Car Seats

Car seats...the best possible thing you can do for your kids.

I'll admit. With Claire, I didn't know much about car seats. I'd been told what the "best" infant carrier was, which ended up translating to: This is the brand that you can find the cutest patterns! Don't get me wrong, the Graco Safe Seat is a great car seat, but holy crap was that thing heavy. I didn't know that you aren't supposed to use any after-market items on a seat. No head supports, no "piddle pads", no toys hanging from the toy bar, etc. Sure, I skipped the "piddle pad" just because it looked & sounded so fracking ridiculous, but we always used head supports & as soon as she was old enough to pay attention to them, I strapped toys onto the handlebar.

We were in a wreck that totaled my car when Claire was 2 1/2 months old. She was in the backseat with Chase. As soon as the collision happened, I was out of the car, getting into the backseat as fast as possible, yelling at Chase: "Claire! Is she ok? WHY ISN'T SHE CRYING?" And then about 5 seconds later, she started screaming her little head off. Next to the day she was born, that was the most beautiful, reassuring sound I'd ever heard in my life.

Luckily, she was absolutely fine. Not a scratch on her. She had one tiny little bruise on her chest from the harness, but that was it. Her car seat came away totally undamaged, but you can bet that as soon as we got home, that thing was trashed & my mom brought a brand new one to me the very next day. Even though visually, it looked fine, I was not willing to take the risk that it could have been somehow damaged in a place that I couldn't see.

Still not knowing too much about what was the best for Claire, I put her front facing way too early. She was just shy of 11 months old & I figured "Hey, what the heck. She's almost a year old, she weighs 22lbs, it's all good, right?" Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I look at Carter now, who is closing in on 10 months & I think, "Was I an idiot or WHAT? There is no way in hell I would ever put him front facing now. Never."

Carter was out of the infant carrier by the time he was about 5 months old. I hated it. Big, bulky, took up ridiculous amounts of room in the car. I moved him into the convertible seat I'd purchased for Claire. Although lengthwise he still has plenty of room, he's about 1lb shy of outgrowing the weight limit. When I moved him into the convertible, I purchased another front-facing only seat for Claire. Currently, she's riding in a Graco Nautilus, which, overall is a great seat, but I now feel like it's the wrong seat for her, at least right now.

So where am I going with all of this? I'm sure you've all seen or heard about the AAP's new guidelines for keeping kids rear-facing til they are 2 or outgrow the seat's limits. Not long after that, Britain published a study advising to keep your children rear-facing until the age of 4.

YouTube has numerous videos demonstrating the advantages of rear-facing versus forward-facing. They can be seen here, here,& here. There are many more videos available, those are just a few.

If you don't want to take the time to read the articles or watch the videos, here are some facts for you:

• One study, which looked at US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration information on 870 car crashes involving children between 1998 and 2003, found that rear facing seats were 75 per cent more effective.
  
• A study from Sweden suggests that three of the six children who died in front facing "booster" seats over a seven year period could have been saved if they were in rear facing seats.
  
• When a child is in a forward-facing seat, there is tremendous stress put on the child's neck, which must hold the large head back. The mass of the head of a small child is about 25% of the body mass whereas the mass of the adult head is only 6%!
  
• Won't my child be uncomfortable? Where will his legs go? Many parents have the misconception that children are uncomfortable or at risk for leg injury by having their legs up on the vehicle seat or bent when kept rear-facing. These concepts are completely incorrect. In real, everyday life, toddlers and preschoolers CHOSE to sit with their legs folded up - that IS comfort to them.

A few more links in regards to the benefits of riding rear-facing:
CPSafety
Car Safety
AAP-Car Seat Guide

There are numerous websites out there promoting the the importance of extended rear facing, but I think that gives you a pretty good idea.

Having said all of that, even though she is currently front-facing, Claire will soon be returning to rear-facing. I've got my eye on these or these for both kids & as soon as payday rolls around, I'll be purchasing one for each of them.

Claire will just have to learn to deal with it. Sure, it'll be a shock to her to have to turn back around, to not be able to see me whenever she looks up, to not have her legs dangling over the seat. Those are all small beans. Not surprisingly, family is who I've gotten the most flack from. Here's the deal, though. You don't like it? Good thing they aren't your kids. You're not going to do what I say is best for my kids? They won't ride in your vehicle. It's as easy as that.

Both kids will ride rear-facing as long as they fit in the seats. I highly doubt they will grow out of the weight limits before they outgrow the height limits. And once they outgrow the rear-facing limits, they will absolutely be harnessed front- facing until they outgrow the limits of the harness, which is 65lbs. Yes, my kids will be the ones getting dropped off at kindergarten (or later) still sitting in a full-blown car seat. Yes, my kids will be the ones showing up to fourth or fifth grade sitting in a high back booster. As long as my kids still meet the height & weight requirements, they will still be in the safest seat possible.

Car seats have come a long, long way from what they were when we were babies. For some of us, we may not even have sat in a car seat when we were infants. Thank goodness for changing times, more research, new technology, all of it.