The
American Academy of Pediatricians has increased their recommendations for toddlers in car seats. The old recommendations called for children to ride rear facing until they reached both 1 year and 20 pounds. The new guidelines call for children to remain
rear-facing until age two. Both guidelines have the caveat "or until they reach the maximum height/weight guidelines of the seat". But the fact is, rear-facing is simply safer, particularly for young children. In a rear-facing seat, the force during a crash is distributed across the entire back of the seat. In a front-facing seat, the force during a crash weighs heavily on the young child's neck. Here's a video to show the difference in a front-end collision (the most common and the most serious). While it's in German, I promise you won't need a translator to understand the point:
The questions most people ask about rear-facing are "
What about their legs, won't they break in an accident? Isn't it uncomfortable?" Children are generally perfectly comfortable sitting with their legs folded. It is also unlikely that their legs would break in an accident, but if the alternative is severe force absorbed by the neck, a broken leg is a far less dangerous choice.
Here is a wonderful resource for tons of information about "extended" rear-facing:
There are many seats on the market right now which allow rear-facing up until 30 to 45 pounds, and then convert to front-facing seats for higher weights afterwards. Some of the more popular models among parents and car seat safety technicians alike include: Cosco Scenera, Evenflo Triumph 65, Graco My Ride 65, Britax Marathon 70, and Sunshine Kids Radian. With the increasing number of seat options allowing extended rear-facing, many parents are now opting to
keep their children rear-facing as long as the seat allows, which, while not necessary, can be up until the age of 6 for smaller children. Many car seat safety technicians set a goal of three to four years and 30-40 pounds as the marker to turn a child forward, but ultimately, it's a family decision.
Other recommendations from the new guidelines: after rear-facing, the child should ride in a front-facing harnessed seat as long as the height/weight guidelines allow. Once a child outgrows a harnessed seat by weight and/or height, the child should remain in a
booster seat until they reach a height of 4'9", and ride in the back seat until they reach the age of 13. All passengers are 40% safer riding in the back, and the center of the back seat is considered the safest spot in the vehicle. So when installing a seat, the middle of the back is the best spot. If you have more than one child, a good rule of thumb is to put the least protected (by a car seat) child in the middle spot... so typically, the oldest should ride in the middle... I know, tell that to the oldest, right?
7 out of 10 car seats are incorrectly installed. This could be disastrous in a crash. To get your seat checked locally by a certified safety technician, type your zip into this website:
http://www.seatcheck.org/
