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I heard a short news clip on NPR+ yesterday morning. It was on a topic that really rises my ire: car seats.
Now, I'm a HUGE advocate for appropriate use of car seats, and for correct installation. I know they save lives, and can really protect children.
This NPR article was about how we need to have children remain rear-facing "for as long as possible". What the hat!?!?
I cannot see my three-year-old daughter sitting backwards in a car seat! First, where would her legs go? Is she supposed to scrunch them up? Second, how do I get her INTO the car seat- do I have to lift her over? or does she climb in with muddy/snowy boots and then sit in the mess until I wash the cover (which might not be until the snow melts... on the ground). Third, what talking child wants to look at the back of a car seat? I mean, really, I have some rather engaging dialogues with my daughters, and it's usually through the rear-view mirror. They can see my eyes and face, and I can glance at theirs. Even Veronica and I have exchanges (although her vocabulary is still very limited). Fourth, is it that much safer?
I can see keeping a child in a rear-facing car seat until child is over a certain weight limit, maybe even more than the current requirement of 20 lbs, or even until they reach a certain height limit (only recommended by the car seat itself); the age should be a given (currently one year old), but even that minimum I could see being increased. But what new cut off should there be?
The NPR article's only "factual evidence" stated was that Europe has had this requirement for a while (WHO RIDES A CAR IN EUROPE???), and that it is "safer" for children to be rear facing because the force is spread across their back instead of over a few points in their chest. OK, that makes sense in a physics sort of way, but where is the data!?! Oh, and I loved the other "fact" they threw out there- that 5 children die every day in car accidents (uh, child can be up to 17 years of age! what a misleading statistic). They didn't make any correlation about a) what age were the "children" b) whether children were in car seats c) if they were in car seats, were the seats properly installed in the vehicle*. I cannot tell you, in just looking at my friends' vehicles, how many improperly installed and buckled kids I see! Even my own children, on occasion, have been improperly "installed" in their car seats (seat, buckle, or child didn't get in right).
I'd be more inclined to have more clinics to help TEACH parents the right way to have their children buckled in than enact more laws about which direction they should face, changing the current crazy laws we have. Did you know that in Indiana a child must remain in a booster seat until the age of 8? What if the kid weighs more than I do (not very likely, but not unreasonable in our increasing population of obese children). Seriously, I think there are better ways to help parents than to require a poor child to remain rear-facing until they are in kindergarten!
And, so far as I can tell on the American Academy of Pediatrics, recommends
They should remain rear-facing until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat’s manufacturer. At a minimum, children should ride rear-facing until they have reached at least 1 year of age and weigh at least 20 pounds.
Well, I don't think I'll turn 'Nica's car seat around.
*In 2000, 539 children younger than 5 years died while riding in motor vehicles; almost half were unrestrained,1 and many others were restrained improperly.2 (Selecting and Using the Most Appropriate Car Safety Seats for Growing Children: Guidelines for Counseling Parents PEDIATRICS Vol. 109 No. 3 March 2002, pp. 550-553).
+ If you choose to read the article, I strongly encourage you to also read the comments made by readers at the bottom. The airline car seat requirement got more people upset, but I loved some of the other things people said. I cannot agree more about air travel being safer, and what evidence is there of any morbidity or mortality associated with air travel for children not buckled in? Would a car seat make any difference whatsoever???
I'll save my other rant about education, schools, scholarships, pushing kids too hard, and homework for another post.
4 comments:
It's crazy isn't it? They asked if Payge was still rear-facing at her check-up...Um, NO! She'd freak, besides the fact that her legs would have no where to go. I wonder what is safer...calm children so the mother can actually pay attention to the road, or children squished into backward facing seats, their legs so cramped they are crying, and the mother hurrying as fast as she can from location to location so the child can get out.
On another interesting point, science-wise, one of Stephen's most recent journals had an article (this one NOT by him) that was showing the possibility of something horrible happening to the future lives of those who did not get breastfed. It pointed out that we are faster to criticize mothers who do not nurse than those who do not install car seats correctly, but the odds of something bad happening to a child in an incorrectly installed car seat are higher than those of a non-breastfed child. I just thought it was interesting.
So, uh, when are you going to write about your other rants? I'm just curious...
I REALLY wish I would have read this before I saw you today, because I have the exact same beef. This is ridiculous. I have a good friend who actually has her FOUR YEAR OLD rear-facing because she honestly believes that it's safer for him, despite the fact that he's over 40 pounds and has to cross his legs when he sits there. It is ridiculous.
I thought Indiana's law was 8 years old OR 80 pounds... but I could be wrong on that. Either way, it's beyond ridiculous. And I'm with you on properly installed car seats - that's really the problem, not which way it's facing.
I also find it ironic that kids don't have to sit in car seats in buses or taxis, but if their parent is driving, it's a whole different story.
Bah.
So, how do you REALLY feel? I love you!
I totally agree. When my oldest was 9 months, I had a pediatrician tell me to turn her forward-facing because her feet extended beyond the carseat and it put her at more risk for broken legs/pelvis/spine. And, magically, once she could see the world instead of a car seat, she didn't mind being in the car and we were both happier, more sane.
There are times, however, when I would like to be sitting rear-facing in a reclining chair of my choice.
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