This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
One-fourth of caregivers adhered to car seat safety guidelines
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Despite AAP guidelines, 20% of children aged 1 to 3 years and approximately half of children aged 4 to 7 years do not use the recommended car seat restraint for their age, according to National Poll on Children’s Health data.
In 2011, the AAP updated its guidelines for child passenger safety, advising parents to keep children in rear-facing car seats until they are aged 2 years, or until children exceed the height or weight limit for the rear-facing seat.
“There are lots of reasons why parents are eager to change from the rear-facing to forward-facing seat: the perception their children are too large, the desire to see their children when driving, and a greater ease of removing their children from a forward-facing seat,” Michelle L. Macy, MD, MS, from the division of general pediatrics at the University of Michigan, said in a press release. “But delaying the switch can make a big difference. In Sweden, it is culturally accepted that children up to age 4 are in rear-facing seats and child traffic fatalities are among the lowest in the world.”
To determine the age at which parents first turned their child’s seat to face forward, researchers administered two national Web-based surveys of parents of children aged 4 years or younger in May 2011 (n=495), after the release of the updated guidelines, and in November 2013 (n=521).
In 2011, 33% of parents with children aged 1 to 4 years turned them to face forward (n=409) at or before 12 months, while 16% adhered to the AAP guideline of age 2 years or older. In 2013, 24% of parents with children aged 1 to 4 years had turned them to face forward (n=413) at or before 12 months, with only 23% abiding by the AAP guideline.
“We’ve seen some improvement, with a higher proportion of parents reporting that they are waiting longer to make the switch to a forward-facing car seat,” Macy said in the release. “However, almost one-quarter of parents are turning their children before their first birthday. And few parents report waiting until that second birthday to make the turn.”
Parents reported that car seat packaging and clinicians as the most common sources of information.
“We hope this research further encourages clinicians to spend time with their patients talking about the benefits of extending the use of a rear-facing car seat,” Macy said. “It will be the kids that benefit, if their parents get the right information about how to use restraints and when to make transitions.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts