How to Choose the Safest Car Seat for Your Child
Your child’s car seat is their primary protection in a crash, so it's important to pick the safest one for their developmental stage
Conventional wisdom says that parents should keep children in an infant seat until they’ve outgrown it based on height or weight. But our crash-test results—combined with the fact that many babies will outgrow their infant seat by height rather than weight—refine that transition point.
Different Types of Car Seats
Consumer Reports recommends that children move through three types of car seats as they grow to ensure they are in the safest car seat for their weight, size, and age. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind.
- Babies up to 1 year of age or 30 pounds should ride in a detachable, rear-facing-only infant seat that snaps in and out of a base that’s anchored to the vehicle.
- At age 1 they should move to a convertible, or all-in-one, seat that’s first installed facing the rear, then switched to forward-facing as the child gets older. Keep your child rear-facing in their car seat until at least age 2, or until they exceed the rear-facing height or weight limit of their seat.
- When your child outgrows their convertible seat (usually around age 4), kids should transition to a booster seat, which raises them up to allow the car’s seat belts to fit safely.
For more information, see our car seat timeline, which answers other questions, like how long your child should ride in the back seat (until age 13), and whether you can reuse your child’s car seat (you can, but be sure it isn’t expired first).
Make sure to check out our article on the do’s and don’ts of infant car-seat use, too, which gathers tips from the certified child passenger safety technicians at Consumer Reports and the American Academy of Pediatrics for keeping your baby safe in and out of the car.
How Long Should I Keep My Child’s Car Seat Rear-Facing?
Once your child transitions to a convertible car seat, Consumer Reports and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend keeping them rear-facing until they are at least 2 years old or reach the maximum weight or height limit for a rear-facing convertible, or all-in-one, seat. Why? Because real-world crash data shows there’s a reduced rate of head and spine injuries when children ride facing the rear.
It is not only best to keep your child rear-facing until at least age 2 but also the law in many states. Failure to comply can result in a fine.
Child-seat manufacturers are also getting onboard. Many have labeling and instructions that indicate a minimum age of 2 years to be forward-facing. In our ratings, currently only the Baby Trend Trooper and Cover Me models allow you to turn your child forward-facing at 1 year old, which CR does not recommend.
It’s easy to assume that making the transition from an infant seat to a convertible or all-in-one is the right time to also switch to a forward-facing position. But a change in seat type shouldn’t mean a change in orientation. Convertible, or all-in-one, seats can be installed in both rear- and forward-facing configurations. This will probably be the seat your child sits in for the longest period of time.
You might think that your kid looks uncomfortable riding rear-facing, but research has found that children are just as comfortable, if not more so, riding that way as those who face forward. Children are much more flexible than adults, so even though their folded legs might look awkward, it probably doesn’t feel that way to them.
How CR Tests Child Car Seats
We evaluate car seats by testing them on a seat cushion that better represents the dimensions and firmness of the seats in current vehicles rather than the flatter "test bench" equipment required by the government.
We contract with an outside lab to conduct simulated 35-mph frontal crashes, evaluating a seat’s potential for providing an additional margin of safety beyond the federal standard. We also test with the addition of a simulated front seatback surface that resembles the environment of a real vehicle. (Government tests, by comparison, are done at 30 mph and don’t include a simulated seatback.)
CR’s certified child passenger safety technicians install each seat in all unique rear-seat positions of five vehicle types. We look at how easy it is to install in each allowable orientation and using LATCH anchors and a vehicle’s seat belt.
At our Auto Test Center, CR’s certified child passenger safety technicians evaluate how easy each seat is to use. This includes, among other factors, the clarity of instructions, installation, adjusting the harness, and the seat’s weight.
Our rear-facing crash-test results showed that a dummy representing a 12-month-old child was protected from striking its head against the simulated front seatback in 99 percent of CR’s tested convertible and all-in-one models. By contrast, when using the same-sized dummy in infant seats, 57 percent of the seats allowed head contact. Research shows that when a child suffers a serious injury in a crash, it’s frequently because of head contact with an interior component, such as the front seatback.
How Do You Install a Car Seat?
Your child seat should fit not only your child but also your car. If you can’t test-fit a seat before purchasing it, make sure you can return or exchange the seat if it doesn’t work out.
Here are some tips to help you install a child seat in your vehicle:
- Carefully read the manuals for both the car and the seat.
- Check the recline angle of rear-facing seats. That’s critical, especially for newborns. An overly upright seat may allow an infant’s head to fall forward, obstructing his or her breathing. Look for rear-facing seats with a built-in level indicator to help you get the seat properly reclined.
- Child seats can be installed using your vehicle’s seat belts, but it’s often easier to get a secure fit using LATCH, a standardized system of anchors built into most vehicles since September 2002.
- To secure a forward-facing child car seat, always attach and tighten the top tether, whether the seat is installed with the lower anchors or a seat belt.
- You might have to remove the vehicle’s head restraint to allow a forward-facing seat to fit properly against the vehicle’s seatback.
- Make sure that the harness is tight enough; you shouldn’t be able to pinch any fabric at your child’s shoulder.
- Go to safekids.org to find out where and when you can have your seat installation checked free. You can also check the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s site to find a local technician or inspection station.
What's a Load Leg?
Car seats for children have improved significantly since they were first designed in the early 1960s, and that progress is continuing. One advancement, which is more commonly available in Europe, is the "load leg."
Load legs, also known as foot props, give an infant car seat additional support by extending a rod from the seat’s base to the vehicle’s floor. It provides additional stabilization by limiting the seat’s forward motion during a crash, which helps reduce the transfer of crash energy to your child in the event of a collision.
Our crash results demonstrate a 46 percent decrease in head-injury risk in infant seats with the load leg compared with seats without it. Bear in mind that not all vehicle manufacturers allow the use of load leg seats, or they limit the seating positions. The owner’s manual for the Chrysler Pacifica with Stow ‘n Go folding middle-row chairs specifically prohibits using a load leg because the hatches for storing the vehicle seats may not support the additional crash forces.
Check your owner’s manual for load-leg compatibility. Seats with a load leg can be more expensive than other models, but there have been less expensive models available. More affordable seats are still safe when used and installed correctly, but load-leg seats can offer an additional layer of safety.
Editor’s Note: This article also appeared in the January 2017 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.
