Despite the boring view, kids should ride in rear-facing car seats until they reach their second birthday, the American Academy of Pediatrics said today. The pediatricians’ group says the new recommendations represent a “significant change” from its previous advice, which said infants should ride backwards until they were at least one year old, or weighed 20 pounds. But a 2007 study cited by the AAP found that children up to age 23 months were much more likely to be injured in car crashes if they were riding in the front-facing seats. The pediatricians also cited “extensive experience in Sweden,” where rear-facing seats may be used until about age four. A labor-and-delivery nurse and longtime car-safety advocate tells the New York Times that many parents “consider turning the car seat

around as another developmental milestone that shows how brilliant and advanced their child is, and they don’t realize that it’s making their child less safe.” Parents of kids older than two can consider using forward-facing car seats until kids are too big. At that point parents should switch to belt-positioning booster seats until kids reach about 4’9″ in height. After that, the usual shoulder harness is okay — but all kids younger than 13 should ride in the back seat, the AAP says. The AAP says that each year, motor-vehicle crashes in the U.S. kill about 1,500 kids younger than 16, almost half of whom aren’t wearing any form of passenger restraint.

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Kids Should Ride in Rear-Facing Car Seats Until Age 2: Pediatricians