When Can a Child Front Face Car Seat
Brisbane mum and social media influencer Sapphiroula Condoleon thought she was doing the right thing by keeping her almost two-year-old son rear-facing in his car seat.
Key points:
- Doctors say children should remain rear-facing for as long as possible
- New statistics has found 8 out of 10 car seats in Queensland are not installed properly
- New national guidelines around car restraints have been released this year
But when she posted a video online, she was shocked to receive backlash from many parents who asked why.
"I got some messages through DMs [direct messaging] saying, I can't believe you haven't turned him around yet, 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 height markers, which can be found 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's actually under the first marker, you can turn him when he reaches the first but the longer you keep him rear-facing the better," she said.
Ms Condoleon said this was "a real eye-opener".
It comes as new statistics by Kidsafe Queensland found 80 per cent of car seats checked in the past year had been incorrectly installed or used.
So what is actually best practice?
When it comes to rear versus forward-facing car seats, the law states babies theymust remain rear-facing until they are a minimum of six months old.
But Kidsafe Queensland CEO Susan Teerds said that did not mean they needed to be turned around immediately from that time.
"The law is very clear. Babies must be rear-facing from birth. They can move forward-facing when they reach the height marker on the seat, so all of the new standard seats from 2013-14 have had minimum height markers — meaning the baby must be rear-facing if the shoulders are below this line," she said.
She said most of the time, babies could not be turned around until they were two years old — and sometimes well after that.
Two-and-a-half-year-old Rafferty Verge is the perfect example.
Her shoulders still don't reach the height marker needed for her to be forward-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 as long as possible.
"That relates to the anatomy and the bone strength of that young child's body," she said.
"Children under two years of age have a large head compared to their body, and their neck is not as strong.
"You could imagine, the heavy head 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 force is experienced in a different way and they're much less likely to injure their neck and spine."
Crash test footage from Transurban's Road Safety Centre at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) shows dummies in an impact at 50 kilometres per hour.
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The second 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 Royal Children's 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's body are enormous and damaging," he said.
"Terrible spinal injuries have been known to occur on children who are not appropriately restrained.
"Organs can be injured. That can result in terrible bleeding or damage to the organs and we see examples of all of these in the children who come to see us at the Royal 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 do the right thing and, in fact, they're very, very good at following the law when it comes to car restraints for their kids.
"So parents are trying to do the right thing but often don't realise there's 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 road rules, and new standard seats were then released.
"People got very confused … is it about age, or is it about their height. Well actually, it is about their height and age. So the law then becomes the minimum that you may [transition the child]," she said.
"At four years old, a child may move into a booster. But if they still physically fit in a built-in harness seat and they haven't reached the height marker that says they're too big, leave them in it."
What about booster seats?
Once a child has outgrown a forward-facing child restraint, they should use a booster seat with a lap-sash seat belt, until tall and old enough to fit properly into an adult seat belt.
Dr Rhodes says the gold standard is something called the five-step test to help you determine when it's the right time:
- Can the child sit with back and bottom against the vehicle seat back?
- Do the child's 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 across the middle of the shoulder, not on the neck or out near the arm?
- Can the child stay seated like this for the whole trip?
She said early transition out of a booster seat was the biggest area of concern, according to her team's research.
"If your child is over seven, it doesn't mean they're ready to travel safely without a booster seat," she said.
"It's much more likely they will need that seat for another three or four years before their body is big enough for them to sit safely in a car without a booster seat.
"If a child is too small when they're taken out of their child seat booster that seatbelt will sit across the child's neck, and across their tummy.
"And when a crash happens, they get very serious forces through those areas and that can lead to more harm than protection."
Children with a disability
Restraint practices outlined in the national guidelines do not cover children with a disability or other additional needs, whether these are physical, medical, or behaviours of concern.
Kidsafe recommends case-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 important 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, as well as taxis.
- Children should be encouraged to sit upright so their restraint can work optimally.
- Children four to eight years old should use an add-on booster seat in preference to an integrated booster, but children nine and older can safely use an integrated booster seat if their car has a side curtain airbag where they are sitting.
- Parents of low birth-weight babies should use an infant car restraint designed for low birth-weight babies until they can get good harness fit in a "standard" child car restraint.
- Children 12 years of age or under are safest in the back seat.
The most common mistakes found by Kidsafe Queensland was people not using the tether strap correctly, with more than 50 per cent of all seats checked having them either not attached, incorrectly attached, too tight, twisted or broken.
Other mistakes were the incorrect 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 it is installed correctly and ask a professional before transitioning your child to the next restraint.
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When Can a Child Front Face Car Seat
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-31/child-car-seat-explainer/100177072
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