Who is the rear facing car seat Lady?
So we asked Alisa Baer, M.D., a New York City pediatrician known as The Car Seat Lady, to address parents’ most frequently asked questions, from worries over the child’s discomfort to fitting rear-facing seats into a small car. What if I have a small car that won’t fit my convertible seat rear-facing, or won’t fit two rear-facing seats?
Where to sit rear facing child in car?
For rear-facing kids, sit their car seat as upright as the manufacturer allows and, when possible, remove the vehicle’s head rest to give the child the best possible view out the back window. If possible, have the child ride in the center of the back seat as this spot typically gives the best view out the back window.
How can I tell if my car seat is rear facing?
When you are in the store, see how much room the car seat takes up front-to-back when it is in the most upright position allowed for rear-facing by the manufacturer.
How is the back of the front seat contoured?
Also at play is how the back of the front seat is contoured, as some vehicle seats protrude more into the back seat’s territory than others.
Is the back seat safe for a child?
The back seat is currently still the safest place for children even though we acknowledge that rear-seat safety and technology hasn’t kept up with innovations in front seat safety and technology.
What to do if your child is too big for a rear-facing seat?
If the child is too big for a rear-facing seat, you can look into a forward-facing seat with recline options or a specialized medical seat with positioning features or inserts. Even in these cases, you should not exceed the approved recline for your child’s size, per the instruction manual.
What should you do if your seat back collapses?
In July 2019, NHTSA released Front Seat Modeling in Rear Impact Crashes: Development of a Detailed Finite-Element Model for Seat Back Strength Requirements, which concluded that in rear impacts, seatback dynamic rotation should be reduced to less than 35° to prevent injury to the seat occupant and occupants seated directly behind it.
Why are front seat backs collapsing in cars?
Basically, this is an issue of seat strength. In some rear-end crashes, especially high-speed ones, front vehicle seats have been found to collapse backward.