Rear-Facing or Forward-Facing

Kariana is officially one month away from her first birthday. The first birthday is always a big event. It also used to be when young children were switched from riding rear-facing to forward-facing in their car seats. If you don’t often ride with a little one in your car, you might not appreciate how much of a life changing event this can be for both mom and baby. I find having Kariana rear-facing extremely frustrating. Babies don’t like to be in the car and in baby talk the question “Are we there yet?” is simply “WAAAAHHHH!” It is virtually impossible to drive safely and monitor what Kariana is doing while she is rear-facing.

The long-standing recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) suggests that all infants should ride rear-facing until they are at least one year of age and weigh at least 20 pounds. Earlier this year new research was released that shows toddlers are more than five times safer if they remain rear-facing until age two. Following the release of this new research, the AAP issued a news bulletin suggesting they may soon upgrade their minimum “one year and 20 pounds” recommendation to two full years of rear-facing. The news bulletin was issued in April 2009 and was quickly viewed as prepping parents for the potential change.

The statements by the AAP that followed the news bulletin are not so clear. It now seems the AAP is not updating their official recommendation at this time. In an email to child passenger safety advocates, an AAP representative said, “A Parent Plus box in the April 2009 issue of AAP News appears to contain a revised AAP recommendation on how long babies and young children should ride rear-facing. However, Parent Plus boxes and AAP News articles do not constitute AAP policy." The email also says “AAP’s recommendation has not changed at this time.”

So we have new research that suggests young children are safer riding rear-facing until they are age two and a statement (but not an AAP policy) on the AAP’s website that says “It is best to ride rear-facing as long as possible.” The question for mom and dad is what does this mean for Kariana? To complicate matters we weighed Kariana at the pediatrician’s office yesterday and she weighs 18 pounds 7 ounces – we’re not quite at 20 pounds yet and probably won’t be by her first birthday. I guess the next question we have to ask is the mental torture worth the risk?