4 yr. old in rear facing toddler seat

I usually can't see my parents loading up their kids at pickup because my garage blocks my view from the front door. The other day I stepped out at pickup time to grab my paper on the front step, and noticed one of my 4 yr. old clients being put in a rear facing 3 in 1 seat in the car. She is almost off the growth charts for height for her age, and her knees were pressed up to her chest. These are overprotective parents, so I get the safety concept, but at what point does it become unsafe to have an oversized child sitting this way? Is this legal if their legs are up against their
abdomen/chest??? Do I say something?? I've never seen this before, as my kids were flipped forward at 15 months due to squished legs. Any thoughts?

I think it depends on the seat. I have carseats that have really high limits for height especially. That's not the reason we bought them, but it is a nice feature. Both of my kids are forward facing, but I think I've heard that rear facing is safest as long as they are within the seat restrictions. I haven't looked into it myself, but I think the reasoning is that it's better to break legs and hips instead of neck injuries?

Wow that is extremely not safe! Car seats are tested for certain weights in certain positions and there are limits for rear-facing for a reason. I just put my youngest in a forward facing seat and he's 14 mths. It's a tricky situation for sure. You don't want to seem like you're telling the parents what to do, but on the other hand, it's the safety of the child. I think as a provider, we have an obligation to say something if there is something the parents are doing that could endanger their child.

After posting I went online and found an article posted by transport Canada. There are apparently rear-facing seats that go up to 45 lbs., however there is no mention of the height if the child being so long the knees were in the chest, only about feet touching the back of the seat. But they also mention about the expiry date of car seats, which is typically 5 years. If this little girl is 4 and this is the seat they've had since she was born it will be expiring soon, which is another concern other than how she fits in the seat. But the transport Canada article also says not to rush to move a child to the next stage, to only move to next stage once the child is at the manufacturer's weight and height limits. Maybe just bring it up casually, mention you had seen them put her in a rear-facing seat and say 'wow that must be one of the rear-facing ones that go up to 45 lbs?" And casually ask about what the height restrictions are when the weight is so high. If they have no clue what the height restriction is maybe it will make them realize to look at their manual to check or something. Maybe they don't realize there is a height and only a weight or something.

http://ca.diono.com/convertible-to-booster/radianrxt

I want to restate that I don't have the same opinion, my children were forward facing when I felt it was no longer feasible to squish them into rear facing. But I wanted to see if my carseat had any limitations for height rear facing, and I noticed everyone that left reviews for it seemed to suggest they left their kids rear facing for a long time. The most recent review said almost 4 years. Maybe they have a carseat like this?
I read the crash test results, and they did a rear facing crash with a 3 year old, 45 lb dummy.
Edited to add: I just found the height restriction for my carseat. It is 44 inches. After that they need to be forward facing. Sorry it took me so long to find that.

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Originally Posted by momof2_boys

Wow that is extremely not safe! Car seats are tested for certain weights in certain positions and there are limits for rear-facing for a reason. I just put my youngest in a forward facing seat and he's 14 mths. It's a tricky situation for sure. You don't want to seem like you're telling the parents what to do, but on the other hand, it's the safety of the child. I think as a provider, we have an obligation to say something if there is something the parents are doing that could endanger their child.

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Not true. Our car seat is rated to 45lbs and 43" rear facing. It fits the average child until about 5years rear facing.

It is highly recommended to leave children rear facing until they outgrow the rear facing limits of the seat (now a days a good seat goes until 40,45 or 50lbs rear facing). The new recommended minimum is 2yrs of age, the law still states 1yr.

Children's spinal bones do not fuse until ages 3-4 and they are much more likely to suffer catastrophic injuries when forward facing than rear facing. Google internal decapitation. Children's heads are proportionally large for their bodies and in a crash the weigh of the head and a weak spine can lead to decapitation.

This is a sign of a highly educated and caring family that has done research on their child's safety and has decided to go against the norm and keep their child rear facing.

There is very little evidence that a rear facing child will have injuries to their legs as the force of the crash sends their legs out of the way. There is plenty of research that shows a foreword facing child will suffer serious injury in a crash. The mechanics of how a child moves in a crash are drastically different for a forward facing versus rear facing child and rear facing supports the head, neck and back.

If this were a family in my daycare I'd have gone over and congratulated them for still having their child rear facing.

I think Reggio is a certified car seat tech- maybe bring her into the conversation?? Also the car seat blog forum might be a great place to pose this question. I do know that when I took my car seat safety course, the technician said her own daughter rode rear facing and was 3 or 4 (I can't remember) and that she never complained. But she also said she crossed her legs or put them straight up on the seat back. Knees to the chest sounds uncomfortable. I could be facing my child forward at that point.

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Originally Posted by Lee-Bee

Not true. Our car seat is rated to 45lbs and 43" rear facing. It fits the average child until about 5years rear facing.

It is highly recommended to leave children rear facing until they outgrow the rear facing limits of the seat (now a days a good seat goes until 40,45 or 50lbs rear facing). The new recommended minimum is 2yrs of age, the law still states 1yr.

Children's spinal bones do not fuse until ages 3-4 and they are much more likely to suffer catastrophic injuries when forward facing than rear facing. Google internal decapitation. Children's heads are proportionally large for their bodies and in a crash the weigh of the head and a weak spine can lead to decapitation.

This is a sign of a highly educated and caring family that has done research on their child's safety and has decided to go against the norm and keep their child rear facing.

There is very little evidence that a rear facing child will have injuries to their legs as the force of the crash sends their legs out of the way. There is plenty of research that shows a foreword facing child will suffer serious injury in a crash. The mechanics of how a child moves in a crash are drastically different for a forward facing versus rear facing child and rear facing supports the head, neck and back.

If this were a family in my daycare I'd have gone over and congratulated them for still having their child rear facing.

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I have never heard of this before. Thanks Lee-Bee! My son just turned two and when I checked I was told to keep the child rear facing until the legs are pushing against the back seat. My son was about 13-14 mths. I will definitely look into this.

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Originally Posted by The Purple Bunny

I have never heard of this before. Thanks Lee-Bee! My son just turned two and when I checked I was told to keep the child rear facing until the legs are pushing against the back seat. My son was about 13-14 mths. I will definitely look into this.

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Yes, my younger daughter is almost two and we just switched her to forward facing on the weekend. I had planned to keep her facing backwards past 2 years old but she was really disliking having her feet touching the back her seat and was getting really upset. I had also read that it didn't matter if their legs were hanging down when rear facing, the possible broken leg is way less damage than what else could happen.

This is all really interesting. The information is obviously out there but takes a bit of digging to find. Makes me cringe now thinking back to my own children. All my daycare kids go in forward facing from 18months, prior to that it is rear facing but now I may rethink that. I know when there are multiple children it is helpful to be able to see all the children, but this is the safety of the children we are talking about so I may give it a trial run on my next field trip out in the van.

I have no children of my own but have heard that rear facing is the safest. I haven't looked into it much but have heard the same that has been mentioned.

I think most parents change to forward facing because it is easier to get them in and out and usually more comfortable for the child. It may or may not be the safest though. I have only had a couple who I had rear facing and that was until they were about 12-14 months. When the parents changed them to forward facing, so did I. I now have them all as forward facing when we do go out which is rare now compared to when I first opened.

I haven't heard of a 4 year old in a rear facing seat but if she still meets the requirements for the seat than I see nothing wrong with it.

I am a car seat tech, it is always recommended to leave your children rear facing as long as possible (as long as they fit the weight restrictions for the seat). I'd rather have a child with a broken leg than a broken neck or back wouldn't you?

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Originally Posted by giraffe

I am a car seat tech, it is always recommended to leave your children rear facing as long as possible (as long as they fit the weight restrictions for the seat). I'd rather have a child with a broken leg than a broken neck or back wouldn't you?

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Where did you do the training?

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Originally Posted by bright sparks

Where did you do the training?

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St Johns Ambulance our city runs not only technician training programs but also free instillation clinics for new parents.