How to wear a winter coat in the carseat

Posted by carsimulator on Saturday, October 2, 2010

With winter around the corner, I imagine most parents are looking for a warm winter coat for their children. Something to keep in mind, is carseat safety. Many winter coats are not safe to use when your child is riding in a carseat. Below is a demo of how to keep your child warm and safe in the car.

Here is a child, properly buckled into his carseat.

You can see it's properly tightened. The harness should be tight enough that when you try to pinch a horizontal line at the shoulders, you can't pinch any.

Here is a child wearing an average winter coat, buckled into his carseat.

He unbuckled, without loosening the harness, and removed his coat. Now you can clearly see how much slack that coat allowed in the harness. In a crash, the puffy coat would compress, and this his how loose he would be.

One option is to buy a polar fleece. It is plenty warm, but not thick and bulky.

A second option is to do the "carseat trick". You unzip the coat, and pull the sides out of the harness

Next, buckle the child, and tighten properly. This is often enough to keep the children warm, especially once the heater gets going.

Another optional step, is to rezip the coat over the harness.

I'm currently shopping for Sofi's winter coat. I'm ordering a fleece from Lands End, overstocks. I've had to order a few to find the coat I like, in the right size. Once her coat arrives, I will post some pictures of her in it.