Please consult the owner's manual of your carseat. For most carseats, this is not a problem and may actually improve safety. At least one carseat, the Century Smart Move, does require the seat to be able to rotate freely toward the back of the vehicle in a crash. Best practice from the NHTSA training manual states, "A rear-facing seat can be installed so it rests against the back of the vehicle seat ahead if not counter to manufacturers instructions...

No. Most rear-facing car seats are not designed to be tethered. The top of the seat will be able to twist and rotate toward the back of the vehicle. This is normal. If the carseat rotates DOWNWARD into the seat cushion significantly, you may try to put your weight on it and install it a bit tighter.

Generally, NO, unless it is specifically mentioned in your manual. In the USA, older Safeline Sit-n-Stroll models and some Britax models may use a tether when rear-facing. You can find some instructions for tethering the Britax models in the Britax Online Instructions. Some additional information on the use of the rear-facing Britax Versa-Tether can be found at this site.

Generally, yes. Though there appears to be no evidence that this is unsafe, at least one company, Evenflo, used to recommend that you do NOT install many of their carseat models in front of a fold-down armrest. Ford has a similar recommendation for some of its vehicles. Please consult the owner's manual of your vehicle and carseat before making this decision.

This depends on the state you live in. Generally, we like to recommend a rear-facing infant seat until 12-15 months of age, and then a rear-facing seat until 3 or 4 years of age, depending on your child's height and weight. After that, you can move to a front-facing seat or a booster until at least 7 years of age. Check your state's seatbelt laws here for more detailed information.

Airbags can be deadly to infants in rear-facing carseats, and to children 12 and under using the seatbelts. The front seat is generally not recommended for children 12 and under. The airbag MUST be disabled if you must use a rear-facing child seat in the front. Some vehicles without a rear seat, especially pickup trucks, have an on/off switch for this purpose. If a child must ride in the front, you should also move the front seat as far back as it will go.

Your child should be rear facing until they are at least 1 year old AND 20 pounds. This is the recommendation put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Keep in mind that this is the minimum requirement. The longer you can keep your child rear facing, the better. Most convertible seats will go rear facing up to 30 pounds, some even up to 35 pounds.

BTW, here are some Canadian prices. I don't believe we are receiving a stripped down version of the 850 (yet). They all seem to be fully equipped. My first thought was that it looks small. Not to say this is bad, but it is a compact looking package. They have changed the front end appearance in some subtle ways, which surprised me as this is only the second year of the model and Volvo's usually don't change like this for YEARS.

Putting a rear facing seat in-front of an airbag places the baby in serious danger. An airbag explodes with a force up to 200 pounds. When the bag inflates, it strikes the back of the car seat hard enough to break the plastic shell. This is usually the fatal blow. The airbag then slams the car seat into the back of the seat of the vehicle. If a child managed to survive this blow, he would suffer permanent brain damage.

Infants have large heavy heads, weak neck and shoulder muscles and soft, immature bones. Car seats are designed to safeguard these fragile parts and provide maximum protection during a crash. When a child is positioned rear-facing, the back of the car seat shell absorbs the energy from the crash, allowing the child’s head and neck to be protected against the seat back. This helps prevent brain and spinal cord injury.

Follow your car seat and vehicle manufacturer instruction manual. In addition, Partners for Child Passenger Safety has a Web site featuring video clips, highlighting rear-facing seats, forward-facing seats, booster seats and LATCH. Click here to visit their Web site. The safest place for your three-year old depends on the type of seat you have, the number and location of the seating positions in your car, as well as the type of seatbelts in your vehicle.

You can use a tether on a rear-facing seat only if the owner’s manual to your car seat manual permits it.

Rear-facing IS safest. It is best to remain rear-facing to the weight and height limits of the carseat. Some convertible carseats have 30 or 35 pound rear-facing limits. In all cases, infants should be rear-facing until they are BOTH one year AND twenty pounds at the very minimum. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be kept in rear-facing seats for as long as possible. See these links for more details:

You may put a tightly rolled towel or foam pool "noodle" under the front of a rear-facing carseat (near the crack of the vehicle seat) to get the necessary recline. You must not put a noodle, thick towels or any compressible material under a front-facing carseat.

Maybe. Integrated carseats, especially those with a harness, may have some disadvantages when used as the primary restraint for a child: Emergency personnel often prefer to remove a child in a separate carseat. This keeps the child immobilized in case of head/spinal injury, and may allow for safer transport in the ambulance. Integrated seats do not function rear-facing. Rear-facing is safest for children, and many separate carseat models allow for rear-facing use to 30 or 35 lbs.

Some Touaregs come with cup holders for the rear seats, and some do not. At first, it seemed that only V8 Touaregs included these cup holders, but recent reports indicate that some V6 models do included them as well. Touareg owners who did not get the cup holders have reported that they have been able to obtain them and have a dealer install them. We suspect that there was a cost associated with this upgrade.

Infants do not have the muscle and bone strength in their necks and chests to withstand a forward facing collision. Their heads are large and heavy compared to the rest of their body, and when the head moves forward during a collision it can cause damage to the spinal cord. This does not happen when the child is rear facing as the force of the crash is absorbed into the seat.

In most cases people use the term, facing or tip opening to mean the same thing, although facing technically has another meaning. Facing, applies to the way the mouthpiece curves away from the table of the mouthpiece where the reed sits. Facing Length is the distance, measured in millimeters, from the tip of the mouthpiece to where the mouthpiece first begins to curve away from the reed.

Yes. In fact, in a car with two air bags, riding in the front seat could be deadly for your baby, even in a very low-speed crash. NEVER, EVER put a rear-facing baby in front of an air bag. The rear-facing baby's skull could be fractured as the air bag (not yet inflated) explodes from the dashboard at 200 miles per hour. In a car with no air bag in front, the back seat is still safer, since it is farther from the action in a frontal crash -which is the most common and most severe kind.

Some older convertible safety seat instructions said that a child should face forward when her feet touch the vehicle seatback or if the legs must be bent. However, there is no evidence that longer legs are at risk of injury in a crash, and these instructions have now been revised. Most children learn to fold up their legs for comfort when their feet touch the back of the vehicle seat. The only physical limit on rear-facing use is when the child's head comes near the top of the safety seat.

Rear-facing is the safest way to travel in a vehicle. In a crash, the child moves as one unit with the car seat. The head, neck, and spine are held in the car seat and move with the force of the crash, not against it. In a forward facing seat, the torso is kept in the seat, but the head isn't and is violently thrown forward. A baby's head is very heavy and the neck is fragile. The neck cannot withstand the violent force of being thrown forward.

Yes, a lot of babies with reflux actually sleep better like this, because it keeps them in an upright postion allowing for better digestion and less reflux. However, consult your child's doctor before making any sleep decisions that don't involve the child sleeping on his/her back on firm mattress free of loose objects, blankets, pillows, etc..

No. The Rear Window system is designed so that the captions are visible (via reflectors) from any seat in the theater. The reflectors are completely portable and designed to attach to any theater seat. However, depending on the size or layout of the theater and the location of the caption display, some seats may offer better viewing angles than others. Seats in the middle of the theater will generally offer the best view of Rear Window captions.

The BMW child seats are designed to use the ISOFIX attachments. If the child seat is fitted correctly using the ISOFIX attachments, then there is no need to have the rear side airbags deactivated. However, these can be deactivated if required. Please contact the Service Department at your local dealership for further assistance.

Included in our print price is basic retouching of the photos you purchase (acne, stray hairs, cut or scar removal, etc.).

Yes. Rear-facing infant-only child safety seats are required to have lower LATCH attachments. Forward-facing only and convertible child safety seats are required to have lower LATCH attachments and most will also have a top tether strap. If your child safety seat is a convertible seat, the LATCH system is designed to work in both rear- and forward-facing positions.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), babies should ride rear-facing to the maximum weight or height of the rear-facing convertible seat for the best protection. Look in your car seat’s owner’s manual or labels on the seat for this information. When your baby outgrows the infant-only seat, move him/her to a rear-facing convertible seat, which will allow you to keep baby backwards for a longer period of time.