Parents are always excited when their baby reaches a milestone such as crawling, eating solid food or facing-forward in the car seat. Unfortunately many parents are a little too anxious to turn their baby’s car seat forward-facing, not realizing that by doing so they are putting their baby at risk of serious or deadly spinal cord injuries.
In a frontal crash (the most common type), a forward-facing child’s neck can experience extreme forces that pull the head away from the body. A baby’s body is not ready to withstand crash forces in this manner. The bones, including the spine, of very young children are still soft and can stretch and possibly separate under tension. If this happens, the spinal cord is vulnerable. The spinal cord, which can only stretch up to ¼ inch, can rupture as the head is pulled away from the body of a forward-facing baby. Rear-facing, on the other hand, allows the baby’s head to be cradled and move at the same time with the body, minimizing any pull on the neck.
On August 30, 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated car seat safety recommendations previously published in 2011. The AAP now recommends child ride rear facing until the highest weight and height allowed by the car seat manufacturer.
Infants and toddlers should ride in a rear-facing car safety seat as long as possible, until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their seat. Most convertible seats have limits that will allow children to ride rear-facing for 2 years or more.
To read the AAP recommendations, click on the following link:
NHTSA also supports rear-facing longer in its new “Car Seat Recommendations for Children” flyer. Download the flyer by clicking; https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/documents/carseat-recommendations-for-children-by-age-size.pdf
More information on why rear-facing is beneficial can be found at Child Passenger Safety: Rationale for Best Practice, a website developed by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI). Click www.cpsbestpractice.org to access the website.