Why kid's car seats should stay rear-facing for longer

by Helen Foster

Knowing when to switch your child from a rear-facing position in their car seat to forward-facing – or, when it’s safe to move them from their restraint completely can be confusing.

At first, these decisions are easy as the rules of the road and experts in child safety agree; children must use a rearward facing child restraint until at least six months old. After this though, opinions diverge.

While the law says that children can use a forward-facing restraint from six months, “safety data suggests that is far too young to turn a child forward facing,” says Shawn Draper, Kidsafe WA’s Child Restraint Technician.

“Children’s heads are large and their necks are weak. A child facing forward is more prone to whiplash and neck injury in the event of a crash than when lying in the 45 degree rearward facing position. Younger children are also more likely to fall asleep in the car, and if they do so in a forward-facing seat their head slumps forward and their neck bends in a way that’s not safe in a crash. You should keep them rearward facing much longer than six months.” 

Legalities and best practise also diverge as to when children can graduate to sitting in the back seat using an adult seatbelt. The law allows this at the age of seven, but the chance of a good seatbelt fit at that age is low, says Dr Bianca Albanese from Neura (Neuroscience Research Australia).   ‘In an observational study we found that only 15 per cent of seven-year-olds would achieve a good seatbelt fit using the vehicle seatbelt. And a poor fitting seatbelt increases the risk of abdominal or spinal injury.’ 

When should you move from rearward facing to forward facing? 

Use the shoulder markers on your child’s seat. Every car seat made in Australia since 2013-2014 has these. Use the manufacturer’s guide and the markers to identify when your child is still too small to face forward, when they reach the point at which you can turn them forward-facing if you wish (remembering that rear-facing is still safest) and the point at which you must turn them forward facing as a rear-facing seat is no longer the safest choice.

“Most children reach the height at which it’s safe for them to make the turn at about two and a half,” says Kidsafe’s Shawn Draper. “But it depends on their body size and the car restraint you use.” 

Legally from the age of four, children can use either a forward-facing approved child car seat with an inbuilt harness, or an approved booster seat. This is the case until at least the age of seven.

When can your child sit in the backseat? 

The law says that children can sit in the rear seat with an adult seatbelt from seven – but as Dr Albanese points out, 85 per cent of seven-year-olds will not achieve a correct seatbelt fit at this age.

She says there is no simple metric that can reveal when it’s safe to swap to an adult seatbelt, and other experts suggest that most children don’t reach a safe height to do so until closer to 10 or 11. The way to tell though is buy using the 5-Step Test. 

Sit your child in the backseat of the car and answer the following five questions: 

1. Can they sit with their back firmly against the vehicle seat?

2. In this position, do the child’s knees bend in front of the edge of the seat?

3. Does the sash part of the seatbelt sit across the middle of their shoulder?

4. Is the lap part of the seatbelt sitting low across the hips and touching their thighs?

5. Can they stay seated for the whole trip? 

If the answer to all of these is ‘yes’, then they are ready to move from a child’s car restraint to using a seatbelt in the backseat of the car. Although, if you have more than one car, or your child travels regularly with friends or grandparents, don’t assume they’ll fit that car too. “Different backseat sizes can affect how the seatbelt sits,” says Shawn Draper. “Test them in the other vehicles too.”

When can a child move to sitting in the front seat? 

If your child can wear a seatbelt in the back of the car, you might be wondering why the rules still suggest not moving them to the front seat until they are at least 12 – and the reason is, the airbag. There’s no doubt these are life savers – front airbags reduce around a third of fatalities in frontal crashes, but they deploy fast. “And children are not at the right height, or strength to safely absorb the impact of that,” says Shawn Draper. “Keep kids in the backseat as long as you can and when they do move to the front, push the seat as far back as it can go.”