Keep you pre-schooler in a 5 point harness carseat!

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Yup, here in Canada they’re promoting the use of rear-facing as well until your child outgrows the limits of rear facing, not just when they turn 1. That is why I got a 3-in-1 that can support a bigger and heavier child rear facing, and keep it rear-facing until its time to face forward. Then keep it at stage 2 until again the child outgrows it before going to stage 3. Not just because a child gets older means he/she is big enough for the next level. Every child is different. I think the limits should always be height and weight, and age is to be considered only last.
 
After the new car seat recommendations came out I used them to convince my husband to turn my 15-month-old back around to rear facing. My family and friends all think I’m crazy, but I don’t care. They all said that he would cry and would hate to be rear-facing again, but it’s simply not true. He doesn’t mind any more than he minded the front-facing car seat. I realize every child is different, and some may mind, but he doesn’t, so some don’t. The simple fact is that I would rather him fuss than be injured, just like I’d rather him break his legs because they’re touching the seat (which is highly unlikely) than break his neck while forward-facing because he’s not ready to handle that kind of impact.
 
My incredibly tall 18 Month old doesn’t fit into her seat when it is rear facing anymore. Her poor little legs are bent up to her chin.
 
My 5 year old and 3 year old are still rear facing. They sit indian style and have never complained.

My 7 year old is still in a 5 point harness.
 
I have a hard time believing there is an 18 month old who can’t fit RF when I have seen 4 and 5 yr olds rear facing…

Could it be that you just think they look uncomfortable?
 
I turned both of my kids front facing at 1 and they survived. The reason we hear about these stories of children being thrown and killed is because it is so rare. I am sorry for the family, but if the car seat was properly installed and the child properly buckled in, it would not have been an issue.

I have heard of accidents where a person was rear ending with such force that the items in the trunk came through the back seat and impalled the rear-facing child and killed them and the EMTs said that if the child had been front facing the seat would have protected them and they would have survived.

A 3 yr old is not supposed to be in a booster seat. The booster seat was designed for older children who have outgrown the strapes on a traditional car seat.
 
I turned both of my kids front facing at 1 and they survived. The reason we hear about these stories of children being thrown and killed is because it is so rare. I am sorry for the family, but if the car seat was properly installed and the child properly buckled in, it would not have been an issue.

I have heard of accidents where a person was rear-ended with such force that the items in the trunk came through the back seat and impalled the rear-facing child and killed them and the EMTs said that if the child had been front facing the seat would have protected them and they would have survived.

A 3 yr old is not supposed to be in a booster seat. The booster seat was designed for older children who have outgrown the strapes on a traditional car seat.
 
Maureen1125 said:
I turned both of my kids front facing at 1 and they survived. The reason we hear about these stories of children being thrown and killed is because it is so rare. I am sorry for the family, but if the car seat was properly installed and the child properly buckled in, it would not have been an issue.

I have heard of accidents where a person was rear-ended with such force that the items in the trunk came through the back seat and impalled the rear-facing child and killed them and the EMTs said that if the child had been front facing the seat would have protected them and they would have survived.

A 3 yr old is not supposed to be in a booster seat. The booster seat was designed for older children who have outgrown the strapes on a traditional car seat.
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Were they involved in a car accident?

I sat on my mom’s lap in the front seat with no seat-belts, I survived – but we never had a car accident. 🤷
 
Maureen1125 said:
I turned both of my kids front facing at 1 and they survived. The reason we hear about these stories of children being thrown and killed is because it is so rare. I am sorry for the family, but if the car seat was properly installed and the child properly buckled in, it would not have been an issue.
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No, the reason we are hearing about this is because when children are forward-facing, they face a high risk of internal decapitation in the most common type of accident.

Much easier to fix a broken leg than a broken neck.

This has NOTHING to do with the seat being installed wrong, or the child not being buckled, and everything to do with the type of accident.

And you’re right about the booster seats. Three-year-olds should be in 5-point harnesses and rear-facing. Most countries in Europe mandate that children rear-face until four or five.
 
kristacecilia said:
My 5 year old and 3 year old are still rear facing. They sit indian style and have never complained.

My 7 year old is still in a 5 point harness.
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What car seat is your 7 year old using? I’d like to know b/c I need to buy a bigger 5 point harness seat.
 
Maureen1125 said:
I turned both of my kids front facing at 1 and they survived. The reason we hear about these stories of children being thrown and killed is because it is so rare. I am sorry for the family, but if the car seat was properly installed and the child properly buckled in, it would not have been an issue.

I have heard of accidents where a person was rear-ended with such force that the items in the trunk came through the back seat and impalled the rear-facing child and killed them and the EMTs said that if the child had been front facing the seat would have protected them and they would have survived.

A 3 yr old is not supposed to be in a booster seat. The booster seat was designed for older children who have outgrown the strapes on a traditional car seat.
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I know an adult who survived a car accident b/c he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and otherwise would have been stabbed in the neck by an iron rod that when through his windowshield. He instead fractured his skull bc he hit his head against his dashboard.

I survived sitting in the front seat of a car without a seatbelt as a pre-schooler. I survived lying in back window of our car b/c it was fun (at age 6).

Why am I still alive? Because we never had a car accident when I was a kid 🤷

These carseats and recommendations have come out because of dire and incredibly sad statistics.
 
pentecostbaby said:
No, the reason we are hearing about this is because when children are forward-facing, they face a high risk of internal decapitation in the most common type of accident.

Much easier to fix a broken leg than a broken neck.

This has NOTHING to do with the seat being installed wrong, or the child not being buckled, and everything to do with the type of accident.

And you’re right about the booster seats. Three-year-olds should be in 5-point harnesses and rear-facing. Most countries in Europe mandate that children rear-face until four or five.
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This is absolutely right. Internal decapitation happens b/c the child’s spine is not completely fused from the neck to the rest of the body. I very hard impact, sends the little guy’s body forward at such a high speed, that his ill formed spine cannot yet handle it.

It takes 2 years for the spine to correctly fuse. This is why we are told to rear face until 24 months.

I did it with my DD until she was 22 months. I’m lucky that she has never been in a high impact collision.
 
pentecostbaby said:
Three-year-olds should be in 5-point harnesses and rear-facing. Most countries in Europe mandate that children rear-face until four or five.
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Which countries mandate this? I’m just curious. This is all news to me.

Here I was last week contemplating which booster seat to buy my DD and then after doing a lot of research and talking to moms on CAF, there is no way in HELL that I will put my DD in a booster seat for at least 2.5 - 4 years!!!
 
I don’t have any kids, but I was a nanny and I agree with maureen. There are HORRIBLE news stories EVERYWHERE. You can’t do everything. One of the kids (about two) that came over to play had a HORRIBLE scar over half his face…it looked as if he had been burned with acid. Turns out the kid had tripped over a speck of dust while running on his low pile hypo-allerginic carpet and skidded on his face, causing rugburn…it scabbed over…which he picked at…and caused scars.

Yes they come on the “dire” statitics…that it would be “better” but again, there are many variables. No one plans for a car accident, but saying that all these deaths are all the fault of the seats is not very smart, either.

A three year old should be in a car seat, not a booster seat, everyone agrees on that. The parents were negligant. No two ways about it.

Rear-facing seats may be safer Europe. They don’t SUV’s like we do here, and there large cars have less “nose”. If you have a small car a rear-facing toddler or preschooler is very close to the back glass of the a small car. With so many larger cars on the road this IS a danger. They also drive at MUCH higher speeds than we do in America. There’s lots of variables.
 
purplesunshine said:
I don’t have any kids, but I was a nanny and I agree with maureen. There are HORRIBLE news stories EVERYWHERE. You can’t do everything. One of the kids (about two) that came over to play had a HORRIBLE scar over half his face…it looked as if he had been burned with acid. Turns out the kid had tripped over a speck of dust while running on his low pile hypo-allerginic carpet and skidded on his face, causing rugburn…it scabbed over…which he picked at…and caused scars.

Yes they come on the “dire” statitics…that it would be “better” but again, there are many variables. No one plans for a car accident, but saying that all these deaths are all the fault of the seats is not very smart, either.

A three year old should be in a car seat, not a booster seat, everyone agrees on that. The parents were negligant. No two ways about it.

Rear-facing seats may be safer Europe. They don’t SUV’s like we do here, and there large cars have less “nose”. If you have a small car a rear-facing toddler or preschooler is very close to the back glass of the a small car. With so many larger cars on the road this IS a danger. They also drive at MUCH higher speeds than we do in America. There’s lots of variables.
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all due respects to you as an intelligent woman, I completely disagree with you. They have performed many test crashes using carseats and have come to some very conclusive recommendations as a result.

We don’t need traffic lights to cross the road, but using them is a heck of a lot safer.
 
Serap said:
I know an adult who survived a car accident b/c he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and otherwise would have been stabbed in the neck by an iron rod that when through his windowshield. He instead fractured his skull bc he hit his head against his dashboard.

I survived sitting in the front seat of a car without a seatbelt as a pre-schooler. I survived lying in back window of our car b/c it was fun (at age 6). Why am I still alive? Because we never had a car accident when I was a kid 🤷

These carseats and recommendations have come out because of dire and incredibly sad statistics.
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You did that too? That was DS’s spot when he was small.

I sat in the package part of a stationwagon, with 3 other kids once…
 
QUESTION FOR MOM’S AND DAD’S WITH OLDER CHILDREN IN 5 POINT HARNESS:

Which carseat did you go with and why? I am looking for a new seat for my DD who’s turning 4 this August. She is currently 16 inches sitting height and weighs 36.5 lbs.

My options so far are the Britax Frontier, Sunshine Kids Radian 80SL and the Graco Nautilus.

The issue I have currently with Graco Nautilus is that it has not had extensive side impact crash testing. I am not leaning towards it for this reason. It also does not have true side impact protection built into it when compared to the other 2.

I have read that the Radian doesn’t have the head support for sleeping that the Frontier has, so it’s not as comfortable. BUT, the Radian sits lower, so it’s good for a growing child.

The Frontier sits very high…I keep banging my DD’s head when I put her in her current Britax Marathon. But, the Frontier has had extensive side impact testing since Britax has a comprehensive testing facility that Radian and Graco don’t have. The only issue though, is that all testing is done by the manufacturer and is not standardized by the governement.

Which one have you gone with? I live in Canada, so these are my options right now.

THANKS!!!
 
Mary_Gail_36 said:
You did that too? That was DS’s spot when he was small.

I sat in the package part of a stationwagon, with 3 other kids once…
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I used to LOVE sitting in the back of a pick-up truck!!! AHHH the good old days 😃
 
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