At what age can my child use a forward-facing child safety seat?

At what age can my child use a forward-facing child safety seat?

Stephanie Tombrello (Child Passenger Safety Educator & Executive Director, SafetyBeltSafe USA) gives expert video advice on: At what age can my child use a forward-facing child safety seat?; How do I secure my child in a forward-facing child safety seat? and more...

Many parents will see materials that state that when a child is a year old and weighs twenty pounds, it's “time” to turn them forward. That was true when we didn't have any safety seats that went beyond twenty to twenty-two pounds rear-facing. Today all convertible safety seats are certified for use to at least thirty pounds rear facing. We do not recommend turning the child forward until you have used a convertible seat as long as possible; have as an estimate at least 18 to 24 months. Many children can stay in a safety seat rear facing much longer than that, and do that if you can because you are increasing your child's protection in that case of both frontal and side impacts, and these are the crashes in which children are hurt or killed. In these crashes, children have over seventy percent of their injuries to the head and neck, and we are still not very good at fixing brain damage. So, give your child the best break and use the safety seat rear-facing as long as possible.