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New Car Seat Policy Keeps Kids in Booster Seats Much Longer
Filed under: Health & Safety: Babies, In The News, Health & Safety: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Health & Safety: Big Kids
If you think it's time to graduate your child out of her car or booster seat, you may want to take a look at a new policy released today by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) which significantly modifies the last guidelines, issued in 2002.
These guidelines are markedly different from the previous policy, which had infants and toddlers riding in rear-facing car seats only until the age of 12 months or 20 pounds at minimum. With this in mind, parents often turned the seat to face the front of the car around the child's first birthday.
"Parents often look forward to transitioning from one stage to the next, but these transitions should generally be delayed until they're necessary, when the child fully outgrows the limits for his or her current stage," Dr. Dennis Durbin, author of the policy statement and technical report, says in a news release.
Durbin says a rear-facing child safety seat better supports the neck, head and spine of infants and toddlers in the event of a crash, as it distributes the force of the collision throughout the entire body.
In support of this idea, the release cites a 2007 study from the journal Injury Prevention with found that children younger than 2 years old are 75 percent less likely to die or be severely injured in a car crash if they are rear-facing.
"The 'age 2' recommendation is not a deadline, but rather a guideline to help parents decide when to make the transition," Durbin says in the release. "Smaller children will benefit from remaining rear-facing longer, while other children may reach the maximum height or weight before 2 years of age."
For larger children, Durbin says a forward-facing seat with a harness is safer than a booster, while a belt-positioning booster seat affords greater protection than just a car seat belt alone, until the seat belt properly fits the child.
With regard to fit, the shoulder belt should lie across the middle of the chest, and not near the neck or face. The lap belt should fit low and snug on the hips and upper thighs, not across the belly, according to the guidelines.
The AAP recommendations also note that children should ride in the rear of the vehicle until they are 13 years old.
The AAP's air travel guidelines call for children younger than 2 to ride in an age- and size-appropriate restraint, even though the Federal Aviation Administration allows infants up to 2 to ride in an adult's lap on an airplane.
"Children should ride properly restrained on every trip in every type of transportation, on the road or in the air," Durbin says.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 2)
3-21-2011 @ 11:12AM
b1 said...well i guess their is a price increase also.Hey is there any information on how thess hybrid and elecric cars do in aserious wreck more than a dent (totaled)
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3-21-2011 @ 12:33PM
jane said...The child in this picture is improperly restrained due to after market head positioning product!
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3-21-2011 @ 1:01PM
Sara said...Not to mention that carseat is horrific
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3-21-2011 @ 3:52PM
Lisa said...Is that picture the best you could do for a child in a car seat? That baby is like 20 years old now! That seat is very very old and wouldn't be considered safe by today's standard.
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3-21-2011 @ 2:28PM
mandy said...Seriously. this is only a way for the states and the car seat manufacturers to make more money. I thought our street were getting safer, safer cars everyone in seatbelts, more control over roads. I have several kids who were so happy they were abole to get out of car seats now I have to tell them sorry a few more years?
I have an older van and let me tell you those booster seats are more dangerous even though I have them strapped in tighly, everytime I turn a corner they still more, tip. Again this is only another money making new rule for manufactures and state. Leave me and my money ALONE.
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3-21-2011 @ 2:42PM
KMS said...Wow, I can't believe everyone's responses. When crash tests show us data like this I listen. I leave my kids in the safest possible carseats as long as possible. I have an almost 10 year old in a booster seat and an almost 6 year old in a 5 point harness carseat. If you look at motor vehicle fatalities now and 10-20 years ago, kids are much safer now and that just keeps improving. So if I have to go spend $40 to buy my child a carseat I will!
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3-21-2011 @ 4:59PM
j said...I like my kids to be nice and safe too. I don't happen to believe that having a child facing the rear for two years is really safe though. We do have their legs to consider. As for a 13 year old not allowed in the front seat, my 12 year old daughter is one inch shorter then I am so to put an age limit on that, in my opinion is a joke not to mention the fact that I can't imagine her in a booster seat still. Even at the age of 8 years old, you would have to get a rather tall booster seat in order to fit the child. Should we send it with them on the bus?
3-22-2011 @ 1:26AM
Jilbait said...My stayed rear facing for 2 plus years, 10 years ago. Would you rather they break a leg or their neck??
3-21-2011 @ 3:17PM
jmaltus said...What a bunch of crap. What do we need to do in order to get the f**ing government out of our lives?
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3-21-2011 @ 6:49PM
David S. said...You can always move to another country. I hear Libya is nice this time of year....
3-21-2011 @ 3:13PM
James said...You know, it's strange, but I'm sixty and we didn't have car seats when I was a kid and we all made it through okay. What's with people today? We didn't go to school and shoot all our friends. We didn't have to take drugs for our lack of attention. A foot in the butt pretty much took care of that. We didn't have school nurses for our bo bo's, we didn't drop dead on the basketball court and we didn't sue the school when the kid got his butt whipped for acting up. Again, what is wrong with you people today?
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3-21-2011 @ 11:41PM
john doe said...James
Your right in all respects but don't forget the cars we rode in back then were BUILT to withstand crashes.Not the cheap plastic junk that folds up like an accordian today with just a little bump.That's why they need to put 20 airbags in them now.
3-21-2011 @ 3:30PM
KMS said...James - your statement about you didn't have carseats back then and you all survived it not a true statement. The number of infants and toddlers who were killed in car accidents has decreased with the use of carseats as well as the number of serious injuries. Carseats have saved thousands of children's lives. So I wonder what is wrong with people like you who don't listen to what the research is showing. I will say as a parent of 4 I will do all I can to protect my kids. Lots of things have changed and just ignoring what is going on today won't help matters at all!
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3-21-2011 @ 4:29PM
AMT said...I think that we should all take a listen to this and pay attention. I know a grandmother who didn't have her grandchild in any carseat who was around five or six and the she was in an accident just a few miles from her house. The child was injured and is in a wheelchair today. The grandmother now has to live with this on a daily basis and so does the mother who said it was ok for her to do that because they were just going up the road. We as parents should do all that we can to protect our children.
3-21-2011 @ 6:21PM
jmaltus said...Maybe you should read "Superfreakeconomics.' Research indicates that there is no additional safety, and indeed risk, with all these new car seat requirements. People don't believe evidence, they believe what feels good. Just an example of the government trying to tell you how to live your life.
3-21-2011 @ 7:31PM
Rita said...This article is fine and dandy for infants, but what about older children - toddlers and school-age children? The only time they are mentioned is when it says they should stay in the back seat up to age 13. Oh, yeah. That works in the real world. When can they get out of the booster seats, etc.? Answer some questions your headline references next time!!
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3-21-2011 @ 4:42PM
Angiebaby said...The government won't be happy until us adults are sitting in booster seats, sleeping in cribs and wearing safety helmets to walk to the mailbox..
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3-21-2011 @ 4:46PM
okmusic said...Stay out of my life, and the life of my children.
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3-21-2011 @ 5:13PM
KMS said...You know everyone has to make decisions for their children and what you think is safe, etc... I think it's crazy to just blow off this information.
And FYI the American Academy of Pediatrics is not the government. They are the leading researchers in children's safety and health so when they make changes to something like this I listen.
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3-21-2011 @ 6:28PM
KMS said...I have tried posting this twice and I don't think it's going through....
The research actually shows that rear facing is safer even for their legs up till 2. Some countries leave their children rear facing until they are 3-4 years old because it's the safest. The research looked at how the legs were effected and it didn't show any significant damage unlike what forward facing does to the rest of their bodies.
I have a 12 1/2 year old and I don't let her ride in the front seat of the car and she is taller than me. It's not as safe as the back seat so I don't let her. Maybe I am not as safe but I thinking of my kids first.
And most kids between 8-12 will reach 4'9" which is what they are really saying is the requirement (if you go to the AAP site and read the full details). And I do have my almost 10 year old in a booster seat. Your comment about a seat being big enough, well if they are too big for a booster seat then that probably means they are over 4'9" tall and not all booster seats have back. The whole point of a booster is to raise them up so that the seat belt fits them in the right place so they are safer. And yes I do think buses should have more guidelines. I think small children on buses should have harnesses of some kind. And when my son goes to visit friends he has to take his booster seat with him. When his friends ask him why he says "because my mom wants me to live". All four of my kids know why they are riding the way they are and why they aren't allowed in the front seat.
I think when you personally know a child who was perfectly fine before an accident and is now a vegetable, it makes you think twice with what you do with your kids.
So my kids will be following the new recommendations because I want them as safe as possible when I am driving 70 mph on the interstate and have no clue the condition of the drivers around me. I hope most states adopt this as law.
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