Advise use of rear facing child car seats for children under 4 years old

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1994

Published 11 June 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1994
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1994

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Advise use of rear facing child car seats for children under 4 years old

Elizabeth A Watson, general practice retainer¹, Michael J Monteiro, specialist registrar²

¹ Sunny Meed Surgery, Woking GU22 7EY , ² Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford GU2 7XX

Correspondence to: E A Watson eliwat1@yahoo.co.uk

This article explores why it is safer for young children totravel in a rear facing seat until they are 4 years old

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Many babies are switched from a rear facing carseat to a forward facing seat at 9 kg (8 months of age for aboy on the 50th centile)

Excessive stretching or even transectionof the spinal cord can result if a child is involved in a head-oncrash while in a forward facing car seat

Rear facing seatsare safer than forward facing seats for children under 4 yearsold

Parents and guardians should be advised to keep young childrenin rear facing seats for as long as possible

In many countries it is a legal requirement that children undera certain height or age (1 m 35 cm or 12 years, in the UnitedKingdom) use child restraints appropriate for their weight whiletravelling in a car. This significantly reduces morbidity andmortality.¹ European car seats for babies and young childrenare classified as group 0+ (from birth . . . [Full text of this article]

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