Advice needed - baby car seat questions (merged)

gt568

Just a quick easy one, do all newborn car seats have to be rear facing? I was hoping to get a forward facing one. I wasn't keen on not being able to see the baby if you see what I mean. Thanks.

sarmia

Hi,
Yes all newborn seats have to be rear facing for safety purposes!

You can have the baby in the front with you, though if it is a modern car with twin front airbags the passenger airbag plus any side ones will need to be turned off as will cause more harm if in a crash!

HTH
Sarah x

anonymousie

gt568 wrote: »

Just a quick easy one, do all newborn car seats have to be rear facing? I was hoping to get a forward facing one. I wasn't keen on not being able to see the baby if you see what I mean. Thanks.

I'm afraid that rear facing is how they are for safety reasons- it protects the spine /neck/head (particularly as a babys head is so big in relation to the body).

In fact Children should be rear facing for as long as possible- whatever age it is the safest option-in many countries you can buy rear facing seats till age 4, just not in the UK :mad: ).

If you are worried about not seeing bubba- sit in the back with them till you are sure they are safe-that is your new mum anxiety showing and il will settle!

Have a look at "rear facing car seats" on you tube and I'm sure you will find lots of crash test videos that will easily convince you.

As you can tell I am keen on in car safety (my kids are too precious to not be obsessive about one of the few things you CAN do to protect them better- there is plenty you can't protect them from)

sarmia

Also Which are doing a special £1 monthly subsciption where it tests all car seats on the market. It also uses some for crash tests which are quite shocking. Definately worth a £1 to me.

maypole

They are a bit awkward when you are the driver alone in the car and not able to see the baby. Although I can see it from a safety point of view.

Js_Other_Half

maypole wrote: »

They are a bit awkward when you are the driver alone in the car and not able to see the baby. Although I can see it from a safety point of view.

I have a convex mirror overlooking DS which enables me to see him the rear view mirror:

http://www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplayA_0_10751_-1__16824_10001_

I got mine from Toys R us I think.

heather38

i found it easier to put baby in the front seat rather than the back, it just meant that DH had to sit in the back instead! plus i needed the back seat for the shopping as the pram took up all the boot
babies should be rear facing as long as possible usually around 9-12 months or so depending on weight.

Sagaris

My great nephew is 2 just after Christmas and has only just been 'evicted' from his rear facing car seat - it's needed for his little brother! He's always been tiny and has only recently got up to the 29lb weight limit for his old seat.
The longer you can keep children rear facing, the safer they are. And they need to be able to sit up unaided for at least half an hour before being put in a forward facing seat.
Even if you can 'switch off' a front passenger airbag, what guarantee have you got that the wires, mechanism etc still won't fire? I'd always put a rear facing seat in the back of the car - statistically the safest place for anyone to sit is the middle of the back seat.
In 9 years of my job I've never heard of a baby choking etc while in a car seat on the back seat of a car.

bre16

my 2 year old climbs out of his seat , i tried loads of different car seats but none stopped him climbing out. theres a couple of things ive found help
1) putting rains on after strapping him in
2) get one of those clips for freezer bags (a large one) & clip it on to the straps across the chest
hope this helps

me_and_me_monkeys

In-car safety centre (can't remember where sorry) has car seats for disabled children - they have lots of experience with escape artists.

My son was an escape artist, but we set a mirror so I (front passenger) could watch him all the time - didn't do a lot for my car sickness but did stop him - Mums go eyes in the back of her head and KNOWS ALL, worked for him. Stopping the car and strapping them back in works

Also remember that you have to be able to get the straps off with one press in an accident so be careful when adding anything to the straps to keep them in. I remember that there used to be a seat belt alarm available...long time ago but they may still be around.