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Safety Tips While Travelling Using Winter Coats

by: Parul | last updated: September 29, 2009
Category: Health & Safety: Safety | Tags: car seat safety while using winter coats
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Safety Tips While Travelling Using Winter Coats

During the cold weather, parents bring out their babies’ winter coats or snowsuits to keep the baby warm during travel. However, thick winter coats or snowsuits can compromise your child’s car seat safety. In order for a baby car seat or toddler booster seat function properly, the straps need to remain tight against the child’s chest. Winter coats and snowsuits make car seat safety difficult because they change the way a child fits into the car seat. When the car seat straps don’t fit the child properly, there is a chance the child could be ejected from the car seat. Now, in this guide, I am going to tell you how you can check the safety features.

 
It’s easy to check and see whether a baby’s winter coat or infant snowsuit is too thick to be safe in a car seat. Now I am going to tell you the how to do the test. This test will show you how thick the coat is and how much the coat will compress during crash. Take the car seat into the house. Put the winter coat or snowsuit on the child. Put the child in the car seat and buckle the harness as you normally would before you travel. Adjust the strap to the appropriate to the appropriate fit for your child. Take the child out of the car seat without loosening the straps at all. Take the coat off your child. Put the child back in the car seat and buckle the harnesses again, but do not tighten the straps. If you can fit more than two fingers under the harness at the child’s shoulder bone, the coat is too thick and is not safe for use with the car seat.
 
For babies in an infant seat, dress them warmly in normal clothes, like a shirt, sweatshirt, long pants and a hat. Buckle the child into the infant seat, and then cover the baby with a light blanket tucked around the sides. Male sure nothing is behind baby’s back. Add another heavier blanket over the top of the infant seat. There are car seat cover available that fit over the whole infant seat once the baby is buckled in. These covers have a peep-hole so that baby’s face remains uncovered. Be sure that the child is buckled up under the cover, though, as it’s easy to forget when buckle is out of sight.
 
For older babies and toddlers, take the child’s coat off before buckling them into the car seat. Once the harnesses are secure, put the child’s coat on backwards over their arms to keep them warm without compromising safety. Whenever possible, warm up your car before putting the baby in the vehicle. When buying winter coats, keep thickness and the car seat safety in mind. Polar fleece jackets and snowsuits are warm but thin, making them a smart choice for winter baby wear.
 
Many companies also offer thick car seat covers that act like a bunting for babies in the winter. Parents should avoid buying any car seat cover or car seat bunting those threads through the harness straps of their child’s car seat.

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