite a few Australian papers on accident statistics and forward facing baby car seats. I felt quite safe turning my son at 9kg once I read that there is not one documented case of serious neck injury or death in a baby in a forward facing car seat involved in a accident that was properly buckled and installed in Australia.

There is one site (Australian), sorry I can't remember the addy, that had lots of pictures of car crashes in which the driver or passenger/s had died and yet the baby in the forward facing car seat survived. (This was a paper specifically discussing the safety of forward facing car seats for babies).

[LucyE]

As with previous posters, you turn them based on WEIGHT not age or head control. Do a search here for past threads on this topics for more links.

theycallmemum I have done a lot of research into this topic too and the only study I could find that talked about real life stats for forward facing carseats in accidents used a very small sample group from NSW. From memory, it didn't talk about injuries but only deaths. I would be interested if there has been a more comprehensive national study done.

Unfortunately in Australia, we are ahead of the world in terms of safety standards our manufacturers are held to, but we don't follow up with high standards for the use of these car restraints. Most of the recent studies I could find involving forward facing carseats, was about why our forward facing seats are safer than those overseas because we use the tether strap and anchor bolt and not just the seatbelt to hold the carseat in place (no longer as applicable now that many European nations are moving to/have moved to the ISOFIX system) . They don't debate the merits of forward facing vs rearward facing because the appropriate rearward facing carseat is safer. Full stop.

[shed]

DS is six months old, haven't had him weighed for a while but probably 9kg or over. He is still rearward facing.

We are starting to get comments about it actually, but he will be staying there for the moment.

[ShadyCharacter]

All the advice I could get was to leave them facing rearwards as long as possible. My son was almost 10kg at 4 months old, and technically too long to be rearward facing as his feet touched the back seat. There was no way in the world I was turning him at 4 months though. I left him rearward facing until he was 9 months old and would have left him for longer except he got sick of it.

Having very recently had a major car accident with him in the car (he is 2 now), there is no way I won't be sticking to the most stringent guidelines in future and he will be in a car seat (not booster seat) until he absolutely cannot fit in one any longer.