In a press release heard ’round the world on Friday, the British Medical Journal announced a new recommendation that children up to age 4 should remain rear-facing in child restraints when riding in a vehicle. What makes this advice so extraordinary is that researchers are telling health care professionals to advise parents and caregivers that rear-facing seats are safer for children under age 4. That’s a big step. Think about it: most babies in the UK are turned forward at around 9 kg. That’s 19.8 lbs. to you and me here in the States. Both of my kiddos hit that weight somewhere between 4 and 5 months old (yes, you read that right).
OK, but really, big deal, right? They’re finally jumping on the rear-facing bandwagon over there in the UK. It’s about time, right? Haven’t we been blowing the rear-facing hot air toward them for a long time? Our very own American Academy of Pediatrics has been recommending since 2002 that “If a car safety seat accommodates children rear facing to higher weights, for optimal protection, the child should remain rear facing until reaching the maximum weight for the car safety seat, as long as the top of the head is below the top of the seat back.” Kathleen Weber in her 2000 paper, Crash Protection for Child Passengers, A Review of Best Practice (UMTRI Research Review 31(3):1-27 (2000) ) noted that children were safer rear-facing for as long as possible. This isn’t a new concept.
Indeed, the British researchers did look to US and Swedish studies for their information. I mean, why recreate the wheel? The data isn’t going to all of a sudden change favorably and show that forward-facing kids don’t get broken necks in severe frontal crashes. Physics is universal and I don’t think they’re growing their kids any differently over in Europe than we are here.
One very curious result to come out of this recommendation was a response from Dorel, a manufacturer of such child restraints as Maxi-Cosi (a popular Euro brand), Cosco (a popular US brand), Eddie Bauer, Safety 1st, et al. Surprisingly, the child restraint manufacturer resisted the recommendations saying most parents make the change to forward-facing because rear-facing car seats are “simply impractical in most situations. They take up a huge amount of room in the car, usually necessitating the front seats to be moved forward, and they don’t even fit in some smaller cars. Unless the child is given sufficient legroom, he or she will be cramped against the car’s seatback. It can be incredibly difficult for a parent to get a larger child into such a seat and the fitting system is often very complex, increasing the chance of incorrect fitting.” And “It reduces the growing child’s ability to interact with those in the front seats, to look around and see where they are going.” Oh my.
Thanks for the encouragement, guys. Do you think you could have even tried to muster up some enthusiasm for the new recommendations? They take up a huge amount of room in the car? Kids take up a huge amount of room in the car. My child will be cramped? Have they seen my son sitting on the couch between the pillows with his leg wrapped around his shoulders? And what about all the anecdotal data that shows leg damage to forward-facing children in crashes when their legs smash into the front seats. I guess that doesn’t count. The fitting system is often very complex? (Psst, guys, it’s actually easier to install a RF seat when someone shows you how 😉 ). And as for interaction, well, I guess all those other hours of the day when my kids are out of the vehicle and interacting with me don’t count. I’m usually telling them to be quiet.
Clearly the Dorel press release was written by someone who was having a bad day and was ordered to throw something together to send out. Their Euro office must not communicate with their US office. Consider this: Dorel US convertible seats have had 35 lbs. rear-facing weight limits for 10 years. They are in the process of training their customer service reps as technicians and they are improving their instruction manuals and labels by color coding them for rear- and forward-facing.
Dorel has been accused in the past of making decisions based on the almighty dollar. Is this another one? If not, what exactly is the motive? Why discourage keeping children safer? Can’t you make more money by selling more rear-facing seats? Certainly they aren’t driving the mega-mongo vehicles over in the UK that we drive here in the US, but I don’t think that Dorel is suddenly the voice of reason saying that back seats in smaller British vehicles aren’t big enough for rear-facing toddlers. Things that make you go “hmmmm.”
I agree, Jubliee. The car seats used in Sweden for those larger kids do allow for legroom and our current car seats here in the US don’t. But also think about how kids like to sit. They don’t like to sit with their legs dangling (heck, neither do I). They like to fold their legs up and bend and twist them around. It’s just not a comfort issue for them until *we* tell them it is. When we’re on a long trip, I’m usually bending my legs to sit criss-crossed or with one leg tucked under another to get more comfortable.
There’s never a good answer for putting an angry child into a car seat facing any direction, lol! I find it easier to do it in a rear-facing seat, though, because I think it’s easier to hold a child down than back.
Hi Jubilee-
A lot of this depends on your vehicle. A large car/SUV/Minivan with lots of legroom, reclining seatbacks or captain’s chairs shouldn’t be too much of a problem. A small car with an upright bench seat might be tough. Anything in between will vary case by case. Here’s an example with photos and video-
https://carseatblog.com/?p=2556
I guess I’m not quite understanding where a 4 yr. old’s legs are supposed to go when they’re in a rear-facing carseat. Seriously…are they being forced to sit cross-legged against the back of the auto’s seat? Are they sticking straight up? Neither option sounds very comfortable. Safety is always a good thing. But, come on, let’s be realistic, wrestling a fiesty 25 pound 2 yr. old into a forward facing seat is bad enough. Wrestling a ticked-off 40 pound 4 yr. old into a backward seat sounds nearly impossible.
Ha, ha,
It sure does makes one wonder why Maxi Cosi would make the Maxi Cosi Mobi, which is a high-weight RF seat. Most Swedish seats are made to fit in small cars. We are talking European cars here, which are really, really small compared to US cars. What is more, the stores that carry the Swedish seats all over Europe show you how to install it IN YOUR CAR – not just some test bench in a baby gear store, where the personell tend to use the testbench and leave the poor parents to their own devices, as soon as they walk out the store not knowing that they just bought a car seat that may or may not fit in their car.
Jessica, great job on keeping your kids rf for as long as you did! Even with the frustrations of your driving situation, you went beyond the minimum recommendations and did what was best for your children.
Dealing strictly with the UK issue here (oh, we could go so far with just the US issue and minimum standards), they routinely turn their babies forward at around 9 months of age/9 kg. Even having them go another 5 months even would be grand. But the issue with the Dorel press release was that there was no support whatsoever for rear-facing beyond the minimum. As a consumer, I expect a company that makes a safety product to promote safety issues. I want that company to demonstrate to me that they are aware of safety issues, that they know of and are actively trying to encourage better safety practices. If there’s a problem with installing a rf car seat because of space issues, how about suggesting to the consumer that it be installed more upright for healthy children over age 1 (or pick an age–9 months or whatever)? Or make practical comfort suggestions so parents won’t think they’re freaks for putting their larger children in rf seats: teach your kids to sit criss-cross applesauce, etc.
I do agree with you that society has changed so much lately with working parents and over-scheduled kids that many folks live out of their vehicles now. Between baseball practice, dance class, and karate, some kids are never out of the van. It’s unfortunate. And auto makers do need to step up and design more family-friendly vehicles. Just making a van and putting in some cupholders and calling it family friendly doesn’t cut it anymore. Not with what we now know about safety and belt fit and car seat fit to vehicle.
ZOIKS on the Dorel press release!!!!! What on earth were they thinking???
Well, I can understand their press release completely. We have always kept our kids rear facing for much longer than the 1 year recommendation. I have a daughter and son who are only 15 months apart though, and we did eventually have to turn my daughter forward facing or stop driving the whole family in one car altogether. My husband (who is 6’3″ and 180 lb – so a little tall, but not really above norm in either category) literally did not fit into the seat in front of the rear facing convertible seat because it took up an absurd amount of space. The front seat had to be pushed just one click away from the farthest forward position available. We have a minivan, so it’s not like the car is small either. So when our baby son outgrew his infant seat and had to move up to a convertible rear facing seat, my daughter either had to flip around or my husband was going to have to drive a separate car everywhere. It seemed much more practical, and safer even, to have my 23 month old facing forward than to put another car on the road which would be a huge hassle, environmentally irresponsible, and double our chances of someone in our family getting into an accident. We looked at other options such as removing & rearranging some of the rear seats, but couldn’t find a way that would still leave us enough seats accessible. So perhaps some of the frustration and antagonization toward Dorel would be tempered by the realization that they don’t necessarily get the ideal setup to work with. Perhaps some of the responsibility for improving auto safety for kids could be deservingly distributed to the auto manufacturers that leave them little room to work with, and even the cultural choices that have made driving such a major part of our daily lives that it poses such a major risk in the first place.
Sooo.. WHY would we want to encourage interaction between children in the backseat and the person responsible for driving the vehicle while it is in motion anyway?
*bangs head against wall*
Dorel (under Maxi-Cosi) MAKES a higher-weight rear-facing seat sold in Sweden and certified for use in Europe. This is what puzzles me the most. If I were them, I would have said, “We at Dorel are aware that rear-facing is safest for toddlers and preschoolers. That’s why we make a seat capable of rear-facing them. In the coming months, we vow to bring this seat to more retailers in Britain so that you, too, can use our seat to continue rear-facing your child!” See? No sales lost– they just move to a more expensive product!
I don’t know what they are thinking, do they know the research that kids are safer rear-facing?
I do agree it is a big jump from less than a year to 4 years to switch to FF. I don’t get why so many can be stubbornly resistant to come to this knowlege.
And I’ll add yet another “Amen.” (LOL about telling the kids to be quiet the rest of the day!)
Fantastic post Heather! I know you’re preaching to the choir but I’ll join the chorus with another “Amen, sister”.
“It reduces the growing child’s ability to interact with those in the front seats, to look around and see where they are going.”
Funny, I would’ve thought that what would REALLY reduce the growing child’s ability to interact with those in the front seat or look around and see where they were going would be a serious neck/spinal injury from being FF too early. But gee, what do I know?
Amen, Sister.