I was watching the news this evening, and the Feds have changed their guidelines regarding car seats. Apparently they now recommend that children be in a rear-facing car seat until they are two years old. Cooper out grew his baby carrier car seat by four months, and by the time he was one, he weighed 30 pounds. His car seat could only be rear facing until the child is 30 pounds. They suggest that if a 1-year-old outweighs the recommendation of an infant seat that you should switch to a different rear-facing car seat that will accommodate the heavier weight. But Cooper had a top of the line car seat, and it only went up to 30 pounds when rear facing.
They also recommend that children sit in booster seat until they are 4 feet 9 inches. Now I know some adults that aren’t even 4′ 9″, are they suppose to use a booster seat?
And they recommend that children be seated in the back seat of the car until the age of thirteen. Thirteen, really? That’s three years before they start driving. Pretty soon they are going to bump the age up to 16 and kids are going to have to get a steering wheel and gas/break petal extensions so they can drive from the back seat.
Don’t get me wrong, I think that having your child in a proper car seat or booster seat is VERY important, and Carter and Cooper will be in the back seat until they are 13 (but by that time the age will probably be raised to 30…I think I’m going to stop driving and start sitting in the back seat just in case!) But I can remember fighting with my younger siblings to sit in the front seat of the car (I’m the oldest and they are two and four years younger than me), and I don’t remember any of us sitting in booster seats. Did they even make booster seats 25 years ago?
And then I start to think of all the other things that experts have recommended and that have changed over the years. Babies used to sleep on their stomachs and that’s a BIG no-no now. Remember the little baby seats that had wheels on them? Babies could sit in them and then wheel themselves right down a flight of stairs…..I don’t even think they make those anymore. And the sleep position pillows they used to sell, experts now tell us that they can suffocate babies (I could have told you that!)
All the changes and new recommendations….it’s truly amazing that we’re all still alive! 🙂
