Rear Facing Car Seats Until Age 2 Recommended By American Academy Of Pediatrics
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The American Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending that children under two years of age be strapped into rear facing car seats, as announced in an article in the New York Times of March 21, 2011. Generally, toddlers are promoted from rear facing seats to front facing ones when they reach one year of age. However, based on a 2007 study by the University of Virginia, the experts are now extending that period for another year.
The research found that children under two are 75 percent less likely to suffer serous or fatal injuries if they are facing the rear. A baby's head and neck are better supported with a rear facing car seat; if facing forward, the child's head and neck can fly forward. In Sweden, where children until age 4, have to sit in rear facing car seats, the highway mortality for youngsters is at the lowest for the world.
The new policy statement by the pediatricians' group also urges older children to ride in a belt-positioned booster seat until they are 4 feet 9 inches tall and until ages 8 to 12. A booster seat allows lap and shoulder restraints to fit properly across the hip, pelvis and middle of the chest.
Some EMTs call the rear facing child's seat the "orphan seat" because in catastrophic collisions, the child in that seat is the only one who survives.
