Do you always remove babies coats etc before putting in car seat?? Even when it's freezing?

[Chopsicle]

I don't have time to heat the car up before putting my 9 month old in and it's started to get a frost so it's really cold at the minute.
Too cold for me to put him in without warm clothing.
What do people do? Obviously I want him to be safe but also don't want him to get cold..

@TabbyMumz with a padded coat even if you tighten the straps to the point of making it uncomfortable for our baby, in the event of an accident the force of the impact will crush the coat stuffing. Meaning the straps will not be tight enough and your baby can be flung from the car seat.

It’s honestly not worth it.

For your baby.

Seriously, when are we getting a damn edit function?!

TabbyMumz no, it’s not that simple. They can be as tight as they could possibly be against the coat, but in the event of an accident the coat would compress.
Watch the videos.

We shouldn’t be wearing coats in cars either. There has been a lot of research that wearing coats whether in a car seat or via an adult seat doesn’t offer you the same protection as without.

I think it's just reached more people recently thanks to social media etc. It's not that new, I remember seeing stuff about it on MN when DS1 was little and he's 11 now - mind you, I did have a sheepskin in his car seat for about 6 months because it was just a basic, unpadded car seat and I'd no idea it wasn't safe to do that. But when I read that it was, I took it out.

I think it has been known for a long time but only really by car seat experts, it's only been recently that it's been more publicised.

"They don’t do this research and get the message out there just to pissyou off"

I'm not the slightest bit pissed off. So, you dont put a coat on them....how tight do you do the straps up then? Where does it end. These are 3 way straps and some coats aren't that thick, and...you can tighten the straps. I'm not going to get all stressed about this one.

To add some context to Celebelly's video, the left car seat is what the impact would look like if the straps were too loose, which is essentially what happens when a child is wearing a coat.

@TabbyMumz Not going to get stressed about your child possibly dying in a survivable car accident because you can’t look on a website to see what is appropriate clothing when in a car seat? Ok then

I'm not going to get all stressed about this one.

So you would rather put your child in danger then take their coat off. It should be something that you stress about don't you want your child to be safe? You might as well not even bother with the car seat...

I didn’t - only because I was a bit late finding out about this information. To be honest if this didn’t come up on mumsnet every now and then I still wouldn’t be aware of this I don’t know how it passed me by - although DS was born in spring and didn’t regularity need a coat until he was about 7 or 8 months old. Obviously when he was first born I was finding out all sorts about safe sleep etc and was actually quite paranoid about it - and then after a few months you relax and think you know all you need to know.

Just pop a blanket over him, that’s what I did.

I always do - and I live in the Midwest (typically colder than Chicago in the winter)! I agree that a bit of exposure to cold isn't the worst thing in the world (are you in the UK? It doesn't get that cold there) but if you live somewhere where the weather can be extreme, you could get a remote car starter.

If you're unsure of whether a jumper is too thick.
Put them in the seat and tighten the straps. Take the jumper off and put them in to see if the previous straps are now too loose.

You can do a sort of "test" if you like, put the coat on, do the straps up as tight as you can, then undo them, take the coat off, put the child back in the seat and do up the straps without adjusting the tightness at all and see if they are still sufficiently tight or if they are much too loose.

The problem is that in an accident the crash forces would cause all of the air in a puffy style coat to compress making it essentially flat, and if that then creates a gap between the child's body and the straps then they could move much further out of the seat, causing them to hit something else in the car like the seat in front or their own legs/knees/feet or the side door, which causes injury and potentially death. If the gap is very large they could even be ejected from the seat. You need the harness to be snug to their body.

I have never got this dilemma because I absolutely hate driving in a coat so the car always has to be warm enough for me to have no coat on, so if I put DS in in a coat he'd be boiling. I do put a blanket over him, but it really doesn't take long for a car to warm up.

At what age can they keep a coat on please?

Is it only 'puffa' type coats that are an issue?

I layer up DD - vest, top, cardigan and then a hoodie and thin jacket when we go out for the school run. It hasnt got really cold yet but a hat, glove and wrapping a blanket round should keep her warm enough whilst waiting for the school gate.

@SmileCheese...dont be ridiculous. Kids have been wearing coats in cars since car seats were invented. Have they given out any stats about how many kids fly out of car seats because they wore coats? No.
People tighten the straps.

JoJo Maman used to do excellent fleece ponchos when DD was a baby. We used to use them as a blanket, so strap her into her seat first and then tuck it around her. If we were just going a short way, like from the car into a supermarket say, they were perfect as so easy to undo babies straps and whack over their head- much easier than getting a coat on for a short trip.

Whack the poncho over their head. Not whack the baby!!

dont be ridiculous.

I'm being ridiculous to suggest that following expert advice is the correct thing to do if you want to keep your child safe??

"MustardScreams

@TabbyMumzNot going to get stressed about your child possibly dying in a survivable car accident because you can’t look on a website to see what is appropriate clothing when in a car seat? Ok then"

Mustardscreams.. My kids are way too big for car seats, so not something I'm going to worry about, no.

Yes. Blankets are much easier. Now DS is a toddler he often wears a thick/fluffy fleece jacket but never a coat or anything padded. With a baby I get the belt on nice and firm then work around that.

"You might as well not even bother with the car seat..."
@SmileCheese...this is the comment you were being ridiculous with. It is ridiculous to say you might aswell not bother. As someone else said up thread, the experts thought about this 20 or so years ago and decided it wasnt a massive enough issue to tell people about. Common sense tells you how tight to do the straps so they are safe. I always put a finger under the strap to makes sure they werent too tight or too loose.

Frugi snuggle suit or snuggle fleece or tuppence and crumble star suit are worth their weight in gold and ease.