As is always the way when the
colder weather strikes, the debate about children wearing thick winter jackets
or snowsuits in carseats rears its head. To me, there’s no debate about it – a simple
don’t do it is all that’s needed, but I’ll explain why here.
It’s obvious when you think about
it, that if the child is wearing a thickly padded winter jacket or snowsuit
then you won’t be able to tension the harness correctly. In the event of an
impact the child then has further to travel forward before the harness stops
them, which in turn increases the chances of serious internal injuries / neck
and spinal injuries. A carseat harness doesn’t tension the same way as a 3
point seatbelt in the vehicle does so you want to make sure it’s tensioned
properly before you set off (a maximum of 2 finger gap between the breastbone
and the harness is the recommendation for correct tension) Once the child moves
up into a high back booster seat and is using the 3 point seatbelt, this isn’t
so much of an issue, as in an impact the seatbelt tension would lock and
prevent the child moving forward too far (the same as it works on an adult
using the seatbelt)
A lot of infant carrier carseats
have cosy-toes available as accessories for the cold weather. I used one for J
in his CabrioFix when he was a baby. It goes into the empty carseat, then you
put the child in and do up the harness correctly, then zip up the cosy-toes on
the outside of the harness. This ensures baby is safely harnessed in the
carseat and keeps them lovely and snuggly warm.
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| Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix Footmuff |
Also remember that when you’re in
the car, you have the car heating. I don’t tend to wear my coat when I’m
driving as I find it restrictive – so I know the vehicle temperature is warm
enough that any children travelling with me won’t be freezing cold anyway.
Obviously younger babies do need to be kept warmer than an adult, so it’s a
good idea to layer them up, but don’t bundle them up for arctic conditions when
you’re in the car, it’s unnecessary and will cause them to overheat.
Once J was too big for his CabrioFix
carseat and moved up to using the Opal, there wasn’t a cosy-toes / Footmuff option
available, so I used blankets over the top of the harness instead. This became
more difficult as he got older, since he’d insist on having his hands free for
playing with whatever toys he’d brought with him or being able to have a drink
or snack while we were driving. I discovered Snuggie Blankies were the best
thing ever – gorgeous soft fleecy blankets with sleeves in, you know the ones
designed to sit on the sofa wearing on a chilly evening? J was given one for
Christmas with his favourite Disney Pixar Cars characters on, and it became my
cold-weather go-to for when he was in the carseat as I could tension the
harness with him in normal indoor clothes and then put the blankie over the top
of the harness, and put his arms through the sleeves so he had no need to shrug
it off in order to eat / drink / play. He’s in a high back booster seat now, so
it isn’t so much of a concern but I still have that blankie in the car just in
case. It’s also helpful if he falls asleep in the car, because I can scoop him
into my arms and put it around him to carry him into the house without getting
too child (you know you feel the cold more when you’re half asleep) Also a
friend told me about a company called Snunkie who make bespoke cosy-toes for
pushchairs – I got one for our pushchair, but then also discovered it could be
fitted to the carseat as well, using the harness hooks to attach the loops that
would normally be around the pushchair chassis and stop it dropping off.
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| Maxi-Cosi Opal carseat with Snunkie cosy toes |
I can see why people think it’s a
faff, but really it only takes a couple of seconds to take off a jacket before
putting the child in the carseat and put it back on again when you reach your
destination. You don’t have to spend a fortune on the official cosy-toes
either, or fancy specially-designed carseat blankets – a normal blanket is
fine, or a snuggie blankie as I found, or even just put their winter jacket on
backwards once they’re in the carseat harness. At the end of the day though my
argument is simple – sure, it may take a couple of extra seconds to remove /
put on the jacket before and after every journey, and it might disturb your
child if they’ve fallen asleep, but really what amount of time is worth it to
potentially prevent them being killed if you crash? The reality is that people
find too many excuses for it being inconvenient and taking too long because
they quite simply do not have the common sense to see the most serious
potential outcome of the child not being correctly harnessed in. Think about
it. It’s the same as taking the time to make sure the carseat fits your vehicle
properly and is correctly fitted in the first place – this is your child’s life. Sure, they might be lucky and you
might have an accident and they might be fine – but are you willing to take
that risk? I know I’m not.
Be safe people, and take care of
the little ones in your life,
Love,
Mummy P
x x x x
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