Who should ride rear-facing?

As mentioned before, in an ideal world everyone would ride rear-facing. Unfortunately, in the US, car seats accommodate only children weighing less than 35 pounds in the rear-facing position. Nonetheless, given the wide array of available seats, most kids can ride rear-facing until they are 2-3 years old.

Never seen a 2 1/2 year old rear-facing? This picture proves it can be done. Many parents in the US think it's "weird" to have a 2 year old rear-facing--most children are switched to forward-facing around their first birthday. But if you lived in Sweden, the idea of a 2 year old FORWARD-facing would be "weird," as they keep kids rear-facing until the ages of 3 or 5. In Sweden, children go straight from rear-facing seats to booster seats! Because kids sit rear-facing for so long, fewer than 1 child a year dies in a rear-facing car seat in Sweden. If we also kept more kids rear-facing, we would not only see fewer deaths, but also fewer injuries--especially the really hard to fix ones like those to the spinal cord and head.