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Many parents inquire how long their child should stay in a rear-facing car seat. Actually, in that location's not an exact timeline. The rule of thumb is that children should exist in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible, to the elevation or weight limits of the motorcar seat (once one limit is reached, the child is besides large for the seat; it is dangerous to exceed one limit fifty-fifty if the kid is still within the other limit).

Riding rear-facing until the limit allowed by your kid's convertible seat has big prophylactic advantages that parents should strongly consider. Turning a car seat effectually isn't a milestone to rush. It's actually a footstep down in prophylactic, and then don't be in a hurry to make the big switch.

Current Advice From Pediatricians

From 2011 to 2018, the recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) was to keep children rear-facing until they were at to the lowest degree two years old, but ideally longer—until reaching the rear-facing height or weight limit for their convertible seat.

Current Recommendations

The current recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics is to keep children rear-facing until they accomplish the maximum acme or weight for their convertible seat. This is usually at iii to v years sometime, depending on the seat and the kid's growth.

1-third of states in the U.S. have updated their kid passenger prophylactic laws to require rear-facing seats until age two.

Some country laws and some convertible car seats say that kids can ride forward facing if they are at least 1 year old. This tin can easily fool a parent into thinking that it is rubber for a one-year-erstwhile to ride forward facing, when the evidence is clear that one-year-olds are safer rear-facing. Seeing "one-year-quondam" in print alongside "forrad-facing car seat" leads many families to believe it is condom for their little one to switch to forrard-facing far too immature.

New parents likewise naturally turn to their family unit and friends with parenting experience when information technology comes to car seat prophylactic advice. If your family unit and friends are a few years out from having newborns and toddlers, though, it's possible, and even likely, that their motorcar seat advice is outdated.

Rear-Facing Better

• Historic period: Any historic period, so long as the child is within the height and weight limits for their rear-facing car seat

• Weight: Depends on the car seat, only most convertible seats accept rear-facing weight limits of 40 to l pounds

• Height: Depends on the car seat, but most convertible seats have rear-facing elevation limits that require the child's head to be at least 1 inch below the top (the child'due south legs touching the vehicle seat back is not an indication that they are besides tall)

Forwards-Facing Allowed

• Age: Depends on country police force and the car seat your child will be using

• Weight: Depends on state law and the motorcar seat your child will be using

• Meridian: Depends on country police and the automobile seat your child will exist using

Why Rear-Facing Is Safer

Motorcar seats are designed to absorb some crash forces and spread the remaining crash forces over a larger expanse of the trunk. For adults, seat belts distribute strength to the strongest parts of the torso—the hips, breast os, and collarbone.

When a child is in a forward-facing seat, the head pulls forward, which puts stress on the neck. When rear-facing, the caput, cervix, and back all move in unison and are cradled by the shell of the rear-facing motorcar seat. This video helps explain.

The bones running down a young kid's neck and dorsum are not yet solid bone (they notwithstanding take a lot of stretchy cartilage). A young kid's head is also much heavier, in proportion to the body, than that of an older child or adult. So the caput pulls frontward with proportionately much more force on bones that are stretchier.

As the basic stretch, they tin can force the spinal cord to stretch. Afterward it is stretched more one-quarter of an inch, the spinal cord breaks. Riding in a rear-facing automobile seat helps reduce that adventure by supporting the kid'south head.

The incidence of severe caput and neck injuries for babies and toddlers is greatly reduced in rear-facing machine seats.

The additional back up the rear-facing car seat provides to the head and cervix reduces your child'due south chance of being injured or worse in a crash. The rear-facing car seat is absorbing some of the free energy of the crash, and then distributing the remaining energy along the child'south caput, neck and back.

With the forward-facing child, the motorcar seat isn't able to absorb as much of the energy, and more of it is transferred to the child—in particular to the head and neck as they pull away from the breast. The difference can be seen in a video comparison rear-facing and forward-facing machine seats in a crash exam.

Dangers of Forrad-Facing Too Early

Even if your child'due south legs are touching the seat dorsum, or they cry when rear-facing, you should nonetheless keep your child rear-facing until they reach the rear-facing weight or tiptop limit of the car seat. Virtually convertible car seats have rear-facing weight limits of 35 to 50 pounds, and then nearly kids can ride rear-facing until age 3 to five.

Some children never similar sitting in a car seat, and they may cry. Withal, beingness properly restrained makes it more likely that a child will survive a crash to weep another day.

Many parents worry that their child will suffer broken legs or hips in a crash because the child's legs touch the seat back or look cramped when rear-facing. In fact, there are more leg injuries when forwards-facing, every bit the legs fly up and the anxiety become into the back of the front seat. Equally everything moves forward, compression forces into the hip and femur can break the leg of the forward-facing child.

Studies of existent kids in existent crashes shows that leg and hip injuries in rear-facing kids are very uncommon. When they do happen, information technology is in side impacts where some other vehicle hits the child correct where their leg is, breaking the leg. Rear-facing kids practise non get hip or leg injuries from being scrunched up. In fact, during the instant of the crash, rear-facing kids become even more scrunched, with their legs pulling up into a cannonball position. This is not a cause of injury.

If Your Child Is Fussy in the Car Seat

Kids often fuss because they are strapped in, not because they are rear-facing. To reduce fussiness in a rear-facing child:

• If your child tin sit upright unsupported, sit down the car seat more upright (if the car seat allows) to give the child a meliorate view out the window.
• Remove the vehicle caput restraint to allow the rear-facing child a ameliorate view out the window.
• Use music to help entertain and calm the child.
• Use toys that are safe for travel to distract and entertain the child.

Car Seats for One-Year-Olds

When babies plow one, many parents think about moving by the babe machine seat with the carrier handle. There are lots of options if you need a new car seat for a one-year-old!

Remember, advocates recommend that toddlers and preschoolers ride rear-facing until reaching the maximum weight or height for rear-facing in their convertible machine seat, which for most kids is between three and five years of age. And so you'll want to find a machine seat that tin work both rear-facing and forward-facing. Await for a convertible car seat with a loftier rear-facing weight limit and tall trounce, and then employ it rear-facing as long as possible.

Several motorcar seats today take rear-facing weight limits up to 50 pounds, which should accommodate nearly every child through age 5 (unless they attain the maximum rear-facing peak for the seat). Y'all should cheque the manufacturer'south rear-facing top limit to exist sure your child is non too alpine to safely stay rear-facing to the weight limit.

Most children should be able to remain rear-facing far beyond historic period ii.

A Discussion From Verywell

Crash information shows u.s. that anybody is safer in a crash when riding rear-facing for the reasons outlined to a higher place. Young children are better protected in a rear-facing automobile seat because that seat distributes the force of a crash over a greater body surface area and gives better support to young heads and necks.

A rear-facing car seat offers the best protection for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and even young school-age kids and should be properly used for every bit long as possible, to the limits of the auto seat. Keeping your kid rear-facing to the limit of the seat is the safest option. You can check your auto seat instruction book or the labels on the motorcar seat sides to find the rear-facing weight and height limits.

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Verywell Family unit uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts inside our articles. Read our editorial process to acquire more well-nigh how we fact-bank check and go on our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

1. Durbin DR, Hoffman BD. Kid rider safe. Policy statement. Pediatrics. 2018;142(5) doi:10.1542/peds.2018-2460

2. American Academy of Pediatrics. Rear–facing car seats for infants and toddlers.

3. Insurance Institute for Highway Safe. Seat belt and child seat laws by state.

4. Durbin DR, Hoffman BD. Child passenger prophylactic. Technical report. Pediatrics. 2018;142(v) doi:10.1542/peds.2018-2461

5. American University of Pediatrics. How long should my child ride rear–facing?.

6. Arbogast KB, Durbin DR. Epidemiology of kid motor vehicle crash injuries and fatalities. In: Crandall J, Myers B, Meaney D, Zellers Schmidtke S (eds). Pediatric Injury Biomechanics. Springer, 2013.

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Source: https://www.verywellfamily.com/best-car-seat-toys-4707628

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