The safety of my children while riding in a car has always been of great importance to me. I have always followed the law regarding car seats, booster seats, seatbelts and where they are placed. There is debate regarding rear facing child safety seats and how long they should be rear facing. Laws here in California where I live are clear about the issue. For a newborn or infant up to 20-35 pounds, until at least one year of age and 20 pounds must be in the back seat and the car seat may never be facing forward. To be able to face the car seat forward, a child must be over one (1) year of age and weigh at least 20 pounds.
Some still say it’s not safe at such a young age of one to be facing the car seat forward. In other areas, it has been recognized that rear facing car seats are much more safe for children. Some experts recommend that children remain rear facing up until the age of four. It’s not something I completely thought about in the past. Now that it has been brought to my attention, it has me thinking.
In my opinion, with the car seats that are manufactured for children in this age group, might not be difficult to safely be rear faced. However, I’m sure if this became something of the ‘norm’ more companies would manufacture car seats that would safely be rear facing up until a later age. In the UK, there was a Rear Facing Car Seat campaign (rearfacing.motors.co.uk) by Motors.co.uk. It is an interesting point of view to look at.
What are your thoughts?
4 Days Left 
3 comments
Emily
September 27, 2012 at 10:07 (UTC -7) Link to this comment
Why risk it? My son didn’t weigh 20 pounds on his first birthday, in fact, he stayed in the “bucket” seat until he was 15 months old. (At that time he was too tall for it!) We switched him to a rear-facing convertible seat which was great…until we purchased a new vehicle which didn’t allow for the seat to be safely install rear-facing. He was turned forward facing just before turning 2 in both vehicles. In hindsight, I should have bought another car seat when we got that new car, but I didn’t think of it at the time. If we have a 2nd child, I’ll rear-face longer.
I also want to add that just because your child meets the height & weight requirement doesn’t mean that you need to forward face him/her or move him/her to a booster seat.
Teresa Peschke
September 27, 2012 at 08:48 (UTC -7) Link to this comment
We rear face as long as possible. My 3 1/2 year old is still rear facing. We are switching her from a graco my ride 65 to a diono radian because she is very tall but thin and the radian will allow her to be rear facing longer. Our 8 month old will be in a radian when she switches as well.
Amanda
September 27, 2012 at 07:25 (UTC -7) Link to this comment
I rear face as long as possible. My 4.5 year old stayed that way until 2 months before turning 4. My 5 month old will stay as long as possible as well. Better safe than sorry, right?