How Long Do Babies Have to Face Backwards
Brisbane mum and social media influencer Sapphiroula Condoleon idea she was doing the right matter by keeping her almost two-year-old son rear-facing in his machine seat.
Primal points:
- Doctors say children should remain rear-facing for as long every bit possible
- New statistics has found 8 out of x auto seats in Queensland are not installed properly
- New national guidelines effectually motorcar restraints have been released this twelvemonth
But when she posted a video online, she was shocked to receive backfire from many parents who asked why.
"I got some letters through DMs [directly messaging] saying, I can't believe you haven't turned him around withal, he looks so squished," she said.
"I was going to turn him at two, and I was like, maybe I'll book in and get the car seat turned if I can, and just see what they say. And they said he was too little."
His shoulders were below the peak markers, which can exist constitute on all new Australian standard car seats.
"They showed me where the markers were — I didn't know where they were and they were like, he'southward actually under the beginning marker, you can turn him when he reaches the offset but the longer yous go along him rear-facing the better," she said.
Ms Condoleon said this was "a existent centre-opener".
It comes as new statistics by Kidsafe Queensland institute 80 per cent of auto seats checked in the past year had been incorrectly installed or used.
So what is really best practice?
When information technology comes to rear versus forward-facing car seats, the law states babies theymust remain rear-facing until they are a minimum of six months erstwhile.
But Kidsafe Queensland CEO Susan Teerds said that did not mean they needed to be turned around immediately from that time.
"The police is very clear. Babies must be rear-facing from birth. They tin move forward-facing when they reach the height marker on the seat, then all of the new standard seats from 2013-fourteen have had minimum height markers — meaning the baby must be rear-facing if the shoulders are below this line," she said.
She said nigh of the time, babies could not be turned effectually until they were two years erstwhile — and sometimes well after that.
Ii-and-a-half-year-old Rafferty Verge is the perfect example.
Her shoulders still don't reach the height mark needed for her to exist frontward-facing.
Paediatrican and director of the Royal Children's Hospital National Child Health Poll, Dr Anthea Rhodes, said it was important for children to stay rear-facing for equally long as possible.
"That relates to the anatomy and the os strength of that young child'due south body," she said.
"Children under two years of age have a large head compared to their body, and their neck is not equally potent.
"You could imagine, the heavy caput is thrown forward and very prone to severe injury to the neck and spine.
"By having a child rearward-facing they're protected because the forcefulness is experienced in a different way and they're much less likely to hurt their neck and spine."
Crash test footage from Transurban'due south Route Safety Heart at Neuroscience Enquiry Australia (NeuRA) shows dummies in an bear on at 50 kilometres per hour.
Space to play or pause, Thou to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and downwardly arrows for book.
The 2nd video, despite it being from the USA and not including the upper tether strap on the baby seat, clearly shows the difference the direction of the seat has on the child's spine.
Paediatric surgeon and director of trauma at the Regal Children'south Hospital in Melbourne, Dr Warwick Teague, said he had seen far too many avoidable examples of children who were severely injured from being incorrectly restrained — or not restrained at all.
"The forces visited upon the child'due south body are enormous and damaging," he said.
"Terrible spinal injuries have been known to occur on children who are not accordingly restrained.
"Organs tin can exist injured. That can effect in terrible haemorrhage or damage to the organs and we see examples of all of these in the children who come to see us at the Regal Children's."
Why the confusion?
The laws in all Australian states and territories outline theminimum ages for children to be restrained in a vehicleup to the age of 16 years.
"The biggest challenge in this space for parents is the fact that the law doesn't actually line up with the guidelines or recommendations," Dr Rhodes said.
"We found in our research that parents want to exercise the right matter and, in fact, they're very, very good at following the police when it comes to machine restraints for their kids.
"And so parents are trying to do the right thing but often don't realise there'south a safer option and usually that means keeping their kids in a restraint for much longer than the law would say is necessary.
Ms Teerds said Queensland laws were adjusted in 2010 based on national route rules, and new standard seats were so released.
"People got very confused … is information technology well-nigh age, or is it about their summit. Well actually, it is virtually their height and age. So the constabulary and so becomes the minimum that y'all may [transition the kid]," she said.
"At iv years old, a child may move into a booster. Merely if they however physically fit in a built-in harness seat and they haven't reached the height marking that says they're too big, get out them in it."
What most booster seats?
Once a child has outgrown a frontwards-facing child restraint, they should use a booster seat with a lap-sash seat chugalug, until tall and old enough to fit properly into an adult seat belt.
Dr Rhodes says the gilded standard is something called the v-step examination to help y'all decide when it's the right time:
- Tin can the kid sit with dorsum and bottom against the vehicle seat back?
- Do the child'south knees bend comfortably before the edge of the vehicle seat?
- Is the lap belt sitting low across the hip bones touching the thighs?
- Does the sash (shoulder) belt sit beyond the eye of the shoulder, non on the neck or out about the arm?
- Tin the child stay seated similar this for the whole trip?
She said early on transition out of a booster seat was the biggest surface area of concern, co-ordinate to her squad's inquiry.
"If your child is over 7, information technology doesn't mean they're gear up to travel safely without a booster seat," she said.
"It'southward much more likely they will demand that seat for another three or four years before their body is big plenty for them to sit safely in a motorcar without a booster seat.
"If a child is as well small when they're taken out of their kid seat booster that seatbelt volition sit across the child'due south neck, and across their tummy.
"And when a crash happens, they become very serious forces through those areas and that tin can lead to more damage than protection."
Children with a disability
Restraint practices outlined in the national guidelines do non cover children with a disability or other boosted needs, whether these are physical, medical, or behaviours of concern.
Kidsafe recommends instance-by-case assessment of these children and seat them according to Australian Standard 4370 Restraint of children with disabilities or medical conditions in motor vehicles.
Other of import recommendations
According to new national guidelines released in March by Kidsafe Australia and NeuRA, there are other important recommendations to remember.
These include:
- Children using a child restraint or booster seat when travelling in rideshares (e.g. Uber) and rental cars, also as taxis.
- Children should be encouraged to sit down upright so their restraint tin work optimally.
- Children 4 to eight years onetime should utilize an add-on booster seat in preference to an integrated booster, but children ix and older can safely apply an integrated booster seat if their car has a side curtain airbag where they are sitting.
- Parents of low nativity-weight babies should utilise an infant car restraint designed for low birth-weight babies until they can become good harness fit in a "standard" child automobile restraint.
- Children 12 years of age or under are safest in the dorsum seat.
The most common mistakes found by Kidsafe Queensland was people non using the tether strap correctly, with more than than l per cent of all seats checked having them either not fastened, incorrectly attached, too tight, twisted or cleaved.
Other mistakes were the wrong use of harnesses, seatbelts and rear-facing babies and toddlers, with seats and capsules incorrectly reclined or angled.
If in doubt, have your seat or booster regularly checked to ensure information technology is installed correctly and ask a professional before transitioning your child to the next restraint.
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How Long Do Babies Have to Face Backwards
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-31/child-car-seat-explainer/100177072