Who makes the laws....?

In the US, who decided that 12 months and 20 pounds was ever a good recommendation for turning carseats?

My son was 20 pounds at 6 months and is now 8 months, probably 22 pounds or so. It actually scares me to think that children his size are forward-facing in cars.

I'm so glad that I found all of this carseat info because I probably would have turned him at 12 months.

I believe the law is 20lbs/1 year because 20lbs was the max weight limit for RF seats for a long time. The laws are still behind the times.

When my 17yo was born in 1990 it was recommened that you turn them around a 6mon which I happily did.

mol13 said:

In the US, who decided that 12 months and 20 pounds was ever a good recommendation for turning carseats?

Click to expand...

We make the laws.

the USA is a representative democracy. We vote for people who represent us in the state legislature. And they vote for laws, etc to represent our interest. If we don't like what they are doing, we vote them out.

But note, its a majority vote that gets the representative in. So when they decide to change something on the books, they either have to be convinced that it is worth it enough even if it means they lose their jobs -- or they need to be convinced that enough people want it that they will not lose their jobs over this vote. IE it is really representative of what their constituents want.

Given how many people don't use car seats correctly, I'm actually surprised we've got laws about it on the books at all.

Touche' on the democracy answer (of course you're right... :thumbsup

You don't think it's 'legislators who will do anything in their living power to get re-elected, even if it hurts innocent children'?

It really varies from state to state, most say nothing about what age child is in what kind of seat, just that they are in a seat till a certain age or height or weight is reached...and yeah, the 20 pounds is just a vestige of RF seats 10 years ago only going to that weight, based upon the 9 month old crash test dummy weighing 20 pounds (notice how a lot of seats have 22 pound limits for RF or FF minimums? That's based on the 22 pound 12 mo dummy ).

Things will start getting a lot better as new generations of parents come along to give advice to even newer parents...we're still contending with grandmas now who never used seats and giving bad advice, and friends who had to turn FF at 20 pounds thinking it's still the law.... and peds saying 1 and 20, and old carseat manuals that say turn FF when the legs bend...and all kinds of old wives tales that have nothing to do with safety but just won't leave the public mindset yet.... Things are way way way better than they were just a few years ago, so I'm hopeful it won't be long now till most kids are making it well past age one RF

:yeahthat:

Make it public policy. Draw some attention to it and write a local state representative.

I recently read an article in the one parenting magazine about the "Top 10 Safest States to Rais a Family"............Pennsylvania was on that list. One highlight on PA was our booster seat law. We have no "1-20" minimum law here. :thumbsdown:We don't have a 12 and under in the back seat law either. :thumbsdown:
So, basically it would be up to me and my car seat posse to start speaking up to our state reps. :soapbox: (Me in Harrisburg speaking about RF too soon)
I'm going to add that to my list to do.

You asked: "Who makes the laws....?"

My answer: A bunch of morons.

:shrug-shoulders:

You also have to keep in mind just how powerful the status quo is. It's easier to pass higher taxes than it is to pass a better child passenger safety statute.:thumbsdown: