The American Academy of Pediatrics has changed their recommendations for children's rear facing car seats.

The change eliminates the age at which a child should be in a rear facing seat and instead just recommends leaving your child in a rear facing car seat as determined by the height and weight of the child.

Guidelines previously had included keeping a child in a rear facing car seat until the age of 2.  Now, it's recommended to use your rear facing car seat as issued by the manufacturers' height and weight recommendations.

The AAP still recommends that parents keep their children in rear facing car seats as long as you can:

Infants and toddlers should ride in a rear-facing car safety seat as long as possible, until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their seat. Most convertible seats have limits that will allow children to ride rear-facing for 2 years or more.

The release mentions that car seat manufacturers have designed seats to hold more weight for rear facing seats, which could allow your child to ride rear facing past 2 years old:

“Fortunately, car seat manufacturers have created seats that allow children to remain rear-facing until they weigh 40 pounds or more, which means most children can remain rear-facing past their second birthday,” said Benjamin Hoffman, MD, FAAP, lead author of the policy statement and chair of the AAP Council on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention. “It’s best to keep your child rear-facing as long as possible. This is still the safest way for children to ride.”

To see recommendations for higher weight and height, check out the full release.

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