[krisnic]

Okay, I work at a baby store part time. Can't get much into it, but I work there. Don't like a lot of what I see.

So at our "huddle" I decide to mention to the other employees about the AAP's new recommendation for rear-facing, so that we can put it out there to our guests. They start arguing with me about it, saying that it's a bunch of "hooey (?)" that they are doing that because it makes it uncomfortable for the child. I stated how much safer it was and they came back and said it doesn't matter because it's uncomfortable for the child. Then the manager goes on to say that they have no where to put their legs. I say they can put them off to the side, up the back of the seat or cross-legged. I then give them the "If a child is rear-facing in an accident they have a 75% chance of survival, the minute they go forward facing it goes down to 25%". Then another girl (the type that "knows" something about everything but really doesn't) chimes in and says that convertible seats are made for the legs to dangle off the edge, and when the children aren't able to do that the survival percentage goes down. That them crossing their legs and such makes the carseat move, so in turn it's really not that safe.

I had to stop talking. I was furious. They wouldn't even listen. I had to walk away from them. I guess I see it as any other job - I work in social work as well and if I have an issue with a client, I research how to deal with it right? Well if you SELL carseats, shouldn't you research them? I know we can't give out safety ratings (not that there are any anyway) because of liability, but we can still tell the benefits of rear-facing and professional installation - which I always talk about with customers.

UGH! I'm so mad.

 

[Ironica]

You might bring in some literature from safekids.org and share it with your manager. Tell him you're sorry that things went wrong when you tried to bring up the issues, but you're concerned about the store's liability if employees give out information that's contrary to professional recommendations and best practices, so you thought he should have the info.

If he says anything less enthusiastic than "Thanks, I'll take a look at it", take it up the chain.

 

[jocelyndale]

In my experience, a lot of the RF naysayers who try to claim safety issues are only familiar with *older* seats. Someone tried to tell me that my son putting his legs up on the seat would cause the harness to loosen. She obviously has no clue how the modern seats work and how they differ from the seats she used when her teen was a baby. My almost 2yo son is seated by *me*. His butt goes firmly in the seat. The harness mechanism has a ratchet/autolock and cannot loosen without a manual adjustment--and kiddo can't reach that. So I position, click, and tighten his straps and he can't go anywhere, no matter what he does with his legs or how he braces his feet on the back of the rear seat.

When I recently read up on this, it came up that there are no reported incidents of RF causing leg/hip injuries, but countless incidents of spine/neck/brain injuries while FF. So even though legs and hips are easier to fix, they apparently don't get injured on a level that is worth reporting.

 

[EmpoweringBirth]

Hopefully you can still educate parents one at a time still on a variety of topics that you have knowledge on. One by one....it can end up being many in the end....

Good Luck!

 

[HarperRose]

How did you not tell them, "You're all a bunch of idiots! RESEARCH, ppl! RESEARCH. It's not rocket science. There's a handy thing called GOOGLE. Yeah. Look into it." ???

I know, wishful thinking!

Just educate one parent at a time.

Today I saw a baby in an infant seat in the grocery store. (Baby seat in the basket part of the cart aside, I initially was alarmed that she was too big (legs hanging off) but then I remembered, "Well, her head's still within an inch there and I don't know her weight, but she looks around ds2's weight or less." I figured that either her parents didn't have a new seat for her yet OR she had a very educated family! Either way,

: because she was probably pretty darn safe in the car!

 

[AVeryGoodYear]

I brought this up to my husband & his grandma on the way to Easter dinner. They dismissed this new AAP recommendation out of hand as well... because it's American and we're in Canada. And they brought up the long legs thing. Whatever, baby is only 2 months old, I have plenty of time to provide research and studies to prove my case. It's frustrating though that people are so completely and illogically opposed to thinking outside of their boxes.

 

[gretelmom]

What kind of a crash is that stat for? The 25% survival rate one? Certainly that's not the survival rate for FF kids in ALL crashes...

 

[asoulunbound]

I second the "safekids" brochures to the manager. I would also recommend nailing down numbers before giving them out to customers, but definitely advocate one-on-one for safety. IMO, HTH.

 

[krisnic]

I honestly can't find that statistic anywhere now. I know I've read it on here before though, so hopefully someone else has a link to it.

Thanks everyone! There's a couple things I feel a need to address with corporate, so I may just write a letter very soon.

 

[an_aurora]

The actual statistic is that children are 75% less likely to be killed or seriously injured if RF vs FF.

 

[krisnic]

Do you happen to have a link to where that is? That way I can pass it on to others. Thanks!

 

[gretelmom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krisnic Do you happen to have a link to where that is? That way I can pass it on to others. Thanks!

Yeah, I'm interested what the age (or weight/height) spread is for that, as well. There's just so little information about this subject in the mass consciousness.

 

[an_aurora]

I don't have links, since I got this from my school's database which requires a login.

Marilyn J Bull,MD and Dennis R Durbin, MD
"Rear-facing car safety seats: getting the message right"
from the March 2008 edition of Pediatrics.

Quote:

A recent analysis of the protection provided in rear-facing compared with forward-facing car safety seats has revealed that children under the age of 2 years are 75% less likely to die or sustain serious injury when they are in a rear-facing seat. This finding was true regardless of direction of the crash, even those crashes with side impact, which typically are the most severe.

 

[jeminijad]

http://pediatrics.aappublications.or...full/121/3/619

Here is the link. Fortunately the full text articles are available for this journal, which is wonderful and I wish I had know it before!

How to hand this out to parents and actually get them to read it??

 

[AVeryGoodYear]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeminijad http://pediatrics.aappublications.or...full/121/3/619 Here is the link. Fortunately the full text articles are available for this journal, which is wonderful and I wish I had know it before! How to hand this out to parents and actually get them to read it??

Tell them it's National Carseat Safety Month & you're handing out literature to help raise awareness. Take a highlighter to one or two really important, succinct lines. A little white lie and some eye-catching colours might do it

 

[VroomieMama]

Thank you for the link.