Keep looking back, baby!

We were involved in a fender bender today. While at a red light, 'Matt' rear-ended the poor minivan. The damage looks relatively minor - his tow bar thingy did a fair bit of damage to the bumper. However, as my dad said a scratch will cost you over a $1,000 to repair so the final bill will likely be some oddly high number. Jim will head off to the Collision Reporting Center tomorrow to report the accident and then we will take the babe in for a consult at the Toyota dealer.

I don't think Matt was driving that fast when he hit us but the jolt was rather impressive. No one was hurt but I am a bit surprised that my neck is now stiff. The children aren't complaining of any ills but I do wonder how we will all feel tomorrow. I also wonder how sore people must feel after a real wing-dinger.

I have been thinking though, thankfully Seanie was rear facing in his car seat and I will keep him that way for a fair bit of time to come well beyond the one year 'guideline'. Infants, especially my kiddos with the big heads (and little necks), are highly susceptible to injury even in such a minor minor accident. If my neck is hurting, an infant could easily be injured from whiplash in a simply little accident less than a mile from your home.

Canadian car seat information is lacking emphasis on the safety of rear facing of young children. It doesn't help that the US rules are tremendously inconsistent and different than Canadian rules, depending on the state but much more readily available on the internet.  I always wonder as I blog this in 2008, whether in 5 years or 10 years, car seat laws will have hopefully evolved and become much more stringent and blatantly clear.

While Canadian infants are required to be kept rear facing until at least 20lbs. (or I think 9kg) AND 1 year, the 'AND' seems to go missing a lot. Further, Canadian car seat manufactures and perhaps even the family doctors/pediatricians aren't emphasising enough that rear facing is much safer, and infants should be kept rear facing until they outgrow their carseats.

This statement, of course, creates a few other issues ...

1) Baby buckets aren't very useful to most infants beyond six months, if you are lucky. It seems most parents think (including me way back when) that this lovely little contraption, bought well before that babe even made its entrance into the world, will work until the babe is the proverbial 20lbs AND (not or)  1 year.  Some new baby buckets have 30 in height limits but many of the older versions (or less expensive versions) are only 26 inches. My boys outgrew the 26" baby bucket in height by four or five months, well well short of the weight limits.

2) Canadian manufacturers of convertible (go fwd or rear facing) carseats have included what appears to be unnecessary labelling (with respect to rear facing height limits), which is potentially endangering our little ones. Logic doesn't exist with their madness. The Britax Roundabout only has a 30 in height limit. Well, Seanie is well beyond that limit now at almost 11 months.(I have chosen to ignore the limit for now as the seat expires in 2 more months at the ripe old age of six years, and the same seat in the US can be used to a much much higher height limit.***)   The Britax Marathon has some other ridiculous height limit, depending on your seat's manufacture date of possibly only 32 inches (which Seanie has likely already outgrown as well).  So - where does that leave me - a 11 month old, 31 in infant maybe just 20lbs. that 'should' be switched forward facing according to my seat manufacturer's (aka one of the safest on the market, blah blah blah) labelling by one year but can't be switched because he isn't one year of age.  Ignore the fact that is safer to be backwards.

Luckily, one of the three Britax Marathon car seats I have - not yet close to its expiry date even - has a 37 inch height limit.  According to the car seat gurus out there, a real gem of a find because many are labelled to only 32/33 inches.  Madness, this car seat crap. I plan to keep Seanie rear facing for several more months.  I think the weight limit is 35lbs. on this car seat (but it might be 33lbs. - each Marathon I own has a different height and weight limit) so I have a long time before this 20lb. mite hits the weight or height limit.  

The morale of the story, amidst this rant, rear facing is a much safer option for the little ones.  If my neck is sore today after a minor minor minor fender bender, think of that infant's neck if the babe was switched too soon to forward facing.  The thing is also - most accident happen within a very close proximity to your home so even the theory 'I don't drive much' won't work very well to keep your little onse safe.  The 'babe doesn't like rear facing' - too bad sweet heart -brownies might taste better, but doesn't mean it is good for you.