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Infant Car Seats

Lottie

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If your baby is younger than one year, he should ride in the back seat in a rear-facing infant seat. Once he is older than 1 year and weighs more than 20 pounds, he can ride facing forward, but should still ride in the back seat—that’s the safest place for all passengers, since most crashes are head on. (And never put your baby in the front passenger seat of any vehicle that has an air bag on the passenger side.)
Why is it so important to have your baby facing backwards? When a vehicle stops suddenly anyone inside will continue to move forward. The purpose of a seat belt is, of course, to keep this from happening. However, the head is not restrained and does move forward while the shoulders are held back. An infant’s spinal column is not ready to withstand high forces; the vertebrae are not completely turned to bone and the connecting ligaments are lax. If your baby is facing forward in a severe crash and his head snaps forward, the pressure on his neck can pull the flexible vertebrae and ligaments apart. This can cause spinal cord damage, paralysis and even death.

However, if your baby is facing to the rear, both her body and her head are pushed backwards (toward the front of the car) and the crash forces are evenly distributed across her entire body.

A doctor’s physical exam of your child cannot show if she is ready to face forward, especially since most doctors will look at muscle strength and head control, which are not the issue. Known cases of serious neck-tension injuries among forward-facing children are rare, but there are no such cases among rear-facing children.

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