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Instead of worrying about a rear-facing child’s legs, we should be worrying about a forward-facing child’s head and neck! Notice how the forward-facing child’s head and neck are thrown forward in the video (snug straps only hold the chest back, not the head & neck), whereas the rear-facing child’s head and neck are cradled within the shell of the car seat. This traps the child’s legs, putting tremendous pressure into the leg bones.
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The leg injuries to forward-facing children occur when the child’s legs fly up and hit the back of the front seat as the child and car seat are moving forward. In fact, studies show that forward-facing kids suffer many more leg injuries than rear-facing kids. There are ZERO documented cases of rear-facing children breaking their legs, hips, feet, etc., due to their feet touching the back of the vehicle seat. Lack of evidence of leg injury from actual crashes If the spinal cord is forced to stretch more than it can, it breaks, leaving the baby paralyzed or worse.Ĭhildren are not just smaller adults their bodies are differently proportioned and structured, and this difference affects their ability to tolerate the whiplash motion. Scientists have found that a newborn’s spinal column (bones + ligaments) can stretch up to 2 inches, whereas the spinal cord inside can stretch only 1/4 of an inch. The ligaments that connect these cartilaginous bones are also underdeveloped and stretchy. The bones of an infant’s spine are made up of soft, stretchy cartilage. Strength and rigidity of the bones in the spine also contribute to how well you can tolerate your head being pulled forward and back in a crash. This means that if a newborn were forward-facing in a frontal crash, their head would pull forward with four times as much force as would an adult’s!
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It’s quite different for a newborn, whose head is a whopping 25% of its body. You will be sore for a few days, but you hopefully won’t have any lasting injury. Since an adult’s head is just 6% of their body weight, you can withstand having your head pulled violently away from your body. It whips forward and back in the blink of an eye (and is called whiplash). However, your head doesn’t stop as quickly! Instead, it moves all the way forward until your chin touches your chest, and then goes all the way back. If you’re forward-facing in a car-seat or a seat belt, your upper body stops quickly because the chest strap on the car seat or the seat belt holds you back. In a crash everyone moves towards the point of impact, so in a frontal crash everyone moves toward the front of the car.