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You want them to see what's going on around them. So isn't forward-facing easier for everyone, not just the big kids? Isn't it better for your toddler to not be rear-facing? They finally became 1 year old. Once they're over 12, then you can have them sit in the front seat with you.
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Kids 12 and under need to be in the back seat. What happens when they turn 4 foot 9? Then they can sit in the back seat in a seat belt until they're 13. So, until your child is 4 foot 9, they can't properly sit in a regular car seat without having a booster seat. It can actually cut through the neck, and that's not what you want. If your car is rear-ended and the child is in the seat belt at your child's neck, it's not going to be pretty. Why 4 foot 9? If your child is not 4 foot 9, the car seat belt will hit at their neck, not at their shoulder where it belongs. Then when your child is ready for a booster seat, they should be at least age 4, about 40 pounds or more, and you need to continue to have your child in that booster seat until they're 4 foot 9. You can continue to use that seat until you get to the highest weight and height allowed by the seat. They can go into a forward-facing seat with a 5 point restraint when they are at least 2 years old and weigh 30 pounds. The current guidelines and this goes for all the different car seats, the current guidelines are your child should be rear-facing as long as possible: infants until at least age 2 and 30 pounds. But when do you know? But when are you supposed to turn your child around? What the article says is that a rear-facing child safety seat does a better job of supporting the head, neck, and spine of infants and toddlers in a crash because it distributes the force of the collision over the entire body. A couple years ago, there was a study in 2007 in the journal, Injury Prevention, that found that children under the age of two are 75 percent less likely to die or be severely injured in a crash if they were rear-facing.Īnother study found that rear-facing children were five times safer than forward-facing. Cindy Gellner: You probably remember when your child was a baby, they needed to be turned around at age 12 months and 20 pounds. Cindy Gellner, and that's what we're going to talk about today on The Scope.Īnnouncer: Medical news and research from the University of Utah physicians and specialists you can use for a happier and healthier life. Cindy Gellner: A lot of car seat regulations have changed in the past few years as to when your child should be in which car seat and when.