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Why I Changed My Car Seat Back to Rear-Facing Position
I got into my car, snapped my seat belt on and took a deep breath….
My arm throbbed from carrying my son and his enormous car seat ten feet from the house to the car. I turned the car on and backed out of the driveway as my son’s blood-curling screams ring in my head. My son and I did this every single day until I changed to a forward-facing car seat.
After that, my son never cried in his car seat again. It wasn’t hard for me to imagine what it would have been like had I just changed his car seat months ago! I’m reminded of that time as I read a heartbreaking story of a mother of two beautiful baby girls in a terrible car accident that nearly killed one child.
Angela Brown posted pictures on her Facebook page of the life-saving capabilities of car seats if used properly and as directed. So why then did one car seat save one child and the other nearly died? The difference is the fact that the child that broke her back in two different places was not in a rear-facing car seat.
In a rear-facing position, a child’s head, neck, and spine are better protected. This is because the child moves along the force of impact’s direction cradled by the car seat rather than opposing it in a forward-facing car seat (A visual representation of this would be the people aboard a boat during a storm). This is especially important in developing children because their spinal columns are not yet fully developed and therefore are soft and susceptible to stretching.
As I looked as the pictures of Angela’s children, I feel incredible sadness and sympathy, but also an undeniable sense of guilt. I ignored recommendations that my son should stay rear-facing and in fact, had also changed my son to forward-facing position right before he turned two years old. As my son sits on my lap as I write this, I can’t help but feel emotional that a simple choice could’ve changed his life so dramatically.
My son is now three years old and today I asked my husband to change his forward-facing car seat back to rear-facing position. Thank you, Angela, for sharing your heartbreaking story and opening my eyes and many others!
Here is Angela’s Facebook post:
Laura Carlisle
May 31, 2016 at 1:34 am
Jon Carlisle
Piri Ranui
May 31, 2016 at 2:18 am
Jackson Winters Jessica Da Silva Forbes Tara Gardiner Ebony Munro
Jessica Da Silva Forbes
May 31, 2016 at 3:33 am
Thanks for sharing this. I knew you were meant to keep them rear facing until 2 but it sounds like the longer the better. What a terribly sad story.
Ebony Munro
May 31, 2016 at 6:52 am
Still rear facing over here! Even though everyone tells me to flip it I haven’t ☺️ I will show them all this! Thanks
Chelle Belle
May 31, 2016 at 2:32 am
Keep them rear facing as long as possible Sheileann Rosario Yeager, Tracy Taylor, Courtney Hoagland, Courtney Cole, Courtney Elias, Kelli Davis,
Kelli Davis
May 31, 2016 at 2:33 am
Yup!
Chelle Belle
May 31, 2016 at 2:33 am
It Always breaks my heart to see these things 🙁
Kelli Davis
May 31, 2016 at 2:34 am
Especially when it’s preventable
Chelle Belle
May 31, 2016 at 2:34 am
Exactly. Luckily for you, when you were in your accident logy bear was fine , but it’s scary
Kelli Davis
May 31, 2016 at 3:01 am
He was rear facing too lol
Chelle Belle
May 31, 2016 at 3:02 am
Oh yeah I know, but still they hit you hard!
Kelli Davis
May 31, 2016 at 3:14 am
Can’t trust people lol
Carolina Moran
May 31, 2016 at 2:42 am
Sally Moran
Vanessa Gatti
May 31, 2016 at 2:58 am
Lupe hi ma this is the article I was talking about
Linda Mirella Jovel
May 31, 2016 at 2:28 pm
Mira amor, leerlo please Brown Knight
Ashley Schiller
May 31, 2016 at 2:33 pm
Haley Nicolle Davis here’s another good one to share.
Haley Nicolle Davis
May 31, 2016 at 3:29 pm
So sad…..
Rochele Doran
June 1, 2016 at 1:16 am
Laura Bucher and Danielle Bucher
Jennifer Ciaglia
June 1, 2016 at 2:49 am
But why was the mom driving 62 miles an hour coming home from the dentist and hit a tree?. I mean I feel bad and everything but even on a highway I don’t drive over 65 with my kids in the car . Poor babies
Carolyn
June 2, 2016 at 9:26 pm
I read a similar story about a little boy who broke his neck from the whiplash in an accident. I immediately asked my husband to look at rear facing car seats with me and we ordered one that day. My almost three year old, at the time, didn’t even mind going back to rear facing. She’s pretty small for her age and is now 4 1/2. She just recently reached the height where it was no longer safe for her to be rear facing. I’m due in August with girl number three and she will remain rear facing as long as possible.
Katriza
June 3, 2016 at 7:25 pm
My second son is bigger than my first at 22 months apart and they’re BOTH in rear-facing car seats. I’m so glad posts like this inspire and educate parents to switch back to rear-facing position as long as possible! And congrats on the new baby!
dalila Gonzalez
June 3, 2016 at 12:45 am
May god place hia hands on your littlw girl and heal her in the nam3 of jeaus. Amen…I pray for u and family….
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