This is something I definitely feel passionately about. The position of your child's car seat can mean the difference between life and death during a crash.
I remember being a young child and bouncing around the back seat of my parents' station wagon, so I know how it was "back in the day," and i obviously survived (we were also never in an accident), but times have changed and testing shows that rear facing in an appropriate sized car seat is the absolute safest way for your baby/toddler/preschooler to travel.
It is common practice in most of Europe for children to rear face until age 5.
Babies' vertebrae are in pieces at birth and do not fuse together until 3-6 years of age. This coupled with proportionately large, heavy heads makes their spine extremely vulnerable to severe or fatal injuries like internal decapitation.
This article contains a picture comparing a 1 year olds vertebrae to a 6 year old's. Note how the 1 year old vertebrae is in three pieces.
Why Rear Facing Is Safer - Rear Facing Toddlers
Rear facing puts less stress on the body during accidents and dramatically reduces injury or death compared to forward facing. Excerpt from above article.
"Using a rear facing car seat reduces the risk of serious injury or death from 40% to just 8% compared to a forward facing seat."
Please watch the videos before replying.
https://youtu.be/Y2DVfqFhseo
https://youtu.be/di0dSVJm-Rc
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