Extended Rear Facing
Why rear facing? We all know that infants should be rear facing in their infant seats in the car. But what happens when the child outgrows the infant seat? Many parents want to turn their children forward as fast as possible but of course we all want our children to be as safe as possible. Did you know that it's five times safer for a child to be rear facing? Scandinavian children are rear facing until they are 4–5 years old (25kg or 55lbs), which has resulted in a much lower number of children injured or dead in car accidents compared with other countries, as for instance the UK.
Safer in an accident The most dangerous car accidents are frontal collisions. They represent the accidents where the highest speeds and the greatest forces are at play. When a child is forward facing and a frontal collision occurs the child is flung forward in the seat, being caught by the harness. This puts stress on the neck, the spine, and the internal organs.
The neck is completely unprotected when the head is catapulted forward. Whether the child can withstand the force of impact has nothing to do with muscle power. It is the spine that has to keep the head in place. (Not even physically strong adults can keep their heads in place using muscle power in an accident, but adult's skeletons are different to children's, as we will see.) A child's spine and skeleton is still growing. It has not solidified into bone yet, but is still very soft with lots of cartilage. This means that the neck is vulnerable to the great force it's being subjected to in a car crash and in a worst case scenario the neck will stretch so much that the spine snaps. This is called internal decapitation and basically means that the child has been internally beheaded. In tests, the dummy's neck has been stretched as much as 2 inches, but the spine can not be stretch more than a quarter of an inch before snapping.
The rib cage under the harness is also soft and the ribs will bend rather than snap. The rib cage cannot protect the soft internal organs such as heart and spleen, which might then get damaged.
In a rear facing car seat, the child is flung into the back of the seat and the force of impact is distributed along the whole back of the seat. The neck, spine and internal organs are not subjected to the stress of the force and are therefore protected.
The above information has been copied from the Rear Facing UK page, please click their link below for more information.
Safer in an accident The most dangerous car accidents are frontal collisions. They represent the accidents where the highest speeds and the greatest forces are at play. When a child is forward facing and a frontal collision occurs the child is flung forward in the seat, being caught by the harness. This puts stress on the neck, the spine, and the internal organs.
The neck is completely unprotected when the head is catapulted forward. Whether the child can withstand the force of impact has nothing to do with muscle power. It is the spine that has to keep the head in place. (Not even physically strong adults can keep their heads in place using muscle power in an accident, but adult's skeletons are different to children's, as we will see.) A child's spine and skeleton is still growing. It has not solidified into bone yet, but is still very soft with lots of cartilage. This means that the neck is vulnerable to the great force it's being subjected to in a car crash and in a worst case scenario the neck will stretch so much that the spine snaps. This is called internal decapitation and basically means that the child has been internally beheaded. In tests, the dummy's neck has been stretched as much as 2 inches, but the spine can not be stretch more than a quarter of an inch before snapping.
The rib cage under the harness is also soft and the ribs will bend rather than snap. The rib cage cannot protect the soft internal organs such as heart and spleen, which might then get damaged.
In a rear facing car seat, the child is flung into the back of the seat and the force of impact is distributed along the whole back of the seat. The neck, spine and internal organs are not subjected to the stress of the force and are therefore protected.
The above information has been copied from the Rear Facing UK page, please click their link below for more information.