Welcome to our ongoing Mythbusting Series where we explore common myths regarding kids and carseats.
Myth: My child’s legs will be injured in a crash if their feet are touching the back of the seat or if their legs are bent
This is a common and very persistent myth. Child Passenger Safety Technicians spend a lot of time talking to parents about this concern.
In reality, during a frontal crash (the most common type of crash), the child’s legs will fly up and away from the back seat as the carseat rotates downward. 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 often hit the hard center console or the back of the front seat.
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.
The video below is part of the curriculum for training new Child Passenger Safety Technicians. In the video, Dr. Marilyn Bull, MD, outlines the reasons why rear-facing is so important and also addresses the concerns many parents have about older children with longer legs.
We also need to address the issue of comfort since that’s another big hang-up that adults seem to have with older kids. The reality is that while *we* might not be happy if we had to sit this way for prolonged periods, kids will always find a way to make themselves comfortable. They might sit “criss-cross applesauce”, or they might stretch their legs straight out and prop them up, or they might even dangle them over the sides of the carseat. Regardless of how they make themselves comfortable – they will always find a way.
This Myth is Definitely BUSTED.
One final point to make is that kids don’t wake up one morning with an extra 5″ of legs. Every day is the same as yesterday except maybe you’re a millimeter taller today. Kids don’t notice growing – and when they grow enough to warrant a shift in how they position their legs when sitting rear-facing, they will make the adjustment without even thinking about it.
Check out more of CSB’s popular Mythbusting series:
You can damage your car seat by installing it too tightly
3-Across & Adjacent Car Seat Installations
Rear-facing car seats can’t touch front vehicle seats
Legs bent or feet touching the backseat when rear-facing is dangerous
We’re all going to die in an airplane crash, so using a carseat is pointless
A 5-point harness is safer than a booster seat for older kids
Your pediatrician is a car seat expert
You need an infant carseat (RFO) for a newborn
LATCH is safer than a seat belt installation
I nanny a 3 year old who is RF. she doesn’t HAVE to be, but she CAN be and so I moved her back to RF in my car about a month after I started caring for her. she turns 4 next year and I think she will still be small enough until around 4.5 (at least height wise) fairly sure she will outgrow due to height and torso length first. so I am just waiting on that to move her but when I move her, I’ll be putting her in a harness booster.
Okay, so seeing these pictures, I’m having a debate with myself. My daughter just turned 3. She is 3’4″ and weighs 40 pounds. When we went to a local car seat safety event, they told me she has to be forward-facing and actually gave me a Cosco Finale seat so she could face forward. Little brother is now in her Graco 4-in-1 and is rear-facing (though they told me he should face forward as well…). Based on these pictures, does she need to be rear-facing? I’m not certain this seat will accommodate that, but I’ll buy a different one if I need to.
Hi Rebecca. Absolutely not! Legs touching the back seat are NOT a factor in determining whether or not a child needs to be turned forward (and neither is age for that matter). Graco carseats accommodate kids RF to 49″ or until their heads reach within 1″ of the adjuster handle of the headrest of the all-in-ones. If her carseat weight limit maxes at 40 lbs., then she does need a different carseat—either one with a 50 lbs. RF weight limit or a FF carseat, which the Finale is. So, take a look at the owner’s manual/labels for her Graco and see about those weight limits, then you can make a decision about FF for her. Age 3 isn’t awful for FF, so don’t feel bad if you keep her that way.
Thank you reassuring that it’s still considered safer, even though it might look less comfortable. This is a huge debate at my household, but I would rather have my daughter uncomfortable than injured 🤕
Yes, you look uncomfortable. Can you imagine sitting like that for several hours? Most of the timely child is in a car it’s because we are driving long distance, we stop every couple hours on the 5-7 hour trips.. and he’s just getting tall enough his feet touch the seat. But that little girl reading… she won’t be happy like that for 2 hours or more will she?
And I’m sure my son won’t be either. So it’s safer, but you wont convince me its comfortable.
Also here in my state a booster is required in till the hight of 4ft 9inch
Regardless of age. I know an adult whos only 4’8” I asked about it once according to one police officer she should be using a booster.
Kids are more flexible than adults. I’m an unusually flexible person for my age, and that position does look decently comfortable for me. (More than the standard upright sitting pose, in fact.) The one issue is that the blood might run out of her legs, but she could very easily cross her legs or hang them off the sides. In addition, sitting too long with your legs down can cause deep vein thrombosis – not a concern in that position! For an extended trip, you should be making regular stops for your own sake, anyway. You’ll need it more than a preschooler in a rear-facing car seat will.
my two year old is 36 inches tall, we drove 16 hours to Arizona, and 16 hours home from Arizona with him rear facing in his seat, and he didn’t complain once. He was actually really good in the car. I would imagine driving a long distance with feet just dangling would be way more uncomfortable. I hate it when I’m sitting in a bar stool that doesn’t have a place for me to rest my feet, the dangling is awful.
An adult’s skeletal structure is set and the bones are harder to break than a child’s bones. Therefore, adults who are shorter do not need a booster seat. However, it is probably a good idea to get a seat belt adjuster that allows the seat belt to fit properly across the hips, chest and shoulder.
In addition, adults have larger hips, so that a lap belt that doesn’t fit perfectly is less likely to move into the soft tissue of the abdomen and cause serious injury.
Also, if the shoulder belt is uncomfortable on an adult’s neck, they are at least old enough to know better than to move the belt behind their arm or back. A child may not be old enough to reason the risks and may automatically move the belt and put themselves at risk for serious head injury as well.
My granddaughter regularly travels 4-6 trips, she is a very tall 3 year old, and her height is in her legs. She is rf and will be till she reaches the seat limits. She gets comfortable and sleeps, can’t be too bad.
That may look uncomfortable to old bones, but kids will choose to sit in positions like that indoors.
On the plus side, Babies R Us no longer teaches a bizarre curriculum’where ‘feet reaching the edge of the infant seat is a good time to turn kids forward’ (would have made things really bad for a lot of babies in some seats where the feet start sticking out at 4 months *cough* Britax Chaperone*cough*), but on the negative side, people still freak out about feet touching the seatback. I should probably let the new mantra of ‘broken neck, casket, broken leg, cast it’ take hold, but I can’t. I give them the straight info about FF being more dangerous to feet and legs. And then I make them feel like more empowered parents by advising them that the top tether for FF is the ‘next best thing to RF’.