Car Seat Woes

Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced new car seat guidelines today that every parent needs to made aware of. They are as follows:

1) Children are to ride in rear-facing seats until 2 years of age.
2) Children are to ride in a booster seat until they are 4'9".
3) Children are to ride in the back seat of the car until they are 13 years of age.

I wasn't surprised to hear the news. I had done a fair amount of research on car seat safety for a post I wrote in January about keeping children in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible (until they reach the height and weight limits for the seat.) At the time, my motivation was the number of parents that seemed all to eager to start using a forward-facing seat as soon as the minimum requirements were met (one-year AND 22 pounds.) It seemed to have become a milestone of sorts and parents were switching their children as soon as possible despite the recommendations to keep them rear-facing as long as possible (information which was not adequately communicated to parents in the first place.)

When I heard the news today, I decided to pull out and re-read the manuals for our car seats. I also measured Lilah only to find out that she is on the verge of exceeding the height limit of her rear-facing seat (32 inches.) Unfortunately, she has not reached the minimum weight requirement for her forward-facing seat (22 pounds.) This means that despite the new recommendations, we need another seat that can accommodate Lilah until she can use her forward facing seat (which is now not until she turns 2.)

Our only option at this point is to invest in yet another car seat. We considered buying a convertible seat to fill the gap, but it seems to make more sense financially to purchase a 3-in-1 seat that Lilah can use in the rear-facing position until she is 2 years old. She could then start using the forward-facing/booster seat we have already purchased and we could use the 3-in-1 seat through all three stages (rear-facing, forward-facing, booster) with our second child. My only fear is that something is going to change between now and then and we will find ourselves in a similar position. As all parents know, car seats aren't cheap and we hope to be able to use them for more than one child. With constantly changing standards and recommendations, this becomes challenging. I know these changes are in the best interests of our children, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating.

I am open to suggestions and/or recommendations!

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!