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Kim Kardashian Breaks #1 Kid's Car Seat Rule

Parents with young children can make mistakes with their car seats and no one will probably ever notice, but if you're a celebrity, you'd better be wary because the world is watching you. Here is a story that all of us at Hendrick Luxury Collision Center Charlotte was noteworthy, because we often see people having issues with the children's seats in Charlotte, NC all the time. They can be tricky, so we're not surprised to find out that even reality stores have issues with them from time to time.

If you're a fan of Romper.com, you likely saw a story about Kim Kardashian, in which she failed to follow the number one rule for celebrity mothers on the Internet--don't post a photo of your children.

After sharing a picture of her son Saint on Facebook, the mother-shaming started and it quickly went viral. But now, Kardashian is addressing her kiddy car seat critics, and it turns out that their safety concerns were completely unfounded. Kardashian Fans were quick to tell the world that Saint, then just 17 months old, was facing forward in his car seat, and insisted that he should have been rear-facing until age two, but they didn't know the entire story.

Kardashian recently shared her side of the story in a new video on her website and YouTube. "What people didn't realize," the reality star explained, "is that my son Saint is now the proper weight and the height in order to sit forward-facing in his car seat."

Many parents shaming Kim online may have forgotten that while there are age-based guidelines for children's car seat safety, there are also a series of limits based on the size of the child, which is in actuality a much more precise way to ensure they're in the right seat and correct position.

Starting back in 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly recommends that babies must ride in rear-facing car seats until they turn two years old or until they reach the maximum height and weight for their car seat. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website outlines these guidelines with a detailed chart illustrating that toddlers are ready to start facing forward between the ages of one one and three, depending size. California law is more specific in this regard, and as of January 2017, children under the age of two must be rear-facing unless they weigh approximately 40 pounds and are 40 inches in height. Saint's seat is a Maxi-Cosi Pria 70, which does carry the typical 40-pound and 40-inch limitation for any type of rear-facing positioning.

While some fans tried to protect Kardashian on Facebook by claiming motion sickness or a serious lack of legroom as the reason why Saint was facing forward, it's always important to realize that those are not exactly valid reasons to make the untimely switch.

However, forward-facing isn't just simply a matter of convenience. Once any child outgrows the height limit for a rear-facing car seat, their head may no longer be completely protected in a crash, and the LATCH system cannot ever be used once the child and his or her car seat's combined weight are in excess of 65 pounds. While positioning the child in a rear-facing position may ideal for your average baby, it clearly appears that Saint is actually in the safest position possible for his size.

Now don't you feel foolish for judging poor Kim and her little rapper of the future?

Sources: Entertainment Weekly, NBC and People