The safest place for your child is in a properly fitted child car seat. There are three basic types of child car seats, each designed for different ages and sizes of children:
• Rear-facing infant seats
• Forward-facing child seats
• Booster seats
There is a lack of information is causing parents to choose forward-facing child seats even though they aren't the safest.
Professor Lotta Jakobsson, senior technical specialist for injury prevention at the Volvo Cars Safety Centre, said: “We strongly recommend everyone to have a rear-facing child seat for their young children. All children should travel rear-faced until the age of three, and preferably four. The differences in anatomy between adults and children are profound."
Once children have outgrown a rearward-facing seat, the safest option is to use a group 1 forward-facing child seat with an inner harness. Children using these seats are much less likely to be hurt in a crash than children who are using seat belts on their own, or even worse, are totally unrestrained.
The next common recommendation is to switch from a car seat to a booster seat when the child reaches four years or 40 pounds. Again, this is a generalization. Most children at four years or 40 pounds are tall enough to have the safety belt fit correctly when they are in a booster seat.
