This blog is a site where you can find up to date information about how to let your kids travel as safe as possible in your car. The owner of this site is me, Jeanette Holmlund-Hampf, a finnish mother of two. The text is in Swedish, as that is my mother tongue.
Child restraints have been my hobby now for a little more than three years. In that time I have learned a lot about this. The main thing I have learned is that our children should travel rearward facing at least until the age of four. Regardless of size of the child. The reason is that a childs neck is too weak to withstand the massive force on it in a frontal impact crash. Keep in mind that frontal impact crash is the most common type of crash and also the type of crash that involves the highest g-forces on the people in the car.
A typical neck load in a forward facing child restraint is 2500-3000 Newton. (Comparable to the force needed to lift 250-300 kg, 600 lbs). This is way above the critical limit of about 1000-1300 Newton for a three-year-old. In a reward facing child restraint the neck load is typically 500 Newton (comparable to 50 kg, 110 lbs).
This site contains videos comparing forward facing child restraints to reward facing childrestrains (crash tests), installation videos of rear facing child restraints, photos of a variety of child seats in different cars and above all encourage parents to keep their kids rear facing at least until the age of four. Just have a look at the photos here and you will see – it is possible!
The child seats here are all approved rwf up to 18 or 25 kg (40 and 55 lbs respectively) for use in the European Union. (There might be some pictures of fwf seats as well as warning example). But these seats naturally protect your child equally well no matter where in the world you might live.
This site does not sell child restraints, Bilstolslotsen is a non-profit organisation. For international purchase I recommend www.carseat.se.
Feel free to send me questions or comments.
E-mail: bilstolslotsen@gmail.com
Best regards,
Netta
PS. Have a look at this video. It is only a minute long, but explains the benefits of extended rear facing. (The next video, I seem to have copied the link to a playlist, is the same video in spanish). Here is another video (made by Cybex) that explains the importance of ERF: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwER_PsRFlA&feature=related [2 min 33 sek]
