Winter is a tricky time for car seats, As a general rule, bulky clothing, including winter coats and snowsuits, should not be worn underneath the harness of a car seat. In a car crash, fluffy padding in a coat immediately flattens out from the force, leaving extra space under the harness.
How to put a coat on a child’s car seat?
Most puffy coats are too large to be worn in a car seat. During a car accident, the puffy layers of your child’s coat will compress and the loosened straps could lead to injury or ejection. So, does this mean all coats should be taken off while using a car seat? It depends.
With your child wearing their coat, place them in their car seat and secure the harness. Adjust the harness and tighten it so you can’t pinch any of the belt webbing between your thumb and forefinger. Unhook your child’s car seat harness and remove them from the seat. Don’t loosen the harness. Take off their coat, then buckle your child back into their seat. The straps should be tightened like they were when you child was wearing their coat. If you can pinch the strap webbing between your thumb and forefinger, the coat is too big to be worn underneath the car seat harness.
Is it safe for my child to wear a coat in car?
Most puffy coats are too large to be worn in a car seat. During a car accident, the puffy layers of your child’s coat will compress and the loosened straps could lead to injury or ejection. So, does this mean all coats should be taken off while using a car seat? It depends.
With your child wearing their coat, place them in their car seat and secure the harness. Adjust the harness and tighten it so you can’t pinch any of the belt webbing between your thumb and forefinger. Unhook your child’s car seat harness and remove them from the seat. Don’t loosen the harness. Take off their coat, then buckle your child back into their seat. The straps should be tightened like they were when you child was wearing their coat. If you can pinch the strap webbing between your thumb and forefinger, the coat is too big to be worn underneath the car seat harness.
Is your child’s winter coat too big for a car seat?
How to check the winter coat in the car seat – Here is a simple way to check if your child’s coat is too big to wear under their harness:
- Put the coat on your child, sit them in the child seat and fasten the harness. Tighten the harness until you can no longer pinch any of the harness webbing with your thumb and forefinger
- Without loosening the harness, remove your child from the child seat,
- Take the coat off and put your child back in the car seat and buckle the harness straps, which are still adjusted as they were when he was wearing the coat.
- If you can now pinch the webbing between your thumb and forefinger then the coat is too bulky to be worn under the harness.
Here’s great video showing the winter coat fit test described above.
Is it safe to put a car seat over a coat?
Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding and emphatic ‘no’ from pretty much every expert who knows anything about child safety. ‘A car seat or child restraint harness should not be secured over a bulky coat,’ Amy Artuso, Senior Program Manager of Grants, Transportation, and Advocacy at The National Safety Council tells Romper.
