Young children are probably safer facing backwards in the car

In the UK, it is common for most parents to switch from rearward to forward facing car seats when the baby is around 9 kilos (20 pounds), or around 8 or 9 months old.

Research from Sweden, where it is common to keep children facing backwards until the age of four, has shown that children who died in a forward-facing car seat could potentially have survived if they had been sitting the other way around.  Another study by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showed that rear-facing seats are safer for all accidents for 0-23 months, and children experience far fewer chest and neck injuries.

Dr. Elizabeth Watson, one of the doctors bringing this issue to light, said, “Rear facing car seats cradle a child in an impact with any frontal component, and align the head, neck and spine, spreading the crash forces over all of these body areas.  In a forward facing car seat, a child’s body is held back by the straps, while the head keeps moving forwards, and the relatively large head mass and differences in the cervical spine in young children can lead to excessive stretching of the spinal cord.”

Many parents and health care professionals don’t seem to know that it is safer to leave children in rear-facing car seats until they are older, or even that rearward car seats for toddlers exist.

Duncan Vernon, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, backed the findings.  He said, “The evidence shows that it is safer for children to travel rearward-facing for as long as possible, although that does not mean forward-facing seats are dangerous.”