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April 21st, 2010 admin No comments

Seats Old
How does extending rear facing car seats past 1 year old reduce injury in a car accident?

it seems like no matter what way you put the car seat injury will happen. im just wondering because my baby is 6 months old and his feet are already close to touching the back of the seat in his rear facing convertible car seat. i would like to turn the seat around when he turns 1 year but i heard it should be extended.
jen--for some reason that link doesnt work

A child's bones do not ossify until between 3 and 6 years of age. What this means, is that their spinal column is in pieces, which allows it to stretch farther than the spinal cord can withstand. The forces applied to the body in an accident are far greater than most people realize. To estimate this, times weight by speed. A 20 lb baby in a vehicle moving only 30 mph will move toward the point of impact with 600 lbs of force! Now, a properly restrained child will be held in place by the harness, but there is nothing holding back the head. And keep in mind also that a child is proportioned differently than an adult and are already top-heavy. All this pressure on the neck can allow the spinal column to stretch up to two inches. But the spinal cord can only take a quarter of an inch before breaking. This literally separates the skull from the spine. It is known as internal decapitation and is nearly always fatal.

However, put that same child rear facing, and the child will be pushed back into the car seat as the car seat cradles the child and absorbs the crash force for them. Watch the following two videos on YouTube to see this very thing in action.

One thing many people now ask is "but what if I'm rear ended, wouldn't it be safer forward facing?" Actually, the answer is no. First of all, rear end accidents account for only 4% of all accidents. Second, they are very rarely as serious as frontal and side impact because they typically involve lower speeds, and the cars are generally going in the same direction. So while it seems that a rear end accident would be the opposite of a front end crash, it really isn't. The dynamics are entirely different and a rear facing child will still be very protected. And for side impact crashes, it has been shown that rear facing is significantly safer in these crashes as well.

As for feet touching the vehicle seat: There is nothing wrong with this. Many people think that their child is 'out of room' once their feet touch the seat back, but there is still plenty of room for them and it is perfectly safe. Children are comfortable in positions adults would not like. Watch your child climb up on the sofa or sit in a chair. Their legs almost always come up. They can sit in the car seat with their legs propped up on the vehicle seat, drape them over the sides, or sit criss-cross-applesauce.

A rear facing child who's legs touch the seat are not at risk of their legs being broken. There are actually no documented cases of a child's legs being broken due to rear facing. However, one of the leading injuries to forward facing children? Broken legs. Watch the videos linked above and watch the limbs of the forward facing dummy. And if a crash were severe enough to break a rear facing child's legs, it will be more than enough to break a forward facing child's neck. Broken legs = cast it. Broken neck = casket.

In short, yes, injuries can happen no matter what way a child faces, and some crashes are simply not survivable. But rear facing gives them a much greater chance of walking away from an accident. The statistics say that it is five times (or 500%) safer. That is a very big difference. No one plans on getting in an accident, and we all hope that the measures we take will never be put to the test. But there are no warnings, and no do-overs, so it is up to us to do whatever we can to protect our children in case of an accident.