Cybex Sirona, or how backwards is safer

may 11 is Child Safety Day in Sweden. One of the points of celebration of this day is the march of preschool children through the city. Seemingly a normal thing, if it weren't for the fact that children march backwards. And the reason they march backwards is to make adults aware that riding in a rear-facing car seat is safer! (Well, and they probably get some candy at the end of the parade ;). In Poland, a similar day falls on April 28, and it's National Rear-Mounted Seat Day - but I'm betting few of you know about it (as well as when it's Men's Day - who knows when?).
Why backwards
The Cybex Sirona is a rear-facing car seat designed for children weighing up to 18 kg, approx. 4 years. Riding in reverse during a frontal collision reduces the risk of injury by more than 80% compared to a traditional seat. This is due in part to the toddler's head. What's the deal with the head - which is that while in an adult the weight of the head is 6% of the total weight, in a 9-month-old infant it is as much as 25% (now count how much your head would weigh if it were 1/4 of your body weight. In my case it comes out really SPORO).
In a front-mounted seat, we strap the child's torso and in the event of a frontal collision, that big head, which weighs 25% of the body weight, or let's say, more than two kilograms, that big two-kilogram head flies forward at the speed of light. And such a fling of the big head can lead to a broken vertebrae. So overall nothing cool. Meanwhile, in a rear-facing seat during a frontal collision, the force of the impact knocks the child into the seat and is distributed over a larger area of the body - the whole back.
What does the child say about it
Parents often worry that the child will protest while riding in the back, because when he sits forward he sees everything that happens on the road, reads signs, road signs, and is very happy with life. And if he sits backwards, he'll only see the headrest and on the way to the sea from Katowice he'll surely get a whiff of that headrest and his parents will want to put their heads in the aquarium after such a trip.
In fact, a child sitting backwards can see more - he can look through the rear window well and can look out the window all the time. A child driving forward may be able to see something through the windshield (if he or she leans well out), but mostly he or she sees the seat in front of him or her and that's not some particularly shabby landscape.
And what does a child do
Another concern is that if the child is riding backwards, the parent who sits in the front passenger seat when turned cannot see what is happening to the child. First of all, you have to assume that there is nothing special going on with him (unless the child was given a bottle of juice and a packet of fisticuffs and a box of watercolors in neon colors for the trip). Sometimes the baby in the car is clucking, well, but who among us now would not carelessly cluck instead of, for example, going to work. Secondly, if you are worried about goosebumps or want to know if your child is sleeping or maybe repeating German words, you can mount a mirror on the headrest. Such baby-watching mirrors are offered by, for example, BeSafe or Benbat.
Mount the mirror on the headrest, turn to the back and you can already see everything in a mirror image. My daughter also uses the mirror to play with and usually makes silly faces at herself on the road, which she thinks is insanely busy and I think is insanely great because I get her out of the way.
Convenience
Well, and convenience - the Cybex Sirona mounts on Isofix, so one click and the seat is installed. It has a 360-degree swivel system, which makes it easier for the child to get on and the parent to live. The Cybex Sirona also has a telescoping system L.S.P. , which in a side impact absorbs the force along with the head and shoulder guards. Isn't all this convincing? If it isn't, I really don't know what is then!