Rear-Facing Toddler in Britax Car Seat
At least 90% of children are improperly restrained in their car seats. Car accidents are the #1 killer of children in the US ages 1-14, and the #2 killer of infants in the US under age 1. Most of the videos I have seen have been of children improperly restrained. So here are a few tips on how to secure your child in their seats, giving them the absolute best chance at surviving an accident. “2 and 30″ and is the new “1 and 20″. The longer you can keep your child rear-facing, the safer they are. In an accident at 30mph, 130lbs of pressure is put on a forward facing child’s spinal cord. If it stretches a mere 1/4 inch, you are looking at internal decapitation. There have been no reported cases of a child breaking their legs because of extended RF. But even if that was a real possibility, would you rather your child have a broken leg, or a broken neck? Harness straps need to be snug against the child. No loose slack. They should not be able to get their arms out of the straps. For a RF child, the straps need to be at or below shoulder level. For FF, they need to be at or above. The chest clip retainer (its black, in this video) is designed to keep the shoulder straps in place in the event of a crash. In order to do that, it needs to be at armpit level. For most car seats, you child has outgrown it by height RF when there is less than inch of hardshell above their heads. Check your manual. Expired seats are deadly seats. Car seats expire after 6 years from date of manufacture …
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Tagged with: boulevard • britax • car • carseat • properly • rear facing • restrained • Safe • seat • toddler
Filed under: Car Seats
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I accidently removed your other comment. I meant to click reply, but clicked remove instead.
I didnt realize you were Canadian. Im sure it won’t be long until they start following suit. Definitely by the time you have kids…
I aggree, Im going to recemend that my cousin turn her daughter back to rear facing, her daughter is 17 months old and is foward facing in a saftey 1st Alpha Omega convertable carseat witch can hold a baby rear facing until 35 lbs and her baby is 25 lbs so ill see what I can do
My son was born with a disorder where the muscles on one side of his neck are significantly tighter than the muscles on the other side. Because of this one of his shoulders droops a lot lower than the other one. Anyway, my question is,because of his shoulder droop, no matter how much I try I can not get the shoulder straps to not dig into his neck on one side! It drives me crazy!! Is this dangerous or just uncomfortable?
my 6 month old nephew is 15 pounds he’s a big boy
Hear in england we dont have rear facing after 12 months old witch i think is realy bad. i am despretly trying to find one that i can find for alot longer. I have come across the concord witch they say can be used upto about 18 months witch we are seriasly thinking about going for. Can anyone pleace tell me were i can get one that will last longer rear facing and that i can get shipped over to england. I need it from birth. My childs safety is more important than the cost.
I am from the uk and went to halfords today to look at the same one and i was worried about the exact same thing. The woman who fit it said it was ment to be like that but i dont think its safe so left it there. We are going to see if a concord ultramax fits it better on saterday.
Thankfully children can rearface up to 40 lbs now. A 6 month old absolutely has to be RF.
Birtax carseat are actually convertible so you can used it longer
once there two years old you can face them the other way
Actually, you CAN turn them FF at 1 year and 20lbs. However, the safest way for anybody to ride in the car is facing backwards until they reach the limits of their convertible car seat.
the radian XT SL rear faces to 45 pounds and farward faces to 80 pounds it is a car seat that will last from birth to 7 years old. it is a great choice it is the highest rear facing seat on the market. 45 pounds. it keeps the child harnessed much longer.
stbrown1289…..have you tried a soft strap cover for both sides? you can pick those up at a walmart or anystore as far as I know. it might help in the comfort level for your son. you can get them in fun colors and some of them even have animals or cars or even airplains on them. I had the same problem with my now 3 year old and found that they worked wounders for her in the comfort level
Here in Sweden the recommendations is rear facing until the age of 4-5 years. Noone puts a 2 yearold front facing!!! My child is 5 years and rear facing in a Britax two Way.
Sweden definitely knows where its at when it comes to car seat safety. In the US, it is legal to turn a child forward facing at 1 year and 20lbs! And people here actually believe that because its legal, its safe. They ignore all of the physics and crash force data and turn children facing front at 1 year.. My daughter is turning 4 in March and still happily rides facing backwards.
@smalls181
Thats great. What car seat do you have?
In this video she was in a Britax Boulevard. We have also tried out the Compass True Fit, but it wasnt a good fit for our car. The seat that we have now is the Sunshine Kids Radian 65 and its perfect. The newest models will RF to 40lbs, and the company also makes a model called the 80 XTSL that RF to 45lbs.
@smalls181
Here we have models RF to 55 Ibs, but 45 is also good, better than 20…
Actually, strap covers are not safe. They are against manufacturers guidelines, and effect the use of the seat. They can cause the straps to be too loose, and many are so long that they cause the chest clip to be too low. Chest clips are meant to be at arm-pit level always.
Jsrcamp – if you must use them on your child, the only good thing you can do (other than remove them) is fit your child in the seat without them, get the perfect fit, then put them back on and see if the child still fits.
My son was 20lbs before 6 months. He is definitely still rear-facing. I hope you aren’t implying that because he’s a “big boy” that he is now forward facing
Despite weight, children’s musculo-skeletal systems mature at close to the same rate and even if he is 30 lbs at 6 months, he spine and neck are NOT newar mature enough to FF.
We just bought the Radian XTSL for our DD (8 months old). I love that it RF to 45 lbs. We love it so far and are happy with our purchase!
Good job!
@abbielynn84 Haha you dont have to worry about me. I am a carseat safty freak and I know all about that. Yes I did make sure the seat straps where propley placed and tight on my daughter befor I even put the seat straps on her older seat. Now she is in a Graco Natulas, witch she will be 5 point harnessed in till 65 lbs and backed booster till 100 lbs.
@abbielynn84 I did not mean to sound mean in that last post, I am jsut saying I am a safty freak when it comes to my daughters. Her new seat actually came with the strap covers and she knows how the chest clip and straps are supposed to be on her. she gets mad when sombody else buckles her in and the chestclip is not at arm pit level. lol I think I made a carseat safty freak out of my almost 4 year old.(witch is not a bad thing.
Thank you for being an informed & WONDERFUL parent!!!!!!!!!!!! And thank you for posting this!
@abbielynn84 Actually, that only applies to aftermarket products. Some seats (Britax, SK) come with pads that are perfectly fine to ise as the seats are tested with them