When Do Babies Get Front Facing Car Seat

When to Turn Around Your Baby's Car Seat

Notice out when to safely switch from a rear-facing motorcar seat to a front-facing auto seat, according to the experts.

Picking the right car seat can be disruptive, and knowing when to turn it around tin feel downright baffling. Just thankfully, some tried-and-true guidelines tin help parents keep their baby condom.

Above all, rear-facing car seats are the gold standard for safe, and parents should keep their child in them equally long as possible, says Ben Hoffman, Grand.D., FAAP, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention.

"Information technology all comes down to physics," Dr. Hoffman says. "Car crashes involve a tremendous amount of energy and strength… [with] rear-facing, the head and neck are cradled by a car seat and not thrown forward. It specifically protects the most vulnerable parts."

• RELATED: The Best Rear-Facing Motorcar Seats

When you turn a car seat around depends on a number of factors, including your kid's weight and length, besides as the type of auto seat you choose. Hither's everything parents need to know.

Why Is a Rear-Facing Seat the Gold Standard?

To empathise why children should stay in a rear-facing seat as long as possible, parents first need to know what happens in an accident. If a car crashes at about 30 mph—a relatively low speed—it can throw a 10 pound kid with the strength of almost 450 pounds of momentum, says Dr. Hoffman, who is also a certified child passenger prophylactic technician teacher. For comparing, he notes that's about 40 percent more than momentum than if you were to drop a 10 pound bowling ball out of a third story window.

"All of that forcefulness has to become someplace, and we have to make sure that force is dealt with in a manner that volition protect the person," he says. "One of the most important means that machine seats assist protect kids is that they spread that forcefulness over the widest corporeality of area possible… If yous think about what happens in a rear-facing seat in a crash, the child is pushed into the seat and the entire force of the crash is spread head to toe."

In a front-facing auto seat, the amount of protective surface surface area—a five-point harness, in that case—is a lot smaller. And it doesn't protect a baby's "enormous wiggly-woggly head" as well as a rear-facing seat would.

"An adult who's thrown forrad in a crash may risk injury to their caput and neck because their head and neck are thrown forrard. The aforementioned crash for a child... the head is going to exist thrown frontward with relatively more forcefulness than an developed," Dr. Hoffman says. "The likelihood of them suffering a catastrophic head or neck or spinal injury is significantly greater than it would be for an older [person]."

baby in car seat

Credit: Marlon Lopez MMG1 Design/Shutterstock

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Types of Rear-Facing Car Seats

Wondering well-nigh the all-time time to switch to a forward-facing position? That depends on which car seat you become. Each manufacturer is responsible for determining weight and length limits for their seats, which indicate whether your child should be rear-facing or forrard-facing. (The guidelines aren't based on age.)

These weight and length limits likewise vary by the type of rear-facing seat parents buy. Dr. Hoffman says there are two types of car seats that can face backwards: rear-facing-only seats and convertible seats. When it comes to safety, both types of car seats are every bit protective, Dr. Hoffman says, merely each comes with dissimilar conveniences.

Rear-facing-only seats: These tend to have a maximum weight of well-nigh 30 pounds (with some surpassing that) and a maximum length of about xxx inches, says Dr. Hoffman. They tend to be popular with parents due to the fact they can oftentimes be detached from the motorcar and quickly re-fastened to a stroller base of operations.

Convertible seats: These auto seats start out equally rear-facing and tin can be converted to forward-facing. Nearly all rear-facing convertible seats have a maximum weight of 40 pounds and a length limit of more than 40 inches to remain facing backwards, says Dr. Hoffman. That means they can typically be used rear-facing for longer. As a downside, nonetheless, they do not disassemble from the base in the car.

• RELATED: The All-time Convertible Car Seats

When to Turn a Auto Seat Effectually for Baby

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, all children should ride in a rear-facing seat as long as possible—specifically until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car seat model. "Most convertible seats have limits that will allow children to ride rear facing for 2 years or more than," says the system. "When infants outgrow their rear-facing–only seat, a convertible seat installed rear facing is needed."

Dr. Hoffman agrees with this recommendation. "Our advice is yous stay rear facing as long equally possible considering of physics… until the seat says you need to turn around," he says. "There'south no reason given the seats we have on the market at present a kid should ever have to exist forward-facing before their 2nd birthday." He adds: "The basic principle for everything is you lot filibuster transitions as long equally possible."

Buying and Installing a Car Seat

If you're wondering which motorcar seat to buy, Dr. Hoffman has some advice: "The all-time seat for you is the one that fits your child." It's as well important to retrieve that not every car seat fits every car. And while in that location isn't necessarily a unproblematic fix for that, the National Highway Traffic Safe Assistants rates car seats based on ease of use.

Parents should follow all manufacturer instructions for installing a car seat safely. If you're confused, Dr. Hoffman says the best thing is to speak to a automobile seat technician. Parents can search for a certified auto seat technician on the Safe Kids Worldwide website, on the National Highway Traffic Prophylactic Administration'due south website, or past calling a local children'due south hospital.

• RELATED: How to Safely Match a Car Seat with Your Car

"It's a lot easier now than it was 20 years ago, but it is nonetheless actually hard and we need to acknowledge this," Dr. Hoffman says. "There's no shame in this. This is about protecting your kid from something that could kill them."

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Source: https://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/gear/car-seats/face-babys-car-seat-forward/

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