Pediatricians Make Updates Recommendations on Car Seats

There can be no dispute that technology has made cars and trucks safer over the past 25 years.  Airbags, crush zones, rollover sensors, roll stability control, side impact protection systems, and the like have made all vehicles safer for ourselves and our children.  Likewise, children's car seats have become safer over the past decade.  They are now more padded, molded to the child's body contours, and impact absorbing, not to mention the fact that the 5-point harness has saved tens of thousands of children's lives, if not hundreds of thousands, over the past 25 years. 

However, one thing has been lacking, and still is to some extent, but the American Academy of Pediatrics is doing its part to change things.  In the April 2011 issue of Pediatrics magazine, the Academy advises parents to keep their toddlers in rear-facing car seats until age 2, or until they reach the MAXIMUM height and weight for the seat.  This is a departure from the prior policy issued in 2002 that recommended keeping infants in rear-facing seats until 12 months and 20 pounds as a minimum. 

The new policy also recommends keeping children in a forward-facing 5-point harness child car seat until age 7, or until the child reaches the maximum height and weight requirement for the seat.  This policy is, again, much stricter than the prior policy that placed an arbitrary weight maximum of 40 pounds. 

Finally, in a surprising move, but one that the Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Attorneys at Denena & Points, P.C. feel is very appropriate, the Academy recommends transitioning your children from forward-facing 5-point harness car seats to booster seats until he or she is 4' 9" and between 8 and 12 years old.  Most safety advocates feel that most children are not physically large enough to sit in a regular seat until they weigh more than 100 pounds, in addition to the height requirement. 

The Academy also STRONGLY recommends that children should ride in the rear of the vehicle until they are 13 years old.  Again, this is a departure from the 2002 policy. 

The bottom line is this:  DO NOT LET YOUR KIDS SIT IN THE FRONT SEAT UNTIL THEY ARE 13 AND KEEP YOUR KIDS IN SOME FORM OF CHILD SAFETY SEAT BASED ON THE ABOVE RECOMMENDATIONS FROM ONE OF THE MOST REPUTABLE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE WORLD UNTIL THEY ARE TALLER THAN 4' 9" and WEIGH MORE THAN 100 POUNDS!