When I had Oliver, I had never heard of extended rear facing (ERF) car seats. Infact I found out about them through a breastfeeding facebook support group when he was a few months old. When I read up about them, I knew this is what I would be doing. When a child outgrows their baby carrier most people move their child into a forward facing car seat. They probably do this because that’s all they’ve ever known. I know it’s all I had heard of before having Oliver. If I hadn’t read up about it I wouldn’t have known either.
The Facts
If you buy a new i-Size car seat, your child must rear face until 15 months and the car seats are based on height rather than weight. Research on Be Safe’s website shows that rear-facing car seats are 5x safer than forward-facing car seats. When forward-facing in a collision at 31mph the stress on a 15kg child’s neck is equivalent to 180-220kg of force, whereas in a rear facing position the impact is only 40-60kg. Personally these figures immediately persuaded me and I knew we would be ERF as long as we can.
What did we choose?
When looking at ERF car seats there is a massive selection. Your choice is completely dependent on whether you want a belted or ISOfix seat, a swivel or fixed seat. I decided that for ease I wanted a swivel seat. When Oliver is a bit older and getting into the car seat I want it to be easy for him and getting in a rear facing seat won’t be easy as he gets bigger! We looked around at the various different swivel ISOfix seats. After much research we ended up choosing the Recaro Zero.1. The choice was mainly down to my husband loving the brand and the colour choice available. The Recaro had seven colour choices, we chose the blue seat as it matches our blue car (yep this happened!) but I found it very difficult to choose!
The seat was so easy to install, it was a matter of sticking the ISOfix legs onto the anchors and it’s all installed! Oliver seems very happy in his new seat. Previously in his baby carrier he was often twisting and turning to get out when I tried to put him in, whereas now he sits nicely and lets me strap him in. I think he enjoys being swivelled around as well and he loves resting his arms on the sides.
I’m glad we learnt about rear-facing car seats, I’m happy knowing he is much safer if we’re to ever get in an accident. Oliver won’t mind either because he knows no difference. He’s always rear faced, and that’s what’s normal to him. Hopefully he continues to enjoy it!
