Thank you so much for putting this together. Now I have a link to send parents who think I’m crazy for erf. My almost 3yr old loves it!

Wow, what a great article to point people to! Thanks for putting this all together.

Great blog!! Thank you. I’m bookmarking this.

It’s great to have all of these resources in one place–this will be where I send parents wanting more information on extended RF from now on! You ROCK

Bravo! This is an excellent compilation to refer parents and caregivers to for rear facing advocacy, thanks!

Great blog but the loose harness in the pic with the rear facing blue Marathon is driving me nuts!

Awesome! Bookmarking!

LOL! C’mon people – do you REALLY think we would post a picture with blatent misuse? His harness is/was properly adjusted. Since it’s my kid (albeit 4 years ago)and I took the picture – I can guarantee that it was fine. It’s just the way he’s slumping to one side while sleeping that is causing that effect. Plus, you can see it’s adjusted properly since it’s straight and snug on one side. The MA harness isn’t one continuous strap like a Scenera so it’s not possible for one side to be looser than the other (unless something is wrong). Now obviously the picture wasn’t staged which is why is doesn’t look perfect but it does a nice job illustrating that toddlers are much more comfortable in the RF position (especially when sleeping) due to the recline angle and their ability to prop their feet up.

Wow! Thanks so much for putting all these resources together. Definitely will hang on to this page.

Heather, thanks for compiling this great easy-to-link-to list of information! I’m definitely bookmarking it.

Thanks Heather! This is great! I already posted it to my FB!!

Thanks for all your hard work, Heather, this is a really great resource!

Thanks, this is great. I’ve already passed this on to mom and MIL.

while I’m all for safety, I don’t feel having a child crammed up in a rear facing seat all that safe. Also, children are all unique. Different sizes, heights, weights and won’t fit into this mold. For example, when my oldest was four he no longer fit his booster seat. He was just too long, and the older booster seats had bars that went across the legs, and his poor legs would be squished to the point he’d complain of pain. My youngest is heavy enough and old enough for front facing. She also has proven her dislike for the rear facing by lifting her head up and smashing herself back into the seat when we are in the car and moving. She moves the whole seat. I also do not agree with leaving a child in a booster seat until they are 8yrs old. I might as well stick my kid in a bubble. Oh and that whole seat not reclining if it’s front facing is outdated. More vehicles have back seats that are already reclined, or it’s possible to recline them so that a front facing seat can sit properly in the vehicle. I think people need to practice using car seats properly, but also learn how to be defensive drivers and drive properly themselves. That in itself will keep one safer. As for keeping rear facing. There is safe and there is overkill.

Is it overkill to get your kid a flu shot for your toddler? To have them wear a life preserver? To keep poisons, matches and weapons out of reach? Of course not, despite the fact that some parents may feel these things are overkill. As Heather indicated in her references, studies are showing that it is not overkill to keep a child rear facing to at least 2 years old and preferably beyond. Motor vehicle crashes claim more lives of children than any other cause, and extended rear-facing is proving to be one method to reduce these numbers.

Having a child in a carseat is hardly like putting them in a “bubble”. What freedoms are they losing, exactly? The freedom to escape a seat belt more easily and roam about unsafely in the car?

Children’s attitudes toward being in a child seat are another issue. In cases of behavior, each child is indeed unique. For example, for those who cry because of leg room, those same reclining seat backs that can help accomodate a front facing seat also give a little more leg room for rear-facing.

That video of the front facing crash test was absurd. The seatbelt was clearly not locked as intended. My kids are too old for this to apply to them, so other than pointing out that seatbelts in modern cars have locking mechanisms so you can lock the seatbelt in place, I will stay out of this.

thanks for putting this together in one post – I’ve added it to my car seat bookmarks!

To whomever commented that their 4 year old was squished, please do some research on the avilable carseats!

My daughter was 11lbs, 4ozs at birth and is consistently in the 90th percentile for height and weight. But I know there are carseats available that will safely and comfortably take her into the toddler years rearfacing.

For those who have tall and skinny kids, the Radian XTSL is a great choice. It will take your chil rearfacing to 45lbs and forward facing HARNESSED to 65lbs.

My super tall 5 year old sister is rearfacing in a True Fit right now. They can easily put their legs over the side or fold them indian style. You don’t even need to teach them this; little kids know how to do these things easily.

I’d rather have my child fold her legs indian style than deal with a snapped spine. It really does boggle my mind that debate even exists in this topic.

I’d be interested in seeing video on a crash test done with a forward facing seat that had the latch system installed as well as the top tether that ties the top of the child’s car seat down. Do you guys know of one of those that we can see?

To the person who commented on how it’s absurd to use a booster for an 8 yr old I would like to tell you that my 10 yr old son has been in a booster seat since he outgrew his carseat. He is in a backless booster right now but a booster none the less. He is 51 inches tall and 56 lbs and does NOT fit correctly in the seat without the booster.

http://www.carseat.org has a simple 5 step test to check to see if your child still needs a booster. It is not necessarily about height, weight or age it is how they FIT sitting in the car/truck. Seatbelts were designed to fit an average size man not a child!!!

My son has never been teased by anyone and he doesn’t argue with me much about it because he knows he will not win. I do not bend with safety issues. Just as I would not let him play with a gun or smoke a cigarette I will not let him become a moving projectile in the car. He can argue with me all he wants as long as he is alive and here to argue with me.

Oh and my son is not in a bubble or deprived of anything. He does karate, snowboarding, baseball, swimming, he has a bike, a scooter, etc. He has always been given every opportunity to do whatever he wants. My only rule is he must have safety in mind so he wears his helmet and any other safety equipment as needed.

My 7 month old daughter just graduated to her new Radian XTSL. I did a lot of research and came to the conclusion that my child isn’t less important than the children of other countries like Sweden who have higher standards when it comes to child passenger safety. So my daughter will be RF until she is at least 45 lbs. Thank you for this site. It just gives me more hope and confidence that I am not the only one who cares about this issue.

Is there a video of front facing using the LATCH system? I have a friend who thinks because they used the seatbelt in that video that the same thing wouldn’t happen if it was the LATCH forward facing. Video link?????

I think the latch system would help prevent the car seat from being thrown all around. However I think even with the latch system the head and limbs of the child would still be forced violently forward causing considerable injuries.

There is always a fine line between being safety conscious and going overboard. If my family had followed the guidelines about how long a child should be in a car seat and booster seat, I would have been in one (depending on which guidelines you consult) through the first year of HIGH SCHOOL!

Many of my 12 younger siblings would have been in the same unfortunate and humiliating position. We were certainly all forward-facing by 2 years old depending on the child, and my parents were indubitably the most overprotective I have ever heard of…you should have seen us trying to rollerblade with helmets, mouth guards, kneepads, elbow pads and wrist guards!

Also, we are currently trying to decide what to do with our own daughter about her car seat. I tried simulating the possible positions in which she could she could wind up. While the earlier example of sitting on a barstool without your feet propped gets uncomfortable (as in a forward-facing seat), so does sitting in a reclined position with your knees up like the kid in the picture.

Someone mentioned that our knees also bend when we sit straight up, but if you recline that position like a child in a car seat would be doing, the raised knees cause a loss of blood. I am a coach and have tried to sleep that way on many long, late bus trips. There is absolutely no feeling in your legs when you get up. I don’t really know what the best solution is….I suppose ever-adapting car seat models, but there’s only so much space to work with inside a car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvyIv9QVRBE is a great video that shows kids happily RF with their legs in different positions. It also shows a little boy, Joel, who received a broken neck from FF in a minor car accident. I think if we asked Joel how comfortable the back brace was that he had to wear for a very long time he would say not too comfy! Just my opinion of course.
I have also been on long car trips with children of all ages and I can safely say that their bladders give out long before their legs do. If you are taking a car trip with a child you should plan on making frequent stops to use the restroom and stretch everyones legs. Even my legs get sore sitting in the front seat.
No one will have to ask me twice whether I would choose my child complaining of sore legs and needing to stop the vehicle to stretch over my child complaining that her back brace or neck brace is uncomfortable and having no ability to alleviate her discomfort.

Do you have any links that explain spinal development in toddlers? I’d like to see more about that. I want more fuel for discussing with peers. My daughter is still rear facing at 2.5 and will continue to. We have no issues to battle, i.e. our Radian fits well rear-facing in our car, she is happy as a clam in her seat, she doesn’t get carsick, etc. When I talk about extended rear-facing to my peers, they always have some sort of seemingly reasonable issue with it-issues my children have never encountered. Are they just projecting? I don’t know. It reminds me of someone above who said how absurd it would be to have your child in a booster through junior high. It’s only absurd because you as a parent assumes it is and teaches your child it is (and other parents teach their children that attitude as well). There is nothing inherently absurd about it…

One of the links to studies you title as “Forward-facing children are more likely to sustain leg injuries in crashes than rear-facing children.” But when I clicked over and read the abstract, it said nothing about the *comparative* rate of leg injuries in RF vs FF, only that the issue of lower leg injuries in FF needs to be addressed. Can someone who has read the full study, not just the abstract, weigh in?

We need more RF seats on the market. There aren’t many to choose from here.

I also agree with others about the booster seats. Going by the current regulations, I would still need one now!

Fantastic article on one of my soap boxes! I have posted in on my FB and website. Thanks!!

I think people who question whether a tether or latch system was used in the FFing crash tests are missing the point. It’s the force of the head moving forward that’s dangerous, and no car seat is equipped with a head strap! Remember your high school physics class, and that whole bit about inertia? It doesn’t matter whether the car seat is tethered, latched, whatever – it’s the HEAD and LIMBS continuing to move when the car’s forward motion is abruptly slowed that creates the force on the child’s neck. RFing car seats prevent that from happening and absorb that force, which is esp. important for infants and toddlers whose heads are so large in relation to their bodies, and necks are comparatively weak. The forces in a rear-end collision tend to be lower and are distributed differently thru the vehicle, making RFing safe for those crashes as well.

Thanks for putting this together. We are RFing our 2nd child much longer – live and learn! I wish our laws would change to protect more children.

The head excursion relative to the vehicle seat is very much related to the performance of the child safety seat and how well it is coupled to the vehicle through the seatbelt or LATCH system. When front facing, that performance is almost always improved with a tether. The less head excursion, the less risk that the head strikes a hard interior feature of the vehicle. There is no doubt that rear-facing is a safer mode of travel, especially for babies and toddlers that cannot as easily withstand the forces on the neck and spine in a front facing child seat. Later, as a child’s body matures, the skeletal and connective tissues can withstand these forces better and the main risk becomes that of a direct impact to the head. Properly installed and used, front-facing seats provide a great deal of protection, too.

Love it! It’s great to have the commentary along with the wonderful rearface videos in one article. Great job!

For all of the parents worrying about leg injuries–isn’t it more important to protect your child’s neck? Leg bones are much stronger than neck bones, and they can be fixed, whereas a neck cannot. An impact strong enough to break a leg is strong enough to break a neck. Even if you don’t believe the statistics indicating that rear facing children are not more likely to injur their legs, isn’t it still more prudent to protect against the most severe and potentially fatal type of injury?