Cybex Sirona: Why Riding Rear-Facing Is Safer
May 11 is Children's Safety Day in Sweden. One of the highlights of the day's celebrations is a parade of preschoolers through the city. It would seem like a normal thing, except that the children are marching backward. And they march backward to make adults realize that riding in a rear-facing car seat is safer! (And I'm sure they get some candy at the end of the parade ;). In Poland, a similar day falls on April 28—it’s National Rear-Facing Car Seat Day—but I’m willing to bet that few of you know about it (just like you probably don’t know when Men’s Day is—who knows when?).
Why in reverse?
The Cybex Sirona is a rear-facing car seat designed for children weighing up to 18 kg, or up to approx.. 4 years. Riding in a rear-facing position during a head-on collision reduces the risk of injury by more than 80% compared to a traditional car seat. One reason for this is the toddler's head. What’s so special about the head? Well, while an adult’s head accounts for 6% of their total body weight, in a 9-month-old infant, it’s as much as 25% (now calculate how much your head would weigh if it were 1/4 of your body weight. For me, it really adds up to A LOT).
In a forward-facing car seat, the child’s torso is secured, and in the event of a head-on collision, that large head—which accounts for 25% of the child’s body weight, or, let’s say, over two kilograms—that large, two-kilogram head flies forward at the speed of light. And such a sudden movement of the head can cause the vertebrae to dislocate. So, basically, nothing cool. Meanwhile, in a rear-facing car seat during a head-on collision, the force of the impact pushes the child into the seat and is distributed over a larger area of the body—the entire back.
What does the child think?
Parents often worry that their child will protest when riding in a rear-facing car seat, because when they’re facing forward, they can see everything that’s happening on the road, read signs and road markers, and are very happy with life. And if he sits facing backward, all he'll see is the headrest, and on the drive to the beach from Katowice, that headrest will definitely drive him crazy, and his parents will want to stick their heads in an aquarium after a trip like that.
In fact, a child sitting in a rear-facing car seat can see more—they can look through the rear window and, of course, look out the window the whole time. A child riding in the front seat may be able to see something through the windshield (if they lean out far enough), but mostly they just see the seat in front of them—and that’s not exactly a thrilling view..
And what is the child doing?
Another concern is that if a child is riding in a rear-facing car seat, the parent sitting in the front passenger seat cannot see what is happening with the child once the seat is turned around. First of all, you have to assume that nothing out of the ordinary is happening to him (unless the child was given a bottle of juice, a bag of peanuts, and a box of neon-colored watercolors for the trip). Sometimes a kid in the car is babbling away, but who among us wouldn't happily babble a little right now instead of, say, going to work?. Second, if the babbling bothers us or we want to know whether our child is asleep or perhaps repeating German words, we can attach a mirror to the headrest. BeSafe and Benbat, for example, offer this type of mirror for monitoring your child..
We mount the mirror on the headrest, turn around, and now we can see everything in the mirror's reflection. My daughter also uses the mirror to play, and she usually makes silly faces at herself while we're on the road, which she finds incredibly entertaining and I find absolutely wonderful, because it keeps her occupied.
Convenience
And then there's convenience—the Cybex Sirona attaches to the Isofix system, so with just one click, the car seat is installed. It features a 360-degree swivel system, which makes it easier for the child to get in and makes life easier for the parent. The Cybex Sirona also features the L telescopic system.S.P. , which, in the event of a side impact, absorbs the force along with the head and shoulder protectors. Isn't all of this convincing?? If it isn't, then I really don't know what it is!