(Dayna Smith/ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST ) - Alexandra Horowitz struggles to strap her daughter, Phoebe, 7 months, into her rear-facing car seat at a monthly infant/child car seat inspection held by the Montgomery Fire and Rescue at a Rockville car dealership.
Children’s legroom also is limited because a safety seat properly placed on a vehicle’s back seat shouldn’t hit the front passenger or driver’s seat, often a tight squeeze in compact cars, he said.
“I think most people are keeping their children rear-facing to a year,” Campbell said. “They understand the recommendation to keep them rear-facing longer, but I think people think they’ve met the most important need and then turn them around.”
(Dayna Smith/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST) - The latest recommendation is not a legal requirement, though safety seat advocates say state laws often lag behind what they consider best practices.
Parental attitudes
Marilyn Bull, a doctor and a safety specialist for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said parental attitudes are as big an obstacle as limited legroom. Bull said she hears parents say they’re worried that they will delay a developmental milestone, akin to walking or talking, by keeping a child riding backward after one year.
“I think the mind-set, socially, was: ‘My child is smart and babbling and sitting up by himself, so he can sit facing forward,’ ” Bull said. “Now I tell my medical students it’s the smarter, more creative parent who keeps their child riding backwards longer.”
In answer to those who roll their eyes, remembering when children bounced around with no seat belts, experts say child safety seats have led to a 71 percent drop in crash-related infant deaths and a 54 percent reduction in such fatalities among 1- to 4-year-olds, according to NHTSA statistics comparing 1988 and 1994 crash data. Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for children ages 3 to 14, according to NHTSA.
The basic message about the importance of safety seats appears to be getting through. At the recent safety seat inspection in North Bethesda, some parents said they will find a way to follow the experts’ advice.
“We’ll do whatever the recommendation is,” said Michelle Moore of Potomac. Her 4-month-old daughter will ride facing backward until age 2, she said, even though she turned her two sons’ seats forward at one year, in keeping with the previous recommendation.
“I think kids just adapt,” Moore said. “If that’s what they’re used to, they won’t know otherwise.”
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