Volvo is advising parents and guardians to place children's car seats facing rearwards in the backseat while traveling. Volvo is known for developing car safety manuals for decades, and it recommends that kids from zero to four years should sit facing rearwards whenever they are inside a car. After many years of research, Volvo says that this is the safest seating position for young kids whenever they are traveling.

Dr. Lotta Jakobsson, who works at Volvo as a senior technical specialist in Injury Prevention, says that rearward-facing in cars while traveling is the best protection for kids under four years.

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Dr. Lotta added that the reason for having young kids facing rearwards in cars is that their necks are still weak to support the head properly. American Academy of Pediatrics has also recommended the rearwards facing for kids after conducting some research. AAP has reported that car crashes are among the leading cause of fatalities among young kids.

Volvo engineers collaborated with Professor Bertil Aldman, to come up with the concept of a rearward-facing child car seat. In 1959, Volvo Cars invented the three-point seatbelt. Despite decades of research and the recommendation by WHO to have young kids rear-facing in cars, many countries haven't put in place regulations to support the same.

According to AP News, Volvo cars still recommend that young children always sit in a rear-facing position when traveling. Dr. Lotta insists that parents need to know that the kids' neck isn't strong enough to support the head since the head is a bit heavy compared to other parts of the body. Therefore, the best way to protect them while they are in the car is to support their back and the head to reduce neck movement. However, some critics say that rearward-facing will cause carsickness in a child because the inner part of their ears feels the motion while the eyes and muscles are just still.

Parents have also complained that toddlers don't like to be put in a rearward-facing position while traveling because they wouldn't have any pleasant views to occupy them throughout the journey. However, Dr. Lotta insists that rearwards facing is the way to go because, in case of an extreme frontal impact, your child would be saved by the rearwards facing sitting position. The child's car seat should be the right size, and it should be fitted correctly.

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Sources: apnews.com