As if buying a car seat for your child wasn't confusing enough - the models, the height and weight requirements, the recalls - there are new manufacturing standards going into effect in January.
Although most of the standards involve changes in behind-the-scenes safety testing and construction, the new maximum weight limits - bumped up to 30 kilograms from 22 kg for child seats and to 10 kg from nine kg for infant seats (booster-seat minimums remains at 18 kg) - are raising questions for parents.
Transport Canada says the change will "allow heavier children to be better protected." But many people see another upside: The move may help keep all kids in the rear-facing position longer, something long advocated by safety experts and many parents.
One car-seat.org poster, Dragonfly8 from Manitoba, wrote that she noticed someone staring at her when she put her 31-month-old in a rear-facing seat (in forum lingo, RF or RF'ing): "...she gave me a look ... I just smiled and strapped him in. I wonder what she thought as she watched me drive away!!!" Like most forum posters, she signs off with her children's stats and car-seat brands.
By law, infants must be in a rear-facing car seat until they reach the manufacturer's limits. Many models already feature the 10-kg limit - and also require a child to be one-year-old and walking unassisted.
Many parents assume that once infants hit the limit for their first seat, it's time for a forward-facing seat. Indeed, retailers report that a majority of parents opt for the forward-facing models. But safety experts urge the use of an interim model that can remain rear-facing even up to 20 kg.
Trudy Slaght, a certified "children restraint systems technician" and instructor in Edmonton, says the new standards provide a good opportunity for her to remind parents why there should be no rush to put a child in a forward-facing seat.
"Infants and toddlers have heads that are larger in proportion to the rest of their body as well as a still developing skeletal system," she says. "Rear-facing restraints take this into account and provide babies and toddlers with the maximum amount of protection."
Transport Canada, for one, already recommends the extended rear-facing period.
But other official sources offer less detailed recommendations, including the Canadian Pediatric Society. On its website, the society suggests that 10 kg and one year of age is the threshold to move up to a forward-facing car seat.
There's a minimum under the law, and then there is "best practice," says Deanna Lindsay, executive director of the Ottawa-based volunteer car seat installation and advocacy group SEATS for Kids in Ottawa. "We have always been telling people it's safer rear-facing as long as possible," she says.
Ms. Lindsay also readily admits that some rear-facing seats do not fit well in all cars.
In last year's Superfreakonomics, bestselling authors Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt took aim at the safety of car seats, writing that there was no evidence that the seats do a better job than regular seatbelts in saving the lives of children older than 2. They conducted their own crash tests for the book and found that for three- and six-year-old crash-test dummies, regular seatbelts "exceeded every requirement for how a child safety seat should perform."
But earlier this year, on their New York Times blog, they pointed to new research from Volvo based on crash tests and investigations of more than 4,500 crashes. One main thrust of the findings, they wrote, was that "young children are much safer facing the rear of the car and should ride that way until age three or four, ... rather than facing forward starting at six months or one year."
But even as skeptics warm to the idea, parents still resist, offering up reasons ranging from wanting their child to be able to see what's ahead to not wanting their legs bent up against the seat.
But Ms. Slaght says, "Forward-facing shouldn't be viewed as a milestone the same way as crawling or first words."