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..

this is the comment you were being ridiculous with. It is ridiculous to say you might aswell not bother.

Its not a ridiculous comment. Your child is not secure in the car seat if the straps are not securely tightened so if you are suggesting its fine to leave a coat on and secure the straps over it then you might as well not bother even putting them in the seat as you know its not doing its job properly.

Please can people ignore @TabbyMumz advice. It is unsafe for children in car seats to wear coats, fleeces are usually fine. Please don't listen to someone who is ignoring safety advice.

People thought smoking was fine for years, advice changes the more we learn.
There are so many things people use to do because they didn't know any better, that doesn't make it safe and okay.

You can keep your child warm without a coat and the few extra seconds it takes to put a coat on your child at the end of your journey is never more hassle than the risk of loosing your child.

*losing

I see parents at nursery all the time putting their kids in car seats with bulky coats and even snowsuits on. I really thought the message was out there about this by now.

My two don't wear coats or even hoodies/fleeces in their car seats. They have a blanket each in the car and I just bung that over the top of them, they'll not freeze to death for five minutes in British winter.

@englishrose...I havent been advising anyone? I said it wasnt something I'm going to get stressed about, anyone else on here are adult enough to make their own decisions, surely? They dont need you to tell them what to do, do they?

I absolutely never did when mine were small (they are teenagers now) I don't remember it ever being a thing. Pregnant again now, and will follow the advice, if only because it must be way easier to strap them in!

You could wrap them in a blanket to take them to car and put blanket over them in car. Then pack coat for final destination.

I've bought a fleece onesie from Aldi this week - it was 4.99 and it's big enough to fit over her clothes. It's brilliant, also has a hood and mittens.

@SmileCheese...it is a ridiculous comment. How silly to say you might aswell not put them in a car seat at all. That's very dramatic. You can easily secure the straps to make sure they are safe, and it would depend on how thick the coat is anyway. As I've asked up thread, have they said how tight the straps should be if no coat?

@TabbyMumz

If you have to tighten them in the summer.
There is no protection in the winter

Surely leaving a blanket in the car does nothing? The blanket will be as cold as the car seat

This is NOT new, this has been around YEARS!!!!

Theres been so many of these threads the last week, if you want to argue with people on here to not protect your children , because you think they will freeze to death in afew minutes , and you feel thats more important, then carry on putting a coat on them.... At least there warm , a! 😠

I use a starsnug and extra blankets on top. In all honesty, infant car seats are quite snug so keep them warm underneath (so blankets on top are sufficient) and if coming out of the car seat to go into a pushchair then you can get really warm footmuffs to keep them tucked up in.

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.

Originally children and babies didn’t even travel in specific car seats so quoting how things used to me doesn’t make an argument for it being safer.

Yes, every time and still do aged nearly 3, and 4. Just use a blanket. It takes minutes to warm the car up , I start mine before getting the children out if the door.

Car seats themselves are very warm, make sure the baby is suitably dressed, and tuck a blanket over.

Yes, I also always take my own winter coat off now after reading all the safety advice.

As I said on the similar thread to this the other day. Yes I always did. Dd is now 17y and did this right from the start as it was advised back then too. I also don't wear a big coat on the car and as still wouldn't .

When dd was small I would lay a blanket over her or she was in a travel grobag sleeping bag thing which could be used with a five point harness.

I'd rather us be chilly for a few minutes whilst the car heats up than not be safe in the car.

If it’s really perishing stick a hot water bottle in the seat a few mins before planning on putting the baby in.

Remove before putting the baby in I mean!

This is NOT new advise.

I was told this and acted upon this advise 17.5 years ago. My health visitor told me about it. I also read about it online.

Advice even

Yes, and I think there’s more chance of someone crashing into us or me crashing the car due to bad weather, black ice etc in the winter

None of us wear coats in the car. It's three steps from the front door to the car so I just don't put them on. We keep a blanket on the coat rack. If we've been out and she's got a coat on I take it off before she gets in the car.

Are thin coats - ie waterproof anorak type coat, not padded -ok?

I made this for DGD when she was tiny. It kept her warm being taken in and out of the car.

Erm, they were saying it 20 or so years ago - it will be in your car seat manual, if you read it, which you should :)

In fact I am sad enough to have some 20 year old car seat manuals downloaded which state this if you'd like a screenshot?

The issue is that until fairly recently there have been no pressure groups with large enough reach specialising in car seat safety issues. Thanks to the internet/social media, there now are so word is getting out about things like this.

To those asking - thin coats are generally OK. If you want to test as others have said you can try doing the straps up with coat on, take coat off, put straps back on without readjusting - if there is significant slack it's a problem.