International policies regarding the use of child restraint systems

Many jurisdictions (e.g., European Union, Australia, New Zealand) permit, or even require, lap-held infants to be restrained with a supplementary or a belly loop belt, which attaches to the adult’s seatbelt and goes around the infant’s abdomen. Canada and the United States do not allow the supplementary loop belt because research has shown that infants so restrained fare worse than unrestrained infants because of the adult’s forward movement during severe impact and the concentrated forces of the supplementary loop belt on the infant’s abdominal region.