Carseat and Extended Rear-Facing

I mentioned in the 7 month update that I would do a post soon about the convertible carseat we chose and why.  Well, here it is.  And I'll be honest, I'm probably going to get on a (small) soap box here :)

Choosing a carseat is hard.  It's such an important decision since that seat could someday be the reason your child lives in a car accident.  All seats made and sold in the US have to meet the same basic safety standards, though some brands have better safety track records than others and some brands do more extensive/higher levels of testing than others.  But the fact remains that the same basic safety standards are met with any carseat that is purchased.  People base their carseat decisions on brand name, price, fabric pattern/color, ease of use, recommendations from others, what fits in their vehicle, what features the seat offers, and all sorts of other things.

We based our convertible carseat decision on two things: safety track record and which one would allow Eleanor to remain rear-facing the longest.  Yes, her seat is a really pretty purple color, but that's just an added bonus :)

Did you know that the AAP now recommends that children remain rear-facing in carseats until at least the age of 2?  This is recently changed from the "age 1 and at least 20 pounds" criteria.  Did you know that many other countries recommend children remain rear-facing until age 3 or 4?

Know why?  Because rear-facing is the safest for a child in the event of an accident.  There's no magic switch that goes on at a kid's first or second birthday that says they're able to turn forward-facing and be safe.  Because small children's heads are so big in proportion to their bodies, in an accident their bodies and heads are thrown forward.  The five-point-harness restrains their bodies, but their heads are thrown even further forward before coming back against the seat.  This can cause serious head and neck injuries - including internal decapitation.

Check this out:

And this video has some really powerful crash test videos with forward-facing and rear-facing child-sized dummies in carseats.  If you don't want to watch the whole video, please just watch the first two minutes.

There was a great article about extended rear-facing in the New York Times.  Here's a powerful and to-the-point quote from it:

“Our recommendations are meant to help parents move away from gospel-held notions that are based on a child’s age,” Dr. Durbin said. “We want them to recognize that with each transition they make, from rear-facing to forward-facing, to booster seats, there is a decline in the safety of their child. That’s why we are urging parents to delay these transitions for as long as possible." (emphasis mine)

Common reasons people say they turn their children forward-facing before they reach the maximum height and weight limits for rear-facing on their carseats?  Their kids look uncomfortable or their legs are against the backseat or crossed.  Guess what?  Broken legs can be fixed.  Broken necks/spines are much harder to fix.

And when parents do finally turn kids forward facing, it is safest for them to be in a five-point harness as long as possible.  This helps restrain the child's body much better than the car's seat belt, not to mention that most car seat belts do not fit children properly until they are older.

More info about extended rear-facing:
http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html
http://www.kyledavidmiller.org (this is the website for a little boy who was killed in a booster seat at the age of 3; there is a short video at the top of the page)

So what carseat did we choose?  The Diono RadianRXT.  It has the absolute highest height and weight limits for rear-facing of any carseat sold in the US.  With this seat we should be able to keep Eleanor rear-facing well past her second birthday.  We will not be turning her forward facing until she reaches the maximum weight limit on her carseat.  This carseat lets a child stay rear-facing until 45 pounds!  And when we do have to turn her, the Radian can be used forward-facing with a five-point harness until 80 pounds (10-15 pounds more than most other carseats and 40 pounds more than some), at which point the Radian turns into a booster seat until 120 pounds.  Because the frame of the carseat is steel alloy instead of plastic, this carseat has a longer expiration date than most carseats (yes, carseats do expire; the plastic starts to break down, rendering it less safe.  Check the side/back of your carseat for the manufacture and/or expiration date).  It will literally be the only other carseat we will purchase for Eleanor, aside from her infant carrier.  

I'm not knocking other brands of carseats and in fact had narrowed it down to the Diono Radian and one or two other seats.  But the final draw of the Radian was the ability to allow Eleanor to remain rear-facing as long as possible, and forward-facing with a five-point harness as long as possible before finally moving her to a booster with the car seatbelt.  (Though the Radian does have other awesome features, like being able to fit three across the backseat of a regular car and folding up to be carried like a backpack - handy if you're traveling in an airport.)

This isn't a sales pitch for the Radian (though we do love it).  In researching carseats I came across so many articles/videos/people talking about the importance of keeping children rear-facing as long as possible that I just wanted to share some of that information.  Because really, it's all about helping each other keep our kids as safe as possible, right?  There are many carseats on the market now with height and weight limits that will allow many children to remain rear-facing past the age of 2.  Please, please, please keep your child rear-facing until they reach the maximum height/weight limits for their carseat.  It could literally save their life.

Things I Don't Want to Forget - 7 months

-Eleanor is so active these days!  She's not crawling yet, though she desperately wants to.  She gets her feet kicking and her arms moving, but she just hasn't quite figured it out yet.  She has gotten onto all fours and started rocking several times though, which is a start!  She's also pushing herself backward, which is the first step in figuring out crawling.  She'll get there.  In the meantime, Eleanor has discovered that she can simply roll across a room to get what she wants - toys, cell phones, whatever catches her eye.  And putting her down for a nap often turns into her playing around and attempting to crawl.  I have a newfound appreciation for all the slats around her crib!  Check her out:

-She is talking up a storm.  Of course by talking I really mean babbling, but Eleanor thinks she is talking.  She has so much to say.  She has discovered the "b" sound and has been making that quite frequently, with some "m" and "d" sounds thrown in there.  We've been trying to get her to mimic us when we say "mama" or "dada" but anytime we do that she just laughs.  Apparently those are funny words that are better laughed at than repeated.  Recently she's been saying the "d" sound after Matt does it, but not with consistency.  Mostly she just smiles.

-Eleanor loves banging things together to make noise.  I bought her some stacking cups to play with and she likes hitting them against each other.  This past week she also discovered that she can hold her pacifier by the nub that goes in her mouth and bang the back of it against her crib in order to make a really fun sound :)

-Eleanor also really likes being "chased."  If Matt holds her and I walk behind she thinks I'm coming to get her and just starts grinning and kicking her legs and flapping her arms.  It's adorable.  Today walking into church Matt was carrying her and she looked at me and started grinning her huge grins, thinking I was chasing her (really the sidewalk wasn't wide enough for me to walk next to them).  I got to "chase" her all the way into church and she loved it.  It's one of our favorite games to play together as a family now; we've made lots of trips across our upstairs hallway and in and out of bedrooms :)

-Little Miss loves.loves.loves mirrors.  She grins and squeals and kicks her legs when she sees herself.  Each day we take a tour of the mirrors upstairs in our house.  She has a ball.  We have one full length mirror in our guest room that Eleanor loves to sit in front of.  She just grins, hits the mirror, tries to pull on it (don't worry, I hold it so she can't pull it over, since it's just propped against the wall), and generally has a blast.

-Eleanor also loves closing things.  She loves closing the computer-type thing on her activity table and I found this toy at a consignment store.  I just open all of the things and let her go to town, then rinse and repeat!

-Solid foods are going really, really well.  She loves carrots and peaches, but really I'm pretty sure she'd eat anything we give her.  She's getting pretty good and gnawing off chunks of whatever she's eating and then mashing them around enough to swallow them.  She still gags a bit, but not nearly as much as she did when we started BLW.  I'm trying to branch out in the vegetables and fruits I'm giving her.  She's trying cauliflower this week.

-Eleanor has (just this weekend) discovered that she can hold on to something and stand up.  She's not quite pulling herself up yet, but she tries when she holds on to someone's fingers.  But if we stand her next to an ottoman or a toy she thinks she's pretty awesome. 

-Today we moved Eleanor to her convertible carseat.  The infant seat was getting a little cramped, though she is still well within the height and weight limits for it.  But to be honest the only places we have carried her carseat in and out of in the last couple months are the house and daycare.  She's getting so big that it's really heavy carrying her and the carseat.  She seems so much more comfortable with more room.  I'm planning to do a post soon-ish about the carseat we chose and why (I'm becoming a big fan of extended rear facing).

-Eleanor had her first trip to the state fair.  She had lots of fun people and animal watching.  She even got to pet a llama (with her foot, since her hands are always in her mouth) and thought it was pretty amazing.  We went through some of the things set up for kids, including an exhibit where kids work on a "farm" and have to collect different things to put in their basket.  Check out Eleanor's cool hat and her basket of goods, which we "sold" and got $1 (in fake money) to exchange for a treat (we got applesauce, as it was all Eleanor can eat that was being offered).  I think we had more fun with it than Eleanor did, though she liked posing with the giant pigs :)

-We spent last Saturday in Louisville celebrating my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary with mass and dinner.  How pretty does Eleanor look in her dress?  

This is such a fun age.  Matt and I enjoy the time we get to spend together as a family and realize we are so blessed by the amount of joy Eleanor brings to our family.  

First day of school

I promise a post is in the works about what Eleanor is up to these days, but things have been a little crazy recently since I went back to work on Thursday and students started today.  My mom came up to stay with Eleanor on Thursday and some friends of ours watched her on Friday, so today was her first day back at daycare.  She's with a new teacher this year who I think we're really going to like.  Eleanor had a really good first day, though poor girl was exhausted.  She slept most of the evening!  Hopefully once she gets back into the routine we have some more awake time with her in the few hours we do have together.

Here's a picture of Eleanor from early this morning before we left the house:

7 months

Our sweet girl turned 7 months old today.  How that is possible, I have no idea.  Somehow 7 months seems a whole lot older than 6 months.  I don't know if it's because we're officially over the halfway mark to 1 year (!) or what, but it just makes it sound like Eleanor is so old.  She is such a joyful little girl though, and Matt and I are enjoying this age immensely!  I'll have a post up soon about all the things Eleanor is doing at 7 months.

In the meantime, enjoy the photo below.  We discovered this past week that Eleanor's hair is just long enough for a cute little ponytail on top of her head.  This is what her hair looks like after 2 days of wearing a ponytail (we did take it out for bed last night).  For the record, there's nothing in her hair - no hair tie or anything.  Isn't it funny?