The leading cause of death for toddlers in the United States isn't poisoning, medical ailments or accidents around the home. By far the biggest killer of children is car crashes.
On Thursday, the National Transportation Safety Board holds a forum on car seat safety in Washington. Some of the recommendations could mean wholesale changes to how Americans transport their kids.
The reason to keep kids facing the back as they get older - even up to the age of 4 - is simple physics. In a head-on collision, a rear-facing car seat spreads the energy of the crash across the toddler's entire back, not just across a narrow portion of a tiny body.
Studies have shown that toddlers in a rear-facing car seat are five times safer than those who face forward. In the U.S., five children a day die, on average, in car crashes. That's frustrating to pediatricians.
Most 4-year-olds in Sweden are transported this way. European car seats are larger, and the cars are engineered so they can accommodate them. "Cultural change is very slow," says Alisa Baer, a pediatrician who helps run TheCarSeatLady.com. "The United States is a society that doesn't like to be told what to do."
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