Pulse

New video emphasizes keeping children in rear-facing car seats as long as possible

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Parents often rush to stop using a rear-facing car seat as their child grows. Experts say, don’t be in a hurry.

With AAA forecasting that 55 million Americans will travel during Thanksgiving, a timely new video funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation and Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles emphasizes the safety advantages of a rear-facing child seat versus a front-facing seat during a crash.

“When a child is rear-facing, the seat itself absorbs most of the crash forces,” explains Kelli England, PhD, clinical psychologist and Toy Savage Endowed Professor of Pediatrics at Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University, and producer of the public service video.

A rear-facing seat functions much like a catcher’s mitt, said C. Jesus Meeks, MD, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University.

“A rear-facing car seat cradles the child during a crash, keeping them down and in the seat with their head and spine aligned,” Dr. Meeks said in a clip from the video. “The forces during a crash are intense. The longer they stay rear-facing, the better they are protected.”

Parents often are driven to switch to a forward-facing seat because they worry that their growing child is uncomfortable facing backwards, Dr. England said.

“The truth is their bodies are much more flexible than adults and so they’re perfectly OK sitting backwards,” she says. “It’s much more important that we protect their head and spine for their safety.”

The best thing you can do, she said, is to keep them rear facing as long as possible. Experts now recommend keeping your child in a rear-facing car seat well past age two and even up to age four.

Watch the new video , take the car seat fit test, or learn more at www.carsafetynow.org