In Ontario, should a car seat be rear facing once a baby reaches 20lbs?

Question

We are putting her in a Safety 1st® 'Intera' Convertible Car Seat as she has out grown the infant seat. She is very tall. With my other children, once they reached 20lbs it was safe to use a forward facing seat. Have the laws changed? It does seem to sound safer to me.

Answer 1

I'm from the US and have no specifics on the laws in Canada, except for the fact that kids must be harnessed to at least 40 pounds before moving to a booster (because no booster in Canada has a weight limit lower than 40 pounds).

However, I am pretty educated on child passenger safety in general, and hope to become a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician (CPST).

What I have learned is that rear-facing is the safest way anyone can ride, and the longer we can leave kids rear-facing, the better. For at least five years now the American Academy of Pediatrics has said to keep kids rear-facing to the limits of a convertible carseat. Seats in the US go to 30, 33 and 35 pounds rear-facing. In Canada, all seats go to 30 pounds rear-facing.

A child can outgrow a rear-facing seat by height before weight. Stated height limits are not so important as sitting height. When rear-facing, a child is too tall to rear-face when the head is even with the top of the seat shell.

Legs touching vehicle seatback is perfectly fine, not a safety concern in the least. There is not a single documented case of leg or hip injury due to extended rear-facing, while there are countless cases of severe injuries and deaths due to forward-facing too soon.

"Rear-facing is much, much safer than forward-facing. 'Child safety seats: Rear-face until at least one year' ( http://parenting.ivillage.com/baby/bsafety/0,,9r5v,00.html ) discusses the reasons why children should remain rear-facing for a FULL year and 20 lbs. In it, Kathleen Weber states, "In the research and accident review that I did a few years ago, the data seemed to break at about 12 months between severe consequences and more moderate consequences..." This does not mean that there are NO consequences. The consequences may no longer be death from a completely severed spinal cord, but simply life-long injury, including complete paralysis. Research studies suggest that until children are at least four, they are incapable of withstanding crash forces as well as adults - and should remain rear-facing.

In a crash, life-threatening or fatal injuries are generally limited to the head and neck, assuming a child is in a harnessed seat.

When a child is in a forward-facing seat, there is tremendous stress put on the child's neck, which must hold the large head back. The mass of the head of a small child is about 25% of the body mass whereas the mass of the adult head is only 6%! A small child's neck sustains massive amounts of force in a crash. The body is held back by the straps while the head is thrown forward - stressing, stretching or even breaking the spinal cord. The child's head is at greater risk in a forward-facing seat as well. In a crash, the head is thrown outside the confines of the seat and can make dangerous contact with other occupants, vehicle structures, and even intruding objects, like trees or other vehicles.

Rear-facing seats do a phenomenal job of protecting children because there is little or no force applied to the head, neck and spine. When a child is in a rear-facing seat, the head, neck and spine are all kept fully aligned and the child is allowed to "ride down" the crash while the back of the child restraint absorbs the bulk of the crash force. The head is contained within the restraint, and the child is much less likely to come into contact with anything that might cause head injury."

Photos of older, heavier kids still happily rear-facing (some as old as 4-5 years old): http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/RFAlbumAll.aspx

In the links I will provide in my sources, there are crash test videos comparing rear-facing and forward-facing, also information on common misconceptions about extended rear-facing, like the 'legs will get broken' myth.

The Intera is a great seat for extended rear-facing because it has a very tall seat shell. Kids will almost certainly make it to 30 pounds rear-facing in that seat. It has pretty tall top slots forward-facing, too--which means most kids can make it to a full 40 pounds harnessed in that seat before getting too tall (shoulders over top slots). It's a decent highback booster, too!

Answer 2

The law says your baby has to be a year old and at least 20 pounds to face forward. It is advised that you wait until your child is two, but it isn't mandatory. The reason is because at a year old, some children still don't have strong enough necks to support their head if you have to slam on your breaks. If they are still in a rear-facing, then you don't have to worry about their heads flying forward. You can purchase a front/rear facing car seat that can be used for both, so your baby is sitting up more and still facing rear. Then, when he/she is ready, just turn it around to front-facing.

Answer 3

You'd have to contact your local police office to find that out. That is the general safety rule and the law in most places, though. It might also be accompanied by an age, such as, '20 lbs and at least 6 mos old' or something like that.

Answer 4

the law states that a child has to remain in a rear facing car seat until he or she reaches at least 20 lbs AND 1 year old... Hope this helps!!!

Answer 5

I am pretty shore you can more so if she is tall because if anything did happen she could hurt her legs

Answer 6

the best way to answer this question is to refer you to this web site http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/carseat/choose.htm#infants

Answer 7

canada.. how funny.. south park shows canada to be a weird place. cars and bicycles with square wheels.. lolol

Answer 8

Scatterbunny2003's answer was right on! :)