After having your first child, you really learn a lot of useful information.  Some of the things we’ve never heard of before, and others we had to learn about to take better care of your new baby.  A great thing to inform yourself about is car seats.  Car seats are what protect our child in the car, keep them safe, and give them the support they need.

Once a new parent has a baby, there are a lot of questions about car seats.  We don’t know how to install them, we don’t know which ones are the best, and we don’t know the basic things like why a baby needs to be rear-facing right away.

If you’re wondering why your child needs to be rear-facing in the vehicle, continue reading below for the answer!

First of all, rear-facing car seats are generally for babies up to about 22 lbs AND one year old.  You don’t want to face your child forward-facing until they’ve reached both requirements.  But why?  Babies are very delicate from the time they’re born.  If you didn’t know already a baby’s head makes up about 1/3 of their body when they’re first born.  This means there is a lot of weight on their head and neck.  With such a heavy thing to lift, and such weak and undeveloped muscles, it is almost impossible to have a safe car ride if they’re forward-facing.  If you were to slam on the brakes, or to even stop gradually, their little neck and larger head are going to fling forward.  This then puts a lot of strain on the head and neck.

Although, if you sit them rear-facing and hit the brakes their head isn’t going to fling forward.  Instead, they have a lot more support just because they’re rear-facing and not forward-facing.  They are already laying back, and there is hardly any movement that can be done with their head.  So, make sure you start your little one out rear-facing until they meet both 22 lbs AND one year old.