In the event of braking, being rear-facing allows for the largest, heaviest part of the baby to be cradled in the cushion of car seat (think of a ball being caught in a mitt) as opposed to flopping forward if the baby were front-facing.
Injury prevention is one of the most important topics that we, as pediatricians, discuss with families. Here in the United States, unintentional injuries are the leadingcause of death for children over 1 yearof age, and car crashes are always in thetop two causes of these injuriesacross all pediatric age groups, along with SIDS/infant suffocation, drowning, suicide, and firearm homicide.
