YESSSSSS!!! Just the ERF advocate I wanted to see. We need more people with a platform to send this message out to parents 👏🏻 we just need to get the law on board now 🙄
Good thing the swedish seats have made their way into the rest of Europe. I'm getting quite a lot of weird looks with my 4 1/2 YO rearfacing (and about a year until he maxes out his seats).
This is a fantastic video Bryony! My husband and I were so glad for all the information you gave and how you explained it too. I can see so many benefits to ERF and it’s definitely helped to inform us better! Thank you ❤
Just want to add some reassurance for people who are going to need to move the seat between cars but can’t afford the isofix seats; I have an axkid minikid and once the tethers were in situ and I’d practiced once or twice I can now uninstall and reinstall my seat within a couple of minutes. It’s tricky on first attempt because it’s not something we’re used to, but once you know what you’re doing it doesn’t take long at all!
I’m so happy you made this video! I wish more parents knew the safety behind extended rear facing car seats! I did extend rear facing with my daughter who will be 19 in May as well as my son who’s 10! My son has always been under the 10% for height and weight! He’s 10 like I mentioned and he’s only just gotten to 130 Centimetres in the last couple months! Because of his lil size he’s still in a car seat however now it’s the booster seat! I have a friend that just switched her daughter to a high back booster and she’s only 4 😢! She also switched her to forwards facing at age one! I asked her why she was switching her so soon and her response was “it’s so much easier “…no mention of safety at all 😢! I know every parent has the right to their own opinion and choice on what they chose for their kiddos! I just wish more parents knew the safety protocols etc! We live in Canada and I think they either recommended the child can forward face at 1 years or 2! I turned my daughter at 3.5 years and my son was closer to age 5! He’s only been in the high back booster for maybe 2 years maybe a lil less! My babies are my everything and of course is keeping them as safe as possible as long as possible ❤! Sorry for the long babble! Happy belated birthday 🥳 to your Amazing lil man and happy 1 year of breastfeeding 🤱 such an accomplishment Beautiful Mama ❤!
As an American I find this very eye opening. Children here reach front facing age between 1 and 3 years and often by 2 years, so we usually only associate rear facing carseats with infants. I've never even thought about why they should face forward so soon while they can still fit facing the rear, aside from the fact that perhaps its easier to see them and monitor them while driving. This is a good thing to keep in mind for when I eventually have children.
The ENHTSA, CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics all recommend rear facing until ages 3-4. American CPST consider 4 the gold standard but encourage extended beyond if they seat allows for it. The issue is people so what they want. There’s no enforcement, only suggestions. Also (as far as I know) there aren’t loads of extended rearfacing carseats in the American market that safely allow for older kids to stay in the extended seat. I can only think of a handful with higher weight and height limits (beyond 45 inches and 50 pounds). So while a petite child would be fine, a larger or taller child would max out in the seat and it would no longer be safe. We don’t (yet) have a seat like the one featured in the video on the American market.
Actually it's recommended to rear face for as long as possible here. My son is 2 and a half and have no plans to forward face for the foreseeable future.
I'm in South Africa and we use European style seats. And I'm so glad my son is small (petite), he's almost 19m and weights 10.3kg.. So I'm sure he'll be able to stay in his seat rear facing for quite some time still. My friend asked me today why I don't forward face him, and I said because it's SO MUCH safer rear facing.
These conversations both make me laugh and fill me with guilt. My 2.5 year old has almost maxed out her ERF convertible seat (in Canada) and I don't have the option to rearface her any longer, even if this was a hill I was willing to die on. My 17mo is almost the same height and will be forward facing even sooner. Both of them have very long torsos and already weigh over 35 lbs. I'm so happy for people who are able to ERF their kids... but I have giant babies lol
I’m in Canada too! Have you checked out the Graco extend 2 fit car seat? It was very high rear racing limits! Totally get if you aren’t wanting to purchase a new seat though. That’s totally fair.
@@hannahfoster7941 we have Clek Foonfs right now, and both of my kids will out-height these seats before they hit the weight limits. The Graco Extend2Fit are too wide to fit in the same spots in the vehicle and allow a 3-across installation, and I don't think they will provide any more torso height than the Foonfs do.
We have the joie i-spin 360 and it can rear face up to 4 years and we plan to. It has i size ECE R 129 testing. Includes 32 sensors. I hope this is a good enough amount of testing. My older 2 children forward faced from 15 months because i didnt know better and back then there wasnt many options of car seats. Thank god they are ok and we didnt get into any serious accidents!
I wanted to do ERF but my child is a tank. He is not 3.5 yet and is over 41 inches (over 104 cm) and at 47.2 pounds (over 21 kg) he is at or over the max on most seats where I live to rear face. I had to turn him early. I had good intentions, but for some it is not feasible. I do advocate for it tho.
My son is super high centiles, highly recommend the BeSafe Stretch which rear faces to 36kg. Super easy to install once the tethers are in. I regularly switch between two cars and have a set of tethers in each so can move it really fast x
Car seat safety for kids has come such a long way since I was little. I remember my little brother front-facing far below 1 year of age, because he was a big baby and had exceeded the 9 kg weight limit of the baby seat very early. It's easy to say "but we survived and turned out fine" but that isn't fair to all the babies that didn't.
As a kid (and still now) I loved sitting all pretzeled-up. I still put my legs up on the armrests of my armchair when I wanna be cozy 😂 As a kid I hated being in the car seat for longer amounts of time, because I could never get cozy or fall asleep in it because it was basically sqeaky plastic with a thin coat of foam padding and my legs dangled off the seat in mid-air. Maybe if I'd had an ERF seat, I would have been one of these kids that slept on late car journeys.
Hi from Au! I’m pretty sure we have to turn at 4, and that’s what I’m going for with my twins. They are 3 tomorrow, and very happily and comfortably rear facing, they don’t even reach the first marker yet to ‘legally’ turn around. Knowledge is power, 18 and 15 years ago with my eldest we turned at 6 months, ‘when they could hold their heads up’ absolutely makes me cringe. I think it’s accepted here, but not the norm, jmo. Thanks for a great and informative video! x
Great topic! My kid has super long legs even at 3 so im not sure how that could work w us. I did leave her facing backwards a lot longer than is reccomended in US but thats because i have adhd and PPD so i just didnt know it was time to turn the seat around yet. I did ensure that i got a really good carseat that has full impact testing.
Legal in my state in the US is 1 year old my son is 2 1/2 and still rear facing and he has a while still until he reaches the max limits Legal doesn’t equal safe
My son is 4 and i really want to keep him rear facing but when he's facing backwards he gets horrible car sickness. Does anyone have any tips because he doesn't get sick at all forward facing, ive tried sea bands, fresh air, sickness tablets etc. 😫
I turned my oldest forward facing a month or so after turning 5, it was so scary (still is) to have her in a booster after so many years rear facing 😅😅
I really wish I'd known that some seats had such high limits before I bought my seats because my kids maxed out the 18kg weight limit on ours at 2.5 years. I ended up having to turn them way before I wanted as we couldn't afford to replace them.
We have a spin seat that is only used rear facing my son is barely 13kg at 4 now so he's going to be in it till 7 rear facing before he's even close to 18kg! In glad he's so small because I wouldn't want to shell out on the 25/36kg seats that costs hundreds
I wish I could do that, you can’t rear face past 2 years in Australia 😢 my son is very tall though (literally above the 100th percentile on the growth chart for height, his bio dad was almost 6ft6in so he is very tall) so he outgrew the capsule and the rear facing configuration in his car seat a hood while before 18 months, I was terrified to forward face him, but could have gotten in trouble if I didn’t had I been pulled over.
That’s not actually accurate. Here in aus they must rear face until 6 months, then rear or forward face from 6 months to 4 years, then forward face in a car seat or approved booster seat from 4 to 7 years
Yeah, they don't make rear facing seats this big in America. Once they're able to talk, they face the front. If we could make rear facing booster seats made for toddlers and young kiddos until age 8, that would make ERF much easier and more normalized, but it's just not an option right now for many parents.
@@cloudedcolour5329 oh good! I seriously have never, ever seen them or seen them advertised. It's sad. I weighed 50lbs until I was 9 or 10, I was a very tiny kid, but even I was in a front facing infant seat at around 2 years of age. Injury to the muscles of the neck is more likely with certain genetics, including mine (hypermobility), so much better to be safe and know how to be safe.
@@oldasyouromens the more you know the better equipped you are to make a informed descision but I would personally not forward face untill atleast 4 when the spine is matured enough to withstand a serious accident
@@cloudedcolour5329 yeah I am very pro-preventative postpartum care for parents, and that extends to anyone under my care as well. I know how painful a dislocated spine is and would never wish that on a small child.
Such a fast talker i cant read the subtitles fast enough to keep up lol. Maybe 2 videos slowed down would have been better (rear facing in general then your chosen seat and features of it in a separate video).
@@cal59281that's not going to work for the majority of Deaf or hard of hearing community. Anyone who needs a mix of sound and captions needs it at the original speed. Some people just talk way too fast. As ND myself I am aware I do and have to force myself to slow it down.
@@mandimoo87 her at 0.75 is pretty much a normal talking speed (doesn’t sound slow) and the captions slow down to match her talking. Even if it doesn’t work for everyone I’m sure someone will find that useful
@@cal59281 I will give it a try, I've slowed others down and it was really distorted audio. I listen but use the captions to make sure I don't miss anything, the audio delivers the intonation, emphasis etc (in Bre's case the classic gen z over exaggerated words for little reason and tons of vocal fry - a technique borrowed from our American friends)
Five years old rear facing?! No sorry, that won't work. Where will their legs go? They can have something that goes across the upper body where they don't go forward like that. I've seen a lot of videos of front facing older children and it did not look like this one in this video.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions of ERF. If you ask any child whose legs are long enough to rest on the back of the seat they will say it’s comfortable. You can also fit ERF car seats slightly further back on the base of the seat to allow additional leg room for the child (28cms to be exact) I know lots of children who have reached a safe height to forward face and they grizzled and moaned about not having anywhere to put their feet anymore and said it was uncomfortable. Children genuinely prefer it. Also, it is 5 times safer to rear face until they hit the height/weight limit simply because up until that point they can sustain fatal injuries in a collision. “The secret to change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but building the new”
@@Megan-ro3wi well my 3 year old started complaining about her legs after 20 min in her car seat. It was painful for her to sit in that position for a longer time.
@@ANNEM90 Have you moved it back for extra leg room? My 3 year old complains if I tell her to stay away from the hot oven in the kitchen or refuses to hold my hand near ponds/lakes while out walking but I don’t give in. I stay strong, parent her and explain that I’m doing it to keep her safe. I’d never give in and risk her getting seriously injured or in danger. Anyone who fully understands the dangers of FF would agree that the same applies in this scenario. But you do you. No one’s telling you what to do. You’re not the 3 year old. You’re the adult the 3 year old relies on to keep her safe x
kids find ways to sit that look ridiculously uncomfortable for us but work for them, plus alot of seats move now to allow for extra leg room but also you cannot add anything to a seat that doesnt come with it, so adding something 'across the chest so they don't move like that' not only isn't possible because, you know, physics and the fact the only place you could hold the head back is the forehead or throat but can actually make an injury 1000 times worse
YESSSSSS!!! Just the ERF advocate I wanted to see. We need more people with a platform to send this message out to parents 👏🏻 we just need to get the law on board now 🙄
Fascinating how different regulations are in different countries, here in Sweden toddlers up until 4 years old are required to sit rear facing.
Good thing the swedish seats have made their way into the rest of Europe. I'm getting quite a lot of weird looks with my 4 1/2 YO rearfacing (and about a year until he maxes out his seats).
This is a fantastic video Bryony! My husband and I were so glad for all the information you gave and how you explained it too. I can see so many benefits to ERF and it’s definitely helped to inform us better! Thank you ❤
Just want to add some reassurance for people who are going to need to move the seat between cars but can’t afford the isofix seats; I have an axkid minikid and once the tethers were in situ and I’d practiced once or twice I can now uninstall and reinstall my seat within a couple of minutes. It’s tricky on first attempt because it’s not something we’re used to, but once you know what you’re doing it doesn’t take long at all!
This was so informative! I don’t even have a child nor can I drive but I found it really interesting haha. Thank you Bryony :)
I’m so happy you made this video! I wish more parents knew the safety behind extended rear facing car seats! I did extend rear facing with my daughter who will be 19 in May as well as my son who’s 10! My son has always been under the 10% for height and weight! He’s 10 like I mentioned and he’s only just gotten to 130 Centimetres in the last couple months! Because of his lil size he’s still in a car seat however now it’s the booster seat!
I have a friend that just switched her daughter to a high back booster and she’s only 4 😢! She also switched her to forwards facing at age one! I asked her why she was switching her so soon and her response was “it’s so much easier “…no mention of safety at all 😢! I know every parent has the right to their own opinion and choice on what they chose for their kiddos! I just wish more parents knew the safety protocols etc!
We live in Canada and I think they either recommended the child can forward face at 1 years or 2! I turned my daughter at 3.5 years and my son was closer to age 5! He’s only been in the high back booster for maybe 2 years maybe a lil less! My babies are my everything and of course is keeping them as safe as possible as long as possible ❤! Sorry for the long babble! Happy belated birthday 🥳 to your Amazing lil man and happy 1 year of breastfeeding 🤱 such an accomplishment Beautiful Mama ❤!
As an American I find this very eye opening. Children here reach front facing age between 1 and 3 years and often by 2 years, so we usually only associate rear facing carseats with infants. I've never even thought about why they should face forward so soon while they can still fit facing the rear, aside from the fact that perhaps its easier to see them and monitor them while driving. This is a good thing to keep in mind for when I eventually have children.
The ENHTSA, CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics all recommend rear facing until ages 3-4. American CPST consider 4 the gold standard but encourage extended beyond if they seat allows for it.
The issue is people so what they want. There’s no enforcement, only suggestions.
Also (as far as I know) there aren’t loads of extended rearfacing carseats in the American market that safely allow for older kids to stay in the extended seat. I can only think of a handful with higher weight and height limits (beyond 45 inches and 50 pounds). So while a petite child would be fine, a larger or taller child would max out in the seat and it would no longer be safe.
We don’t (yet) have a seat like the one featured in the video on the American market.
Actually it's recommended to rear face for as long as possible here. My son is 2 and a half and have no plans to forward face for the foreseeable future.
I'm in South Africa and we use European style seats.
And I'm so glad my son is small (petite), he's almost 19m and weights 10.3kg.. So I'm sure he'll be able to stay in his seat rear facing for quite some time still.
My friend asked me today why I don't forward face him, and I said because it's SO MUCH safer rear facing.
These conversations both make me laugh and fill me with guilt. My 2.5 year old has almost maxed out her ERF convertible seat (in Canada) and I don't have the option to rearface her any longer, even if this was a hill I was willing to die on. My 17mo is almost the same height and will be forward facing even sooner. Both of them have very long torsos and already weigh over 35 lbs. I'm so happy for people who are able to ERF their kids... but I have giant babies lol
I’m in Canada too! Have you checked out the Graco extend 2 fit car seat? It was very high rear racing limits! Totally get if you aren’t wanting to purchase a new seat though. That’s totally fair.
@@hannahfoster7941 we have Clek Foonfs right now, and both of my kids will out-height these seats before they hit the weight limits. The Graco Extend2Fit are too wide to fit in the same spots in the vehicle and allow a 3-across installation, and I don't think they will provide any more torso height than the Foonfs do.
My kids a giant too. Bio father is 6 foot 8.
You do have options.
We have the joie i-spin 360 and it can rear face up to 4 years and we plan to. It has i size ECE R 129 testing. Includes 32 sensors. I hope this is a good enough amount of testing. My older 2 children forward faced from 15 months because i didnt know better and back then there wasnt many options of car seats. Thank god they are ok and we didnt get into any serious accidents!
Thank you for this I'm sending this to my mum because she argues with me about this and I'm not very good at explaining it!
I wanted to do ERF but my child is a tank. He is not 3.5 yet and is over 41 inches (over 104 cm) and at 47.2 pounds (over 21 kg) he is at or over the max on most seats where I live to rear face. I had to turn him early. I had good intentions, but for some it is not feasible. I do advocate for it tho.
i feel you on this my toddler is not 3 yet and she’s super tall for her age 100cm. it’s super frustrating
My son is super high centiles, highly recommend the BeSafe Stretch which rear faces to 36kg. Super easy to install once the tethers are in. I regularly switch between two cars and have a set of tethers in each so can move it really fast x
@@CK-zk3rp we can’t buy that seat where I live. Any seats bought that are not certified in my country are illegal to use.
I did ERF too, as long as I could! People thought I was nuts.
Car seat safety for kids has come such a long way since I was little. I remember my little brother front-facing far below 1 year of age, because he was a big baby and had exceeded the 9 kg weight limit of the baby seat very early. It's easy to say "but we survived and turned out fine" but that isn't fair to all the babies that didn't.
As a kid (and still now) I loved sitting all pretzeled-up. I still put my legs up on the armrests of my armchair when I wanna be cozy 😂 As a kid I hated being in the car seat for longer amounts of time, because I could never get cozy or fall asleep in it because it was basically sqeaky plastic with a thin coat of foam padding and my legs dangled off the seat in mid-air. Maybe if I'd had an ERF seat, I would have been one of these kids that slept on late car journeys.
I had never heard of this before, thank you!
Hi from Au! I’m pretty sure we have to turn at 4, and that’s what I’m going for with my twins. They are 3 tomorrow, and very happily and comfortably rear facing, they don’t even reach the first marker yet to ‘legally’ turn around. Knowledge is power, 18 and 15 years ago with my eldest we turned at 6 months, ‘when they could hold their heads up’ absolutely makes me cringe. I think it’s accepted here, but not the norm, jmo. Thanks for a great and informative video! x
Great topic! My kid has super long legs even at 3 so im not sure how that could work w us. I did leave her facing backwards a lot longer than is reccomended in US but thats because i have adhd and PPD so i just didnt know it was time to turn the seat around yet. I did ensure that i got a really good carseat that has full impact testing.
This was really helpful and informative. Thank you 😊
Legal in my state in the US is 1 year old my son is 2 1/2 and still rear facing and he has a while still until he reaches the max limits
Legal doesn’t equal safe
In aus we can only Rf till a Max of 4, we don't have seats to accommodate any older
Similar in America unless you have a petite child. Our carseats are also very different (chest clips) so they aren’t tested by the Swedish Standard.
My son is 4 and i really want to keep him rear facing but when he's facing backwards he gets horrible car sickness. Does anyone have any tips because he doesn't get sick at all forward facing, ive tried sea bands, fresh air, sickness tablets etc. 😫
I turned my oldest forward facing a month or so after turning 5, it was so scary (still is) to have her in a booster after so many years rear facing 😅😅
I really wish I'd known that some seats had such high limits before I bought my seats because my kids maxed out the 18kg weight limit on ours at 2.5 years. I ended up having to turn them way before I wanted as we couldn't afford to replace them.
We have a spin seat that is only used rear facing my son is barely 13kg at 4 now so he's going to be in it till 7 rear facing before he's even close to 18kg! In glad he's so small because I wouldn't want to shell out on the 25/36kg seats that costs hundreds
I wish I could do that, you can’t rear face past 2 years in Australia 😢 my son is very tall though (literally above the 100th percentile on the growth chart for height, his bio dad was almost 6ft6in so he is very tall) so he outgrew the capsule and the rear facing configuration in his car seat a hood while before 18 months, I was terrified to forward face him, but could have gotten in trouble if I didn’t had I been pulled over.
That’s not actually accurate. Here in aus they must rear face until 6 months, then rear or forward face from 6 months to 4 years, then forward face in a car seat or approved booster seat from 4 to 7 years
What if he outgrows the max for rear facing? My daughter just turned 5 and over the max for weight and right at the max dor height.
the largest RFing seat in the UK RF's to age 7/125cm, the aim of 5 is a good one
Yeah, they don't make rear facing seats this big in America. Once they're able to talk, they face the front. If we could make rear facing booster seats made for toddlers and young kiddos until age 8, that would make ERF much easier and more normalized, but it's just not an option right now for many parents.
yes they do, britax, babyark, nuna, graco all have 50lb plus options which can get you upto/past the 5 yr mark
@@cloudedcolour5329 oh good! I seriously have never, ever seen them or seen them advertised. It's sad. I weighed 50lbs until I was 9 or 10, I was a very tiny kid, but even I was in a front facing infant seat at around 2 years of age. Injury to the muscles of the neck is more likely with certain genetics, including mine (hypermobility), so much better to be safe and know how to be safe.
@@oldasyouromens the more you know the better equipped you are to make a informed descision but I would personally not forward face untill atleast 4 when the spine is matured enough to withstand a serious accident
@@cloudedcolour5329 yeah I am very pro-preventative postpartum care for parents, and that extends to anyone under my care as well. I know how painful a dislocated spine is and would never wish that on a small child.
@@oldasyouromens as someone who’s now had 4 shunts placed to siphon away fluid causing swelling around my spine ya it’s not fun
Any advice if your child throws up when rear facing 🫣 every time!
Same, current record is 4 in 45 minutes 😅
Have you tried window covers and providing them a distraction with music or a tablet to watch ?
Yes tablet and books are a no go with travel/ motion sickness 😔
Such a fast talker i cant read the subtitles fast enough to keep up lol. Maybe 2 videos slowed down would have been better (rear facing in general then your chosen seat and features of it in a separate video).
You change change the playback speed in your settings if you want to slow it down
@@cal59281that's not going to work for the majority of Deaf or hard of hearing community. Anyone who needs a mix of sound and captions needs it at the original speed. Some people just talk way too fast. As ND myself I am aware I do and have to force myself to slow it down.
@@mandimoo87
her at 0.75 is pretty much a normal talking speed (doesn’t sound slow) and the captions slow down to match her talking. Even if it doesn’t work for everyone I’m sure someone will find that useful
@@cal59281 I will give it a try, I've slowed others down and it was really distorted audio. I listen but use the captions to make sure I don't miss anything, the audio delivers the intonation, emphasis etc (in Bre's case the classic gen z over exaggerated words for little reason and tons of vocal fry - a technique borrowed from our American friends)
Five years old rear facing?! No sorry, that won't work. Where will their legs go? They can have something that goes across the upper body where they don't go forward like that. I've seen a lot of videos of front facing older children and it did not look like this one in this video.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions of ERF. If you ask any child whose legs are long enough to rest on the back of the seat they will say it’s comfortable. You can also fit ERF car seats slightly further back on the base of the seat to allow additional leg room for the child (28cms to be exact) I know lots of children who have reached a safe height to forward face and they grizzled and moaned about not having anywhere to put their feet anymore and said it was uncomfortable. Children genuinely prefer it. Also, it is 5 times safer to rear face until they hit the height/weight limit simply because up until that point they can sustain fatal injuries in a collision.
“The secret to change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but building the new”
So... You didn't watch the whole video obviously.
@@Megan-ro3wi well my 3 year old started complaining about her legs after 20 min in her car seat. It was painful for her to sit in that position for a longer time.
@@ANNEM90 Have you moved it back for extra leg room?
My 3 year old complains if I tell her to stay away from the hot oven in the kitchen or refuses to hold my hand near ponds/lakes while out walking but I don’t give in. I stay strong, parent her and explain that I’m doing it to keep her safe. I’d never give in and risk her getting seriously injured or in danger. Anyone who fully understands the dangers of FF would agree that the same applies in this scenario. But you do you. No one’s telling you what to do. You’re not the 3 year old. You’re the adult the 3 year old relies on to keep her safe x
kids find ways to sit that look ridiculously uncomfortable for us but work for them, plus alot of seats move now to allow for extra leg room but also you cannot add anything to a seat that doesnt come with it, so adding something 'across the chest so they don't move like that' not only isn't possible because, you know, physics and the fact the only place you could hold the head back is the forehead or throat but can actually make an injury 1000 times worse