Do you do coats in car seats?

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I always thought coats in car seats were a big safety no so when doing the nursery run both my kids (3 and 1) travel in normal clothes with a blanket over the car seat. Then when we arrive at nursery it's literally straight in (I'm talking seconds) so I don't put the coats on, same on the return journey. I've stuck to this the last 3 years but on these last few days where it's been really cold I've just felt really guilty when literally every other child is getting out their car with winter coats on and I feel like they must think i'm crazy!
So just wanting a wider view, is this just a thing at my nursery or does everyone do big coats in car seats and I'm the odd one out?!

So literally no one in the car wears a coat? I don’t mean a big puffa coat but there’s loads of different coats out there on the market

If its cold enough for me to need a coat, then I would be wearing a jumper anyways so still a warm layer on after the coat comes off. And the car warms up quick enough.

I’d never put my almost 3 year old son in his car seat with a coat on. He has a blanket and I’ve just got him a jersey onesie for car journeys as he complains he’s cold on the way home after swimming.
I’d say that we are in the minority that don’t jump out their car seats with coats on at nursery (and also in the minority for still rear facing at 3 years old)

Mine are all in their 30s and went in forward facing seats at a young age with coats on😬
Yes, mine are slightly younger, but the same thing - after the baby car seat, which I think was for up to 13kg, they went into forward-facing, wearing coats or snowsuits in winter.

I don’t even drive but I’d literally never heard of this until someone posted a similar thread on here a week or so ago. I haven’t seen any safety campaigns or anything like that but on this thread and the previous ones, people speak about it as if it’s common knowledge

I am the odd one here. Coats on when we were doing short drives, home to school or wherever we were going for a 10 or so minute drive. For longer drives, nobody would put coats on.
Kids are now teenagers and survived wearing a coat.

I'm going to be honest, actual statistical impact is going to be hard to find - how are we going to control for the fact that "the kind of parent who tends not to bother taking the coats off" is also likely to be "the kind of parent who drives a bit less carefully"? It's the same kind of confounding factor that makes breastfeeding studies really hard to do.

I suppose you could try to find some area of the world where most people currently do not bother about this kind of thing (Japan, LOL?) and then do a big campaign and see if child deaths in cars go down, but then child deaths in cars are already rare enough that it's still going to hard to find impact.

I mean, people should use seat belts and children should use car seats, these things make very big differences to the risk of dying in a car. Once you get beyond that point and get into the whole realm of worrying about this little detail and that little detail... I'm not saying there is no impact but it's likely to be very small and we are probably well into the realm of diminishing returns at this point.

I've said this before on these threads: that with most people using car seats correctly already, society (if it wants to push down death rates still further) should be focusing more of its energy on the more holistic stuff, like vehicle speeds, the number of cars on the roads, raising the minimum driving age, hvaing proper testing for drivers over a certain age, and making sure there are alternatives to driving for most people so that heavily sleep deprived parents don't wind up driving their kids about while cross-eyed with exhaustion because they have literally no alternative. These steps are unpopular in the UK, however.

For what it's worth, yes, I do use car and bike seats correctly and remove coats that are thicker than a knitted layer or hoodie/thin coat.

I can't speak for all parents, but before I had kids I didn't really know what to do, safety stuff etc. But Google exists, and I did all sorts of reading up on all aspects of parenting - including general tips and info about carseats, when I was shopping for one. The information is all readily available.

Can anybody link any evidence-based research showing deaths/serious injury linked to coat wearing in the past and how that has reduced

You don't need stats to prove how unsafe bulky coats in carseats are.

Put your baby in its coat. Clip it into jts carseat and pull the straps tight. Then, without loosening the straps at all, u clip baby, remove coat, and strap them back in without adjusting the straps. There'll be a big gap in the fit of the straps, they'll be too loose. This is what the straps will be like in an impact and the coat is compressed.

Nope never, coats on as we walk around to the preschool but we’ve a bit of a walk

It's a known safety risk for children in car seats to wear thick coats. Google is free. We used to do lots of things like smoke near kids. Now we know better so we do better.

When people say "my child wore a coat" or "my baby was forward facing" or "we never had seatbelts" and survived - does that mean you had a serious car accident and they survived, or just that you never had a serious car accident?

A friend of mine was in a car accident the other day. Friend was wearing a coat, passengers weren’t. She got much more bruising than the passengers did. Was told this was because she was wearing a coat, so applies to adults not just children in a car seat

Absolutely not, the other people are idiots risking their children’s lives. Keep doing what you’re doing!

You won't find statistical analysis because it doesn't exist.

You can see on crash tests that coats are a genuine ejection risk for young children. For adults no ejection risk, it's more an elevated risk of abdominal injuries, (seatbelt syndrome) and the bigger risk is not wearing a seatbelt at all or driving drunk or excess speed in icy conditions so that's what the PSAs are about. It's best for adults not to wear a coat, second best slip the belt under the coat at the pelvis area (gives you a better belt fit) and unzip, third best pelvis only. But it's not life threatening in the same way as it is for toddlers.

I did once ask a paramedic their opinion on RF/FF for older children/toddlers and they said (bearing in mind only one person's experience) the worst injuries they saw were unrestrained and loosely restrained children, which they counted as no seat used, arms out, straps not fastened, a different fastening used instead of the actual buckle, car seat not buckled into car, straps at totally wrong height setting (more than about 5cm), excessive slack in straps, coats. They said this stuck in their head far more than RF/FF.

It is really really commonly done and of course 999/1000 you won't be in an accident so no harm done and people assume it's fine. We always had arguments with nursery about it because DH hated putting the coats on and off for a 2 min walk.

I can link to crash test video for child in harnessed seat, child in high backed booster and adult in the morning.

I’ve told my son the car doesn’t work if he doesn’t take his coat off when he’s in his car seat! He’s never questioned it 😂

This. Had winter babies and they had snowsuit. Did the straps as tight as they d go
.I always wear a coat in the car too if it's cold.

No. It’s snowy here 3-4 months of the year. Ds wears knitted cardigan, snood scarf and hat over normal clothing when it’s cold to do the quick walk to and from car. Our newer car warms up quickly now also, So on trips longer than nursery run (10 ish min drive), I removed cardigan also. There’s a blanket in car next to him if needed.
When he was baby baby age I did the same and just wrapped him in blanket for the walk to and from car. Then used blanket on car seat if needed

No, it's basic safety with the padding and loose straps
but I do use their coat as a blanket and then while they are still in the car I pull them forwards and put the coats on, as its easier at my level than doing it when they are stood on the ground.
So to an outside eye it would look as though they were wearing coats in their carseats

The no coat in car seat advice was around when my 12yo was a baby. It isn't that new.

I’ve done it, when I lived in Chicago so the winters were really cold and I had to street park the car, which didn’t have auto start, often half a block away. The advice I had from the paediatrician was put DC into the car seat without the coat/snowsuit and tighten the straps, then take them out and put it on- if you don’t need to loosen the straps then it’s safe to use. No idea if that’s true, thankfully we never had a crash so it was never tested. Then I got a new car with remote start which was a game changer! There’s no excuse in the UK. I put mine in a fleece and give them a blanket. It never gets THAT cold.

No way - never have. We've got extra blankets on the backseat if they're cold before the Heating kicks in!

I don't have children so have never needed to look up car seat safety, but if not wearing a coat is advised for adults too, how come there's never been a safety campaign about it? How am I supposed to have found out? Should I be googling every couple of years for something like "updated adult car safety advice"? Though without having read on this thread about coats I would have had no idea that it was something I ought to check regularly.

Its -10 here this morning. Not cold enough?

Well, now we know better so maybe something to keep in mind if you ever have grandchildren.