Rear facing beyond age 1 and 22 pounds...IT'S SAFER!

I recently watched a video on YouTube about a young boy (18 months) that had been involved in a front impact crash while sitting in a forward-facing car seat. The boy's head, arms and legs were violently thrown forward in the crash and he suffered severe spinal cord damage as a result. It was hard to watch and prompted me to do some research of my own on the use of forward-facing car seats (as one should do before believing anything they see/read on YouTube or anywhere on the Internet for that matter)!

I bought my daughter's forward-facing seat several months ago and up until today my husband and I had planned on putting her in the seat as soon as she reached the 22lb minimum weight restriction (given that she is now a year old). That is no longer the case! I have since discovered that the the 22lb weight restriction is the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM weight at which a child should be taken out of a rear-facing seat and that the Government of Canada, Transport Canada and the American Academy of Pediatrics are but a few of the organizations that STRONGLY encourage parents to use rear-facing seats for as long as possible. Luckily, we purchased a rear-facing car seat with a maximum 32lb weight limit and as long as my daughter's head is an inch below the top of the back if the seat, she can continue to use it until she reaches the weight limit and will!

If you are not convinced that you should continue to use your rear-facing seat for as long as possible consider this:

1) The American Academy of Pediatrics (and other organizations) are working to strengthen the rules and regulations regarding car seat safety including encouraging car seat manufactures to make rear-facing seats to accommodate children up to the age of 4 years.

2) When conducting crash tests on forward-facing car seats, Transport Canada uses dummies that are similar in size to the average 3 (35lb), 6 and 10 year old child. They don't conduct tests for children under 35lbs! Translation: we don't know what happens to children under 35lbs when they are involved in a crash in a forward-facing seat. I don't know about you, but I don't want to find out what might happen.

It seems as though parents are in too big of a hurry to put their children into forward-facing seats. I really don't know what is behind this drive because it is clearly not what is in the best interests of our children as far as their safety is concerned. I have heard a number of "reasons":
-"my child is just not happy in a rear-facing seat"
-"the rear facing seat takes up too much room in the vehicle"
-"my child's feet are touching the back seat and he/she appears to be uncomfortable".
None of these (or other) reason are strong or convincing enough to justify making the switch before it is absolutely necessary.

The Take-Home Message:

You don't HAVE to put your child in a forward-facing seat just because they are one year of age and 22lbs. This the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM age/weight you can switch them and NOT the RECOMMENDED age/weight at which you should make the switch. You should keep your child in his/her rear-facing seat FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. If your car seat has a low weight limit, you should consider buying another rear-facing seat that will allow you to keep your child rear-facing for a longer period of time. As parents, the safety of our children should be our number one concern, not cost, not space or any of the others "reasons" parents use to justify making the switch before it is absolutely necessary!