Make Every Ride a Safe Ride!

Rear Facing Car Seats: Make sure your baby is safe on the ride home from the hospital and every ride in a vehicle. Babies don’t have the back and neck strength to support themselves facing forward in a car seat. The rear facing position is safer because in a crash the force will be spread across the baby’s back and will be absorbed into the car seat.   

Infants need to be rear facing until they are:

1 year of age AND 22 lbs (10 kg) AND walking independently

However, your child is safer in the rear-facing car seat as long as he or she is still below the car seat’s weight and height limits and fits in the car seat correctly. If your child grows out of the rear-facing seat, there may be another model that fits your child.

Read more in Transport Canada’s rear facing car seat brochure.

Watch this video from Ontario Ministry of Transportation on how to install and use a rear facing car seat.

For more information visit:
Parachute Canada
Transport Canada
Ontario Ministry of Transportation

Last updated: September 2019