When Can Babies Start Facing Forward in the Car
When to Turn Around Your Baby'due south Car Seat
Notice out when to safely switch from a rear-facing motorcar seat to a front-facing car seat, according to the experts.
Picking the right auto seat can be confusing, and knowing when to plow it around tin can feel downright inexplainable. But thankfully, some tried-and-true guidelines can assistance parents keep their baby safe.
Above all, rear-facing car seats are the gilded standard for safety, and parents should go along their child in them as long as possible, says Ben Hoffman, Thousand.D., FAAP, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Quango on Injury, Violence, and Poisonous substance Prevention.
"It all comes down to physics," Dr. Hoffman says. "Car crashes involve a tremendous amount of energy and force… [with] rear-facing, the head and neck are cradled by a car seat and not thrown forward. It specifically protects the most vulnerable parts."
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When you lot turn a car seat around depends on a number of factors, including your child's weight and length, every bit well as the type of automobile seat yous cull. Here'south everything parents need to know.
Why Is a Rear-Facing Seat the Gold Standard?
To understand why children should stay in a rear-facing seat as long as possible, parents start demand to know what happens in an accident. If a machine crashes at about 30 mph—a relatively low speed—it can throw a 10 pound child with the forcefulness of nigh 450 pounds of momentum, says Dr. Hoffman, who is also a certified child rider safety technician teacher. For comparison, he notes that's about 40 percent more momentum than if y'all were to drop a 10 pound bowling ball out of a tertiary story window.
"All of that force has to go someplace, and nosotros have to make sure that force is dealt with in a way that volition protect the person," he says. "I of the most important means that car seats help protect kids is that they spread that force over the widest amount of area possible… If yous remember well-nigh what happens in a rear-facing seat in a crash, the kid is pushed into the seat and the entire force of the crash is spread head to toe."
In a front end-facing automobile seat, the amount of protective surface area—a v-bespeak harness, in that case—is a lot smaller. And it doesn't protect a baby's "enormous wiggly-woggly head" as well equally a rear-facing seat would.
"An adult who's thrown forward in a crash may risk injury to their head and cervix considering their head and neck are thrown forward. The same crash for a kid... the head is going to be thrown frontwards with relatively more strength than an adult," Dr. Hoffman says. "The likelihood of them suffering a catastrophic head or cervix or spinal injury is significantly greater than it would be for an older [person]."
Credit: Marlon Lopez MMG1 Design/Shutterstock
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Types of Rear-Facing Motorcar Seats
Wondering nearly the best time to switch to a forward-facing position? That depends on which motorcar seat yous get. Each manufacturer is responsible for determining weight and length limits for their seats, which betoken whether your child should be rear-facing or forward-facing. (The guidelines aren't based on age.)
These weight and length limits also vary by the type of rear-facing seat parents buy. Dr. Hoffman says in that location are 2 types of motorcar seats that tin can face backwards: rear-facing-only seats and convertible seats. When it comes to safety, both types of machine seats are equally protective, Dr. Hoffman says, merely each comes with different conveniences.
Rear-facing-only seats: These tend to have a maximum weight of about xxx pounds (with some surpassing that) and a maximum length of virtually thirty inches, says Dr. Hoffman. They tend to exist pop with parents due to the fact they can often be detached from the automobile and chop-chop re-attached to a stroller base.
Convertible seats: These car seats starting time out every bit rear-facing and can exist converted to forward-facing. Nearly all rear-facing convertible seats take a maximum weight of 40 pounds and a length limit of more than 40 inches to remain facing backwards, says Dr. Hoffman. That means they can typically be used rear-facing for longer. As a downside, withal, they practice not disassemble from the base in the motorcar.
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When to Turn a Car Seat Around for Infant
Co-ordinate to the American Academy of Pediatrics, all children should ride in a rear-facing seat as long as possible—specifically until they reach the highest weight or height immune by their car seat model. "Near convertible seats accept limits that will allow children to ride rear facing for 2 years or more," says the system. "When infants outgrow their rear-facing–merely seat, a convertible seat installed rear facing is needed."
Dr. Hoffman agrees with this recommendation. "Our communication is you stay rear facing equally long equally possible because of physics… until the seat says you lot demand to turn around," he says. "There's no reason given the seats we have on the market at present a child should e'er take to be forward-facing before their second birthday." He adds: "The basic principle for everything is you delay transitions as long as possible."
Buying and Installing a Automobile Seat
If y'all're wondering which car seat to buy, Dr. Hoffman has some advice: "The best seat for y'all is the ane that fits your child." It's also important to recollect that not every auto seat fits every car. And while there isn't necessarily a elementary set for that, the National Highway Traffic Condom Assistants rates auto seats based on ease of utilise.
Parents should follow all manufacturer instructions for installing a car seat safely. If yous're dislocated, Dr. Hoffman says the all-time thing is to speak to a machine seat technician. Parents can search for a certified auto seat technician on the Safe Kids Worldwide website, on the National Highway Traffic Prophylactic Assistants's website, or by calling a local children's hospital.
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"Information technology's a lot easier now than it was xx years ago, but information technology is notwithstanding actually difficult and we need to acknowledge this," Dr. Hoffman says. "There'south no shame in this. This is about protecting your child from something that could impale them."
Source: https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/gear/car-seats/face-babys-car-seat-forward/
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