Thursday, March 24, 2011

Rear Facing Until 2 Years: Why Not? Questions and Answers

Today my friend who is a CPST shared a link that is full of common questions and complaints when it comes to the new AAP recommendations, and then the answer or a come back to these questions and complaints.

My favorite that is shared is this one:

2.) Won’t their feet or legs be injured because they are bent or crossed or touching the back of the seat?  No, but this is a very big misconception among parents. In reality, during a frontal crash (the most common type of crash), the legs will fly up and away from the back seat.  It’s also much more important to protect the head, neck and spinal cord in a crash which is exactly what rear-facing carseats do so well.  If you’re still not convinced – there is this study by CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) that looked at injuries to children ages 1 – 4 who were hurt in crashes and leg injuries were rare for those kids in rear-facing seats. However, injuries to the lower extremity region were the second most common type of injury for the kids in forward-facing seats.  That’s because the legs of a child in a forward-facing seat are thrown forward and can hit the console or the back of the front seat. Study quote: “Injuries below the knee were the most common, particularly to the tibia/fibula, and they most often occurred due to interaction with the vehicle seatback in front of the child’s seating position.”

You can read the article by following the link below. 

Rear-Facing Until 2 Years Old: Why Not?

Feel free to share this information with anyone who is questioning the new guidelines.

What are some of the questions and complaints you have gotten from friends and family when you talked about the new recommendations?  What did you say to them?

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