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Child Safety Information

Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:09 am
by brian
Mar 22, 2011: NY Times: Rear-Facing Car Seats Advised at Least to Age of 2
  • Toddlers are usually switched from rear-facing to forward-facing car seats right after their first birthday — an event many parents may celebrate as a kind of milestone.
    But in a new policy statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the nation’s leading pediatricians’ group says that is a year too soon
    In a new policy published in the April 2011 issue of Pediatrics (published online March 21), the AAP advises parents to keep their toddlers in rear-facing car seats until age 2, or until they reach the maximum height and weight for their seat. It also advises that most children will need to ride in a belt-positioning booster seat until they have reached 4 feet 9 inches tall and are between 8 and 12 years of age.
    The previous policy, from 2002, advised that it is safest for infants and toddlers to ride rear-facing up to the limits of the car seat, but it also cited age 12 months and 20 pounds as a minimum. As a result, many parents turned the seat to face the front of the car when their child celebrated his or her first birthday.
see the full article Rear-Facing Car Seats Advised at Least to Age of 2