I'm often asked why in the world Kaylee is still rear-facing in her car seat. After all, she's way past the minimum age of 1 year (she turned 2 in November) and weight of 20 lbs (she's around 23-24 lbs, so barely).I started to write what was going to be a lengthy post about it, but decided to instead link to this post because she says almost everything I was going to (except better than I could) and cites her sources well. She gets asked the same questions and has the same answers as I do.
Please read it and watch the videos! Click here for the link if you didn't click on it above.
Everyone knows The AAP's (American Academy of Pediatrics) recommendation/guidelines/requirements of having your child rear-facing until they are "at least one year of age AND weighs at least 20 pounds." Unfortunately, most people don't know that they also state that this is the minimum and that "it is best to ride rear-facing as long as possible."
I keep hearing that they're going to change their official guidelines to reflect that research. I really wish they'd get on it. In my experience, far too many pediatricians follow the original guidelines and aren't informing parents of the new research (if they even know about it). I wouldn't have heard about any of this if someone hadn't mentioned it on a message board I'm a member of and I'm guessing it's news to many of you as well.
Please re-watch the crash videos and consider keeping/switching your child rear-facing. It really is so much safer and worth all the downsides that might come with it.
(Tip: Get a baby mirror for the car so that you can still see your child and he/she can see you. This can help keep baby happy while rear-facing.)
6 comments:
Makes perfect sense. It's so hard though to decide because what if you get rear ended? Maybe a side seat? :) Seriously though. It makes me want to go buy one of those old station wagons that had the whole back seat facing backwards. They had a great idea for that! Maybe a minivan that the middle seat would rotate around for young kids and the older kids could sit in the back? Then when they get older just turn it around. Oh the possibilities! I can see why it better. I think I'll check to see what happens more, collisions or rear endings. That would help me decide better.
Eleasha-
"The most common type of crash is a frontal crash, the least common is a rollover accident, but side impact is third at only approximately 11% of crashes. Frontal crashes make up 44% and rear 31%. So, while in a side impact collision, the middle would be safest, the likelihood of you being in a side impact collision is much lower than that of a rear or frontal crash. However, in a side impact collision, a forward facing child is 4 times more likely to be injured than that of a rear facing child, according to the study cited in this article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9916868/"
great tips, I'll for sure remember when we're back in the states. You are going to die when I tell you that we don't have ANY seatbelts here, let alone carseats. I just let Lucy roam, hold Logan on my lap, and PRAY REALLY HARD that nothing happens. It's quite a scary place, no laws or safe drivers. I'm surprised we're still alive!; we've been very blessed I guess.
Interesting info, speaking of those baby mirrors, do you know where I can buy one?
We were just talking about that the other day...Since we'll be driving to Canada...I thought it would be more 'entertaining' for Anna to be sitting facing forward...and Randy's voice of reason of course said 'we should leave her in there as long as we can'...she's probably 20lbs right now though...I guess we'll see how she fits in there in may :)
Sara,
I got our first mirror from Wal-mart. It's my favorite. Then it got stolen right out of our car (the back door lock used to be broken). Who does that?! I went back to get another one, but they didn't have the same one. I ended up finding one at Kmart, but haven't seen it since. This is the one: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=202756&parentCategoryId=85184&categoryId=85218&subCategoryId=86220&cm_ven=Performics_Affs&cm_cat=k109972&cm_ite=Primary
You can get it from Amazon and maybe Walmart. I haven't checked. That link shows the picture of the flat back (it either hooks on like that or wraps around a head rest if the seat has one).
We got Logan's at Walmart or Target. I hate it! It's a Munchkin one.
http://www.munchkin.com/products/detail.html?section=pr...ries&ID=10010&pID=1181
I hate it because it has this swivel thing on the back that's supposed to make it easy to position to see your baby, but it moves as you drive and it's hard to get in the perfect position. I really need to either get a new one or take that one apart and put just the mirror up.
So basically, get any that is big and doesn't have a lame swivel thing on the back.
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