The American Academy of Pediatrics released new recommendations this week about carseats. And they are causing quite a stir.
Here are the new recommendations:
http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/carseat2011.htm
In a nutshell, the AAP is clarifying what they advised in 2002, which was that all children should remain rearfacing up to the limit of the carseat, forward facing at a minimum of 1 year and 20 pounds. Now, they are adding that their recommendation is that children remain rearfacing until age two unless they max out the carseats RF limits before then.
This argument is nothing new. I've been reading it online since I was pregnant with my first in 2007. "ERF, or you're a bad mom!" "Don't you care about your kids' safety?" "Your child is five times safer in an accident if they are RF."
So I have this problem: When something is hyped up and oversold, I tend to ignore it. And in general, if you tell me I'm a bad mom unless I agree with you, I'm ten or twenty times less likely to even hear you out. I think I have a defective filter when it comes to some of these things.
But when an organization like the AAP backs you up, I suddenly decide to check into it. Sometimes, that just means that I find more information to solidify my own opinion on things. But sometimes, like today, I pull my head out of the sand and start doing things differently.
The thing is, I already had all of the information. I have watched the videos, read the statistics, even talked with my aunt, who is a car seat tech. But I couldn't quite make the leap from "believer" to "ERFer." I'm really not sure why. I already do things out of the norm. We cloth diaper, we don't vaccinate, I breastfed both of them for a year, I had a VBAC, all of which people think we are weird for doing. I think it's because I didn't want to make the leap to "all the way nuts." It's one thing to be halfway weird. But crossing the line to "flat out crazy" is too much for me.
The thing is, we as Americans are the weird ones on this. Most developed countries have been keeping kids RFing past two for years. So what am I so afraid of?
This morning, as my boys were playing in the front yard, I switched my one year old's carseat to the RFing position. It turns out, part of the reason it had been so hard for me to RF in the past is because I was doing it wrong. That little carseat manual is so much more helpful when you're reading it after a good night's sleep. Now, my little one will be securely facing the backseat, whether he likes it or not. And I will have the peace of mind that he is 75% more likely to survive a crash with minor injuries. My preschooler will soon be getting a new seat as well, since he is right on the edge of outgrowing his.
I'm wondering when the new recommendations will become law. The AAP had more than just infant and toddler seats to talk about. They are now recommending that all children be in at least a booster until eight (which is already the law in my state) and that they should remain in one until they are at least 4'9'' and a hundred pounds, or twelve years old. The reason for this is belt positioning. I've been wondering why they don't just recommend a product like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Sunshine-Kids-Child-Seatbelt-Adjuster/dp/B000BUTCOY, which would easily keep the seatbelt at a correct position without putting a twelve year old in a booster seat. They also say that kids should be kept in the backseat until they are teenagers, which we all knew anyway. My car has that information on the visor in the front passenger seat.
Things sure have changed since I was a kid. I can remember sleeping on the floorboard in the backseat of our Carolla when I was a little kid and we were on road trips, or going to pick my dad up from work. Most of my friends had already learned to drive when I was twelve, living in rural Louisiana. I used to ride home from school in the back of my dad's pickup with about six other kids. I can even remember when seatbelts in the backseat of a vehichle were not required by law. But the news stories sure have changed, too. I haven't heard of a young child being killed in a car accident in a long time. I guess the saying is true, "When you know better, you do better."
Cloth diapering, no vaccination, breastfeeding until...well, she ended herself at ten months. Apparently, we have much in common! However, I am not for more regulation about children's car seats. Recommendations, yes. Laws, no. I have adult women in my family, who drive cars and are under 4'9"! Really, some things should be about using common sense, one-size-fits-everyone laws just do not work in this case. My thoughts are, if a child is dies from injuries in an accident, isn't that punishment enough or does the parent have to be charged and jailed also. I mean, it is an accident and they are unpredictable!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter at four years old and I were rolled over on our side in a conversion van. She would have been seriously hurt, car seat or no, if she had been in the middle seat on the passenger's side, because that is where the impact was and that seat ended up in the middle aisle. Instead she was in her car seat on the driver's side, because the Lord gave me dreams about the accident for six months before it happened.
On that note, there is no better protection than listening to the Lord. I think it is too bad that more people don't do that than I think it is whether the child is in a car seat facing the rear, but we cannot make that a law....