About a month ago I decided to start the search for a new car seat for Adwen, as she was nearing 20 lbs and 1 year old. How excited I was to get her forward facing. Well, the result of my research did not end with a new car seat for Addie. Instead, Eva has a new car seat and she is again rear-facing. We actually bought a new car, one big enough for Eva to rear face in for at least another year- probably more, until she is four or five. And when Adwen grows out of her infant carrier, she'll get a seat just like Eva's and also face back for the next three or four years. Why? It came down to this for me, kids are 500% safer rear facing. In Sweden, they have almost 100% use of rear-facing car seats for kids until they are 4 and as a result their mortality rate for children under 4 in car accidents is nearly ZERO. Between 1992 and 1997 there were only 9 deaths in the whole country. I found most of my information on this Swedish website: http://www.carseat.se
Now, I am one to get on the bandwagon in my own head frequently, in conversation on occasion, but on my blog... well never. But this, well, watch the video. It speaks volumes.
And just so you know, Eva thinks it's cool to face backward again. She doesn't mind having her legs bent one little bit, even for long trips. That's only something old knees mind, it turns out.
Another note - we bought the Sunshine Kids Radian car seat for Eva. We bought this one because it has the longest back and the highest weight capacity - allowing for the longest time rear-facing of all American sold car seats. We chose this one for Eva because she is already three (and the base of her Britax was breaking). Because of the long back, it won't fit in most cars - fits great in a minivan, but wouldn't work in the Sub, by a long shot. However, a Britax seat would work. So I'm saying all this to let you know that buying a new car is not a part of the rear-facing package.
So, you can turn your kids around when they are 1 year old and 20lbs- OR you can keep them rear-facing. It's at least worth your consideration.
2 comments:
Totally understand! I kept Dillan that way for a long time in his Britax Marathon. He is forward facing now, but my ease...but we don't drive a whole lot. It amazes me how many 3 - 5 yr olds aren't in carseats to begin with even though it is the law. Shocks me really. Dillan will outgrow his Marathon in height long before weight and at that point we are considering a Frontier.
We are looking at getting a new car seat for our almost 1 year old. Do you still like the Radian seat? Also did you find that it was difficult to install correctly?
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