Parents should keep their children in rear-facing car seats until the toddlers reach the age of 2, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) advises. The previous guidance age was one year old or when the child weighs 20 pounds.
The AAP also advises to keep all children younger than 13 in the back seat at all times.
The new policy and revised guidelines was written by Dr. Dennis Durbin, a pediatric emergency physician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also released new guidelines for child passenger safety, which parallel the AAP’s recommendations.
Keeping a child seated backwards in the car reduces the risk of serious injury, according to new data from the United States and Sweden, where children usually remain seated backwards until the age of 4.
Dr. Durbin said that the child may be less comfortable seated backwards but noted, "I think one of the main messages that's coming out of these recommendations is that those transitions should be delayed for as long as possible, because with each transition you make you give up a little safety in the event of a crash," he said.
The new guidance states, “All infants and children should be in rear-facing car seats until age 2, or until they outgrow the height and weight specifications of the seat. Once children outgrow a rear-facing seat, they should be placed in forward-facing car seats with harnesses until they exceed the height and weight criteria.
“After forward-facing seats are no longer suitable, children should be placed in belt-positioning booster seats until the vehicle's lap-and-shoulder seat belt fits properly -- with the lap portion fitting low across the hips and pelvis and the shoulder portion fitting across the middle of the shoulder and chest -- usually when a child reaches 4 feet 9 inches or around ages 8 to 12.”