When Should Your Child Turn Forward-Facing?

The American Academy of Pediatrics has always recommended that children ride rear-facing until they are AT LEAST 1 YEAR OLD and AT LEAST 20 POUNDS. Many people still misunderstand this and mistakenly think that you must turn a child around as soon as they reach 1 year old and 20 pounds. The truth is that this is just a bare minimum that the child must meet before turning. In 2002, the Academy updated their recommendations, adding that children should stay rear-facing until they are too big for rear-facing.

What does that mean? When is a child too big for rear-facing? A child can be either too heavy, too tall, or both--but all of this depends on the specifcations of the car seat. Each car seat has its own height and weight limits for rear-facing children. Most convertible seats allow children to sit rear-facing up to 30-35 pounds. The height limit for any rear-facing car seat is that there must be at least 1 inch of room between the top of the child’s head and the top of the car seat. This inch ensures that as the child slides up the seat in a crash, his head will stay protected. Given the design of most car seats, the majority of children become too tall for rear-facing seats before they become too heavy. Therefore, when you purchase a convertible car seat, try to select one that is taller in seated height for the child.

This girl has just outgrown her rear-facing seat.

Simply put, there are ZERO documented cases of rear-facing children breaking their legs, hips, feet, etc., due to their feet touching the back of the vehicle seat. However, since it looks plausible, this rumor persists.

Unfortunately there are too many documented cases of head and spinal cord injuries due to children riding forward-facing too soon. Modern medicine can easily fix a broken leg, but not a broken neck.

What about big babies? A 95th percentile baby may look stronger than his 5th percentile friend, but in a crash the bigger baby is likely MORE at risk if he's riding forward-facing. The rigidity of bones and the stregth of ligaments in the spine is likely the same in children of the same age, no matter their size. And a 95th percentile baby likely has a much larger, heavier head, which will pull forward which much more force than that of a 5th percentile child.