AAP Advises Keeping Your Child in Rear-Facing Car Seat until Age 2
The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a new statement advising parents to keep their children in rear-facing car seats until age 2, or until they exceed the height or weight limit for their seat's rear-facing capacity.
Right now, the law in most states is that children MUST be rear-facing until age 1 and/or 20 pounds.
CNN reports, "A 2007 study in the journal Injury Prevention found that children under age 2 are 75 percent less likely to die or to be severely injured in a crash if they are rear-facing. Another study found riding rear-facing to be five times safer than forward-facing."
While this may come as a shock to some parents, the AAP has been encouraging parents to keep car seats rear-facing since 2002.
This video from Seattle Children's Hospital explains some of the reasoning and also shows how to install a car seat.
Infant Car Seat Safety from Seattle Children's on Vimeo.
How do you feel about this new push from the AAP? Will it change when you go front-facing or will you switch your child back to rear-facing?
