Welcome to our ongoing Mythbusting Sequence the place we discover frequent myths relating to youngsters and carseats.
Delusion: My youngster’s legs will likely be injured in a crash if their toes are touching the again of the seat or if their legs are bent
It is a frequent and really persistent delusion. Baby Passenger Security Technicians spend a lot of time speaking to oldsters about this concern.
In actuality, throughout a frontal crash (the most typical sort of crash), the kid’s legs will fly up and away from the again seat because the carseat rotates downward. It’s additionally way more vital to guard the top, neck and spinal wire in a crash which is strictly what rear-facing carseats achieve this properly.
If you happen to’re nonetheless not satisfied – there’s this examine by CHOP (Youngsters’s Hospital of Philadelphia) that checked out accidents to youngsters ages 1 – 4 who had been harm in crashes and leg accidents had been uncommon for these youngsters in rear-facing seats. Nonetheless, accidents to the decrease extremity area had been the second commonest sort of harm for the youngsters in forward-facing seats. That’s as a result of the legs of a kid in a forward-facing seat are thrown ahead and sometimes hit the laborious heart console or the again of the entrance seat.
Accidents beneath the knee had been the most typical, significantly to the tibia/fibula, they usually most frequently occurred as a result of interplay with the car seatback in entrance of the kid’s seating place.
The video beneath is a part of the curriculum for coaching new Baby Passenger Security Technicians. Within the video, Dr. Marilyn Bull, MD, outlines the the explanation why rear-facing is so vital and in addition addresses the considerations many mother and father have about older youngsters with longer legs.
We additionally want to deal with the difficulty of consolation since that’s one other huge hang-up that adults appear to have with older youngsters. The fact is that whereas *we* won’t be completely happy if we needed to sit this manner for extended intervals, youngsters will all the time discover a method to make themselves snug. They may sit “criss-cross applesauce”, or they may stretch their legs straight out and prop them up, or they may even dangle them over the perimeters of the carseat. No matter how they make themselves snug – they’ll all the time discover a approach.
This Delusion is Undoubtedly BUSTED.
One remaining level to make is that children don’t get up one morning with an additional 5″ of legs. Daily is similar as yesterday besides perhaps you’re a millimeter taller at this time. Children don’t discover rising – and once they develop sufficient to warrant a shift in how they place their legs when sitting rear-facing, they’ll make the adjustment with out even desirous about it.
Try extra of CSB’s fashionable Mythbusting collection:
You possibly can injury your automotive seat by putting in it too tightly
3-Throughout & Adjoining Automotive Seat Installations
Rear-facing automotive seats can’t contact entrance car seats
Legs bent or toes touching the backseat when rear-facing is harmful
We’re all going to die in an airplane crash, so utilizing a carseat is pointless
A 5-point harness is safer than a booster seat for older youngsters
Your pediatrician is a automotive seat skilled
You want an toddler carseat (RFO) for a new child
LATCH is safer than a seat belt set up
