Placing your baby or toddler in an infant car seat requires more than just strapping the child to the contraption. There are certain safety measures that you must pay attention to, to ensure that the car seat provides the utmost protection possible.
The first and most important feature to consider is the seating position, to which a forward-facing arrangement is not the most secure for infants aged 2 years and below. That being the case, buying a convertible car seat is highly recommended because the convertibility feature offers both forward and rear-facing seating arrangements.
This should not be taken lightly because the possible consequences are devastating, if ever an accident puts the car seat and your baby’s position to a test.
How Accidents Prove that a Correct Infant Car Position Provides the Best Protection
It is quite unfortunate that parents and their child had to go through a harrowing experience, to bear witness on how correct infant car positioning provides the best protection.
Angela Brown, mother of 2 beautiful girls learned this lesson too late. During a car ride, she had both girls riding in their own convertible car seat. The younger sat rear-facing because she was less than two years old, while the older girl who was nearing age 2, sat forward-facing. Due to some unexpected turn of events, the SUV in which Angela and her girls rode, slammed head on to a tree. The impact toppled the vehicle over, fell the tree and caused it to land on the SUV.
Although both girls survived the accident, only Angela’s younger daughter who had sat rear-facing, escaped unhurt except for minor bruises. Her older daughter, who was seated forward-facing suffered serious injuries. The accident broke her spine; it left two vertebrae badly damaged and had torn the ligament of a third vertebrae. As a result, it will take time before Angela’s nearly 2-year old daughter makes a full recovery.
Explanations on Why a Rear-Facing Seat and Other Safety Measure Can Keep Your Child Protected in Times of Accident
No one can anticipate why and when accidents happen. Yet the terrible reality is that they could happen. That is why manufacturers of quality infant car chairs conduct tests in order to know what might happen in the event of an accident. In line with those tests, rear-facing car seats were initially recommended as best for infants below 2-years of age. This was later amended; rear-facing seats are best up to such time babies outgrow their car chair.
However, doctors at the American Academy of Pediatrics came to realize that parents must also be made aware that a child’s physiological development and not just the built, weight or height of children, is crucial to their safety while secured in car chairs.
Since the physics involved in car crashes can jolt a baby’s head forward and then instantly throw it backwards, the force of those involuntary actions can break the child’s spine; or worst, break a child’s neck, which is fatal.
Kindly watch the video above in order to fully comprehend the reason why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend placing babies in a rear-facing seat, The related videos, also explain other safety practices that afford your infant the safest form of child-protection.
