With both rear and forward facing car seats available to purchase, it's hard to compare. We've provided 4 reasons to consider a rear facing car seat:

The safety benefits of using a rearward facing seat

Children are especially vulnerable in the event of a car crash. Their heads are disproportionately heavy in relation to the rest of the body and their neck muscles are not yet fully developed. Frontal impact tests show that the strain on the neck is five times greater when the child is sitting forward facing compared to when sitting rear facing.

If the child is sitting in a rear facing child car seat, the seat shell will function as a protective shield and absorb the impact energy. The forces of the impact are spread over the whole large area of the child’s back, neck and head, thereby significantly less strain is put on the child’s neck.

What happens when the child is not in the rearward position?

When sitting forward facing during a collision, the child’s body is pushed out of the seat. But as the child car seat’s internal harness holds the child’s upper body in place, the majority of the forces are placed on the child’s neck as the head is thrown forward with tremendous force. In addition, the child risks injury from hitting the front seats.

Small children have vertebrae that consist of small bits of cartilage, which will fuse into bone over time. Before age 2, there is only a 50 percent chance that the vertebrae in the neck have finished converting from cartilage to bone, and in most cases, a child will not sport a fully reinforced spine until age 6. Cartilage, unlike bone, allows the spinal cord to stretch up to two inches. Yet, it only takes a quarter of an inch to cause paralysis or death.

When an adult jerks forward suddenly, their bony vertebrae usually prevent the spinal cord from stretching too much. But when a toddler experiences those same forces, the spinal cord stretches beyond the point of no return. It also does not help that toddler’s spines support heavy heads (up to 25 percent of the child’s total body weight) so, when your kid flies into a harness, that cranial cannonball forces the spine to stretch even more.

How long can I keep my child in the rearward position?

Children should stay in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible — at least until the age of two. Based on a large body of online medical research, such as the American Academy of Paediatrics, it is best to choose a seat which as the capacity for ‘extended’ extended rearward facing.
At the end of the day your choice of seat will determine how long the child can remain rearward facing. Some seats will function in the rearward position up until the age of six.

For example our Axkid Move car seat will cater for a child of 25kgs, 125cms or around 6 years of age, which is a super safe option.

The popular Joie i-Spin will last approx up until the age of 4, though industry experts prefer to quote the child’s weight and height, rather than age. (105cm, less than19kg).

Or the award winning JANE iKonic is another good option, suitable from birth up until around the age of 4.

Issues parents may raise around the extended use of rearward facing seats

Where do the child’s legs go when rearward facing?

Most extended rearward facing seats are installed with a gap between the base of the seat and the backrest of the vehicle seat. Children are very flexible, their bones do not start to calcify till around 3 years, also the joints are more mobile, as their heads are larger in proportion than ours. They tend to be top-heavy therefore when sitting they would normally sit with their legs tucked up or cross-legged. When sitting in a car seat, whether forward or rear-facing, they will often cross their legs as sitting with legs hanging is uncomfortable as they are not supported. 

Won’t my child get bored being rearward facing?

In a forward-facing car seat, all children can see is the back of the front seat with a limited view of the side window. In a rear-facing car seat, the child has a great view out of the side and rear windows.

How does a rear-facing seat work if you get rear-ended?

Rear-end crashes account for only 5% of the total amount of car accidents and usually occur at much slower speeds than frontal ones. In a rear-end collision, both vehicles are moving in the same direction which throws the car that is hit from behind, forward. This means that the force of the crash is far lower than they are in a frontal impact where the vehicle comes to a sudden halt.

Check Out Our Full Range Of Rearward Facing Car Seats Here