Question on rear facing car seat??

Question

Hello...

My 10 month old is in a convertible car seat facing backwards.. She absolutely hates it and screams no matter where we go. She is a great litter girl and is generally well mannered. She just started doing this, and I've tried to keep her occupied in the car with her favorite music, toys, etc... nothing makes her stop. I truely think she hates facing backwards. I know the regulations are as follows:

rear facing until:

1 year of age

20 lbs

Do they have to be both or just meet one??

And if its both can you please help me with some ideas on how to make our traveling more enjoyable?

Answer 1

they are suppose to be both. but my daughter was 25 lbs at 9-10 months. (mostly because of height) and i turned her seat around then. i was pulled over and the police man had stated that babies necks/bodies aren't much different between 10 months and one anyhow. so its tech illegal but i still did it anyhow. i guess you could call me a bad parent but hey.  

Answer 2

She has to be a year old AND twenty lbs.  We have a great toy made from Baby Einstein that is a mirrow/toy for our son.  It is shaped like a catapillar and has a remote to keep up front with you.  When he kicks it or when we turn it on the lights will flash and it will play music and do colors and counting with him.  Good luck though.

Answer 3

Yes, both requirements must be met.

As far as making the travel more enjoyable, you can try posting pictures or photos for her to look at, also.  If you're already doing toys, music, and talking with her, I'm not sure that there's going to be another remedy.  If she just started doing this, she might just suddenly stop one day, too.  Just remember that it's not worth compromising her safety for anything.

Answer 4

This is a question on safety.

I give my son Mum Mums if he doesn't want to sit. Try a cracker or something to divert her attention. I like table water crackers best!

Answer 5

They only have to meet one. My children were all out of the rear facing seat by 9 months.  

Answer 6

I'm 95% sure it has to be both, 1 yr AND 20 lbs.

My baby, 13 mo, screams non stop in the car seat too.  Snacks or having someone ride in the back seat to entertain him helps.  I have been trying to fatten him up.  lol  Good Luck!!  

  

Answer 7

Some kids get motion sickness if not facing forward and now they are able to verbalize it. it's a sensory thing. Could it be that cars bother her when they are driving by. try covering the windows

Answer 8

It could be the seat she's in. What kind of seat does she have? Is she still in the infant seat? At this point she ought to be in a rear facing covnertible car seat. Is she at a 45 degree angle? That could be part of the problem, too. Only newborns have to be at the 45 degree angle. Once babies can sit up and hold their heads up they can be 30-45 degrees, sitting in a more upright position. Once they are older babies, older than 6 months, they often dislike being in a laying down position all the time. Sit her up a little more so she can see out.

After making sure she's comfy in her seat at a more upright angle, then its all about distraction. Soft toys, kids music, even a DVD player if that's the last resort. It is a life or death decision to make - rear facing or forward facing. Its that big a deal.

In the foreground is a forward facing seat, in the background a rear facing seat. You can see how much trauma the forward facing dummy has to endure. The rear facing child simply rides it out.

http://www.oeamtc.at/netautor/html_seite...

Here's another video. You can see how there is NO trauma to the baby, it simply sits there waiting for it to end.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v163/j...

The old 20lbs/1 year rule is just that. OLD. It came about in the 1980's when our seats were only capable of rear facing to 20lbs and we didn't know any better. Now we definitely know better and all current convertible seats rear face to at least 30lbs, but its hard getting people to realize this.

Turning kids forward at 20lbs/1year is an outdated practice that could cost you your child's life!

1)A forward-facing child under 2 years old is 5 times more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a crash than a rear-facing child of the same age.

2)A child's vertabrae do not fully fuse until 3-6 years old, before then, she is at great risk for internal decapitation. The spinal column can stretch up to 2 inches in a crash BUT the spinal cord can only stretch up to 1/4 inch before it snaps and baby is gone.

3)Current research suggests that children under the age of two years are 75 percent less likely to die or be seriously injured when they are riding rear facing.

4)In a recent article from Injury Prevention, it was found that the odds of severe injury to forward facing children age 12-23 months old was 5.32 times higher than a rear facing child. (Car Safety Seats For Children: Rear Facing For Best Protection; Injury Prevention 2007; 13:398-402.)

It works this way: when you get in an accident and run into something, the car stop suddently, but everything and everyone in the car keeps moving in the direction the car was moving when it stopped, in most accidents, this is forward. So in an accident with a child in a forward facing seat, his head, the heaviest part of the body on babies and toddlers, flies forward very forcefully and easily snaps. If that same child is in a rear facing seat, his head tries to fly forward but is supported by the back of the rear facing seat, so there is no stress put on the child's neck and spine.

Check out this photo album exclusively of rear facing kids, many of them much older than 12 months: http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbum...  There isn't a single documented case of a child breaking their legs b/c they were rear facing in an accident. There are, however, lots of cases where children have been killed and seriously injured where a rear facing seat would have protected them better. And  most kids actually prefer to be rear facing b/c they can rest their feet on the vehicle seat back. When they are forward facing, their legs don't receive enough support and will frequently fall asleep.

Answer 9

Both.  

Some kids just hate their car seats and there's not much you can do about it.  Make sure she's as comfortable as possible.  Offer her one of those little pillows and her favorite blanket while traveling.  Other than that, find a radio station that you love and learn to sing along with her yelps.  lol.  

Answer 10

If your baby is 20lbs I'd put her front facing.

We switched my daughter's car seat after the 1 yr mark, because she wasnt quite 20lbs! She's 19mos and 23lbs!!

As long as she's well strapped and your carseat is well secured I'd say go for it. She's almost a 1 anyways. She probably wants to see the world. And you!

This is MY opinion, anyways!

best of Luck!

Answer 11

They have to be both.  My daughter is already 2'5 and 20lbs and she's only 8 months old.  We will keep her rear-facing even though she's so big until a year.  Its the law.

Answer 12

my son is 8 months and weighs 19 Lbs. He rides forward in the back seat only.

Answer 13

BOTH by law in most places.  And that is only a bare minimum.

Are you sure the seat itself is physically comfortable for her?  Remember she is going to be in it until at least age 4 so if this is not the right seat for her it may be worth investing in a new one.  It might be worth getting your friends to drive her around in some other kids seats (properly adjusted of course)

I have an Alpha Omega aka Eddie Bauer aka Costco and a Evenflo Triump Advance and the Evenflo wins hands down and is about 30% less in price.  I am actually considering buying a second one and ditching the eddie bauer.

http://www.carseat.org/Technical/tech_up...

Rear-facing vs. forward-facing

Safety experts and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children remain rear-facing as long as possible and never travel forward-facing before they are 1 year old and also weigh at least 20 pounds to reduce the risk of serious neck injury and lifelong disability. All new convertible seats available today allow a child to remain rear-facing until they weigh up to 30 or 35 lb, depending on the model.

When the child is rear-facing, the head, neck, and thorax are restrained together by the back of the CR in a frontal crash. There is little or no relative motion between the head and torso that could load the neck. If the same child were facing forward, the harness would restrain the torso, but the head and neck would pull and rotate forward, leading to the potential for serious upper spinal injury.

There are many misunderstandings and misconceptions about rear-facing vs. forward-facing that lead even the best intentioned parent or pediatrician to believe a child is "safe" facing forward when he is still very young. These come from obsolete ideas and advice that may still appear in older pamphlets and pediatric literature and are not the current recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Real-world experience has also shown that a young child's skull can be literally ripped from her spine by the force of a crash. The body is being held in place, but the head is not. When a child is facing rearward, the head is cradled and moves in unison with the body, so that there is little or no relative motion that might pull on the connecting neck.

The most common misunderstanding is that a child is ready to travel facing forward when his neck muscles are strong enough to support and control his head. However, when a car hits something at 25 to 30 mph, it will come to a stop at a negative acceleration rate of from 20 to 30 G. Because of the time lag between when the vehicle stops and an occupant stops, and the fact that the head of a forward-facing adult or child is still free to move relative to the restrained torso, the head may experience as much as 60 or 70 Gs acceleration for a brief moment. Even the strong neck muscles of military volunteers cannot counteract such forces. Instead, the rigidity of the bones in the neck and strength of the connecting ligaments (not the muscles) hold the adult spine together and keep the spinal cord intact within the confines of the vertebral column.

Very young children, however, have immature vertebrae that are still partly made of cartilage. These are soft and will deform and/or separate under tension, leaving just the spinal cord as the last link between the head and the torso. According to documented research, autopsy specimens of infant spines and ligaments allow for spinal column elongation of up to two inches, but the spinal cord ruptures if stretched more than 1/4 inch. Real-world experience has shown that a young child's skull can be literally ripped from her spine by the force of a crash.

Another aspect of the facing-direction issue that is often overlooked is the additional benefit a child gains in a side impact. Crash testing and field experience have both shown that the head of a child facing rearward is captured by the child restraint shell in side and frontal-oblique crashes, while that of a forward-facing child may be thrown forward, around, and outside the confines of the side wings. Field data show better outcomes for rear-facing children than forward-facing children, even though most CRs are not specifically designed to protect children in side impact.

Some older convertible CRs indicated in their instructions that a child should face forward when her feet touch the vehicle seatback or when the legs must be bent due to lack of space. This prohibition is not justified by any crash experience or any laboratory evidence, and these instructions have now been revised. There have not been any crashes documented in which rear-facing children sustained leg injuries because they were rear-facing. Even if this were the case, broken legs are easier to fix than broken necks. The only physical limit on rear-facing use is when the child's head approaches the top of the restraint shell (see Height and weight limits). At this point, she should be moved to a rear-facing convertible restraint, or, if the child is already using one and is over one year, to its forward-facing configuration.

There are no magical or visible signals to tell parents, pediatricians, or technicians when the risk of facing forward in a crash is sufficiently low to turn the child around. In an international research and crash review conducted several years ago, the data seemed to show a change in outcome at about 12 months between severe consequences and more moderate consequences for the rare events of injury to young children facing forward in a CR. At the time, one year old was useful as a simple benchmark, but now the message is to keep the child facing rearward as long as possible within the weight and height limits of the CR. This may be as long as 18 to 24 months.

Parents and pediatricians need to know what the real reasons for extending the rear-facing period, in order to be able to make an informed judgment. For research documentation, see Weber, 2000. See also Rear-facing child restraint. (7/06)

Answer 14

They have to met both that is the law.  If you are pulled over and breaking that law you can get charges of child endangerment.  My cousin actually did get pulled over for speeding and the cop asked about her son and he was 11 months old and 20 lbs and he made her get out and flip his carseat rearfacing (good thing it was convertable) because law states they must be 20 lbs AND 1 year old atleast in order to be faced forward.  Many states are now working to change that law to 35 lbs instead but so far my state is still in hold mode for the new law which i am glad because my son is almost 4 years old and 31 lbs and i know he couldn't stand being rearfacing.  

Answer 15

In some states it's 1 year AND 20 lbs, in others it's one or the other. Here's the deal: studies have proven that rear facing seats are the safest, regardless of whether your child is 20 lbs or 50 lbs. It's not feasible for a 50 lb child to sit backwards comfortably in the seat, which is why most seats go to rear facing until 33 or 35 lbs. The likelihood of your child becoming internally decapitated in a crash when forward facing is staggeringly high. Your child rear facing would fare much better and would not be decapitated. I've seen 3, 4, even small 5 year olds rear facing. They sit cross legged and don't complain of leg cramps or pain in their legs--remember that children are much more flexible than adults are and are comfortable with their legs crossed. Plus, which is easier to fix? Your child's decapitation or your child's broken leg? Don't switch her around--you'd be taking a major risk that you'd feel so guilty for if you did get into a bad accident and she didn't make it. Hang a mirror so she can see you, or just deal with her crying. She may just find the new seat to be not as comfy as the old one. Eventually, she'll get over it and learn to deal. Again, which would you prefer--a crying baby or a dead one? (sorry for being harsh, but it's the truth)

Is the sun shining in at a new angle? That could be the problem, too. Make sure she has a decent shade hanging. Maybe the mirror is the problem--maybe she's mad because she can see you and you're not entertaining her. I'd go with some hanging toys or just leave her be.

Answer 16

It has to be whichever comes LAST. If she's 14 months and 16 lbs, she's facing backwards. Same if she's 11 months and 22lbs. They all hate it at this age and throw huge fits. Can you put a mirror there for her to look at? Sometimes that amuses them for awhile.  

Answer 17

Have you tried putting a mirror where she can see herself?

As a bonus, you'll be able to see her in your mirror that way also.

Answer 18

I am wondering if your infant seat is sitting at a 45% angle? Here is a link that can help you further:www,car-seat.org. This website has car seat tech on the message board who can help you further. The neat thing is that you do not have to sign up to ask a question.