Car Seat Safety Rear Facing Vs Forward Facing

Learn more about using a forward facing car seat including types to choose from and the age height and weight at which you might be able.

Car seat safety rear facing vs forward facing. Any age so long as the child is within the height and weight limits for their rear facing car seat. Why you want a rear facing car seat. Our car is too small for a big rear facing car seat many rear facing child car seats can be installed with varying leg space so that they allow for a very compact installation. But this legislation also states that children can be kept in rear facing car seats until they are four years old.

But as the child car seat s internal harness holds the child s upper body in place the majority of the forces are placed on the child s neck as the head is thrown forward with tremendous force. Watch this short video and you ll realize why you should keep your child rear facing for as long as possible. In addition the child risks injury from hitting the front seats. Depends on the car seat but most convertible seats have rear facing height limits that require the child s head to be at least 1 inch below the top.

Don t turn your baby around at 12 months. There are 5 principles every restraint system applies whether that is a seat belt or a child restraint system aka car seat talked about in the national highway traffic safety administration. However 60 to 80 percent of these crashes happen at the front or side of the vehicle. When it comes to fatal collisions only about 7 percent of them happen at the back of the car.

A forward facing adult or child will pivot around their pelvis and turn to the side leaving their head at risk for hitting the doorframe window other hard structures etc. However it s important to remember that age is a guide and the height of the child is a better indicator of when your child is ready to turn forward facing or change into their next seat. When is it safe to turn a rear facing car seat around. When a child is rear facing in a car seat the car seat itself does the pivoting allowing the child s body to stay in a straight line.

The answer can be explained by the physics of car crashes. Thereby they often don t take up more space than needed with a forward facing car seat since forward facing seats should ideally also have 55 cm space between. Why not get a forward facing car seat to celebrate a second birthday.