I didn't want to high jack the thread about whether or not you rear face your child in their car seat past 1, but I'm a strong advocate for car seat safety so I wanted to put up a post with some information on car seat safety. The benefits of rear facing as long as possible are huge!

When used properly, rear-facing carseats provide significant safety advantages in frontal, frontal offset and side impacts. These types of crashes are far more frequent and severe than rear-end crashes. For these reasons, rear-facing is the safest mode of travel, especially for infants. In the USA, this recommendation is valid through the 35 or 40 pound maximum rear-facing weight limit of newer convertible carseats, or until the child outgrows their convertible carseat by height. The height limit of a rear-facing carseat may be listed in the owner's manual. A child is also considered too tall for a rear-facing seat if the top of their head is within an inch of the top of the carseat shell. It is NOT considered a safety issue if a child's legs are bent at the knees in a rear-facing carseat, or if their feet can touch the vehicle's seat back. At a very minimum, children should remain rear-facing until AT LEAST one year of age AND 20 pounds in weight. In countries like Sweden, children are often kept rear-facing much longer, even to 3 or 4 years old. Auto related injury and death rates for rear-facing children in Sweden are near zero because of this.

Research studies suggest that until children are at least four, they are incapable of withstanding crash forces as well as adults - and should remain rear-facing.

Keep them rear facing AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. Used to be until age 1 and 20 lbs, but the AAP has recommended for 10+ years to RF to the limits of the child restraint. Pediatricians are just now starting to come up to speed on that and there have been articles released about studies showing RFing to be 5 times safer up to age 2--but that's only because age 2 is what they studied to. The spinal column can stretch something like 2.5 inches but the spinal CORD only stretches 1/4 " before it snaps, resulting in internal decapitation. The bones begin fusing around age 3 and are completed by age 6, so the risk goes down as the child ages. There are now numerous convertible seats on the market that will rear face average sized children to age 3 and beyond. Legs are not an issue, they find someplace to put them, and it's more comfortable rear facing (like in a recliner chair) than forward facing with legs dangling down. Some people are afraid legs will break in an accident--better a broken leg than broken neck. Broken leg? Cast it. Broken neck? Casket. AND data shows leg injuries to be more common in forward facing children anyway because their legs fly forward and hit the seat in front of them.

Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8gU9zzCGA8

Links for Information:
car-safety.org
http://www.nhtsa.gov/Safety/CPS
http://www.seatcheck.org/
http://www.carseat.org