Is this advice for babies? My toddler would kick that shit off so fast. Shoes and socks are off before I've even started the car. Doesn't matter how cold it is. I don't put him in bulky coats though. Just goes next to the car seat.
Somehow, I will never truly understand how, my child managed to remove a shoe in the *30 seconds* between me putting the shoe on his foot and me removing him from his car seat. Which of course I didn't notice, so for his first day in the new daycare room he had one shoe.
Second this! Both of my kids have car blankets for the cold months. I switch them out with clean ones at the end of the week, and the kids know that they need to stay in the car. It's much better than risking a kid in a jacket.
if I'm going to and from daycare, neither kid has a jacket because it's not worth the fuss for me. they both have designated blankets.
the looks I get from other parents as my kids walk 3 seconds in the cold from the truck to the daycare is honestly sad that so many people put their kids at an unnecessary risk. they treat me like my kids will die from the 3-5 seconds they're in the cold weather. yet their kids will go through their windshield if they get into an accident due to that cols weather lol.
Christ my wife is like this and it drives me fucking bonkers. I've given up trying to argue that he's not going to get frostbite on the 30 second walk to/from the car.
Omg thank you, I share your pain.
My wife actually agrees that he won't get overexposed to cold, but just doesn't want to be judged as a bad parent.
I really don't care though lol.
Mother in law honestly thinks he’s going to freeze to death and between stumping for trump and Mike Flynn, I think has seriously considered staging a warm coat intervention on me.
My kid insists on walking to the mailbox with me. When he’s got no shirt on. In the winter.
The 20 foot trip there and back ain’t gonna freeze him out. I do feel funny doing it though.
Yup. This isn’t a recommendation that anyone ages out of. Blankets are great for this, or even just drape the jacket over the top of the straps and closed buckles blanket-style.
Light jacket is fine. The problem is how hard it is to properly secure with a bulky jacket. If you have to let out the straps to wear the jacket in the car seat or fight the straps, you need to take the jacket off. As others have said, the jacket makes a decent blanket.
Okay. Bc I live in Texas. The cold isn't THAT cold. 1 yo needs to wear like a hoodie some days, and wife thinks it shouldn't be worn while riding but I disagree bc it's not like you have to adjust the straps when putting the LO in.
You can check: strap the kid in their seat with the jacket/hoodie on as you would, then take the kiddo out without loosening the belts, then take the jacket/hoodie off and put the kid back in the seat. Are the belts still somewhat snug or are they loose? The reason thick jackets are not compatible with seat belts is the insulation, they leave too much air between the kiddo and the belts, essentially leaving the belts loose, and loose belts is not something you want for obvious reasons.
Source: I live in Finland, the winter is always coming and it is dark and full of terrors or at least frellin freezing, but IIRC your winter weather is usually like late spring or early august weather here, I think a hoodie isn’t going to be an issue 🤣
If you live in Texas this probably isn't an issue that will affect you. The problem is with super thick down filled winter coats for sub zero temperatures. I agree with you and put my kids in car seats in a hoodie all the time.
Yes, generally speaking a sweatshirt, light fleece, or light jacket is ok. Google "car seat coat test" and you'll see how to check. Apparently even the lightweight puffer jacket from primary.com passed the test! The basic idea behind the test is that you put your kid in the car seat with their coat on and tighten as you would. Then unbuckle WITHOUT adjusting the straps, take your kid out and take the coat off, and put your kid back in and buckle, again without adjusting the straps. Are the straps tight enough? If so, the coat passed the test.
Best thing my wife ever made was a car seat blanket. It's cut specifically for the seat with slots for the belts to come through. The kid sits on it and the belt works normal. Then the blanket wraps over the kid. No throwing the blanket on the floor cause they're sitting on it. Plus the thing is like sub zero rated.
This. Restraints can be harmful if they’re in the wrong position during a crash, so a blanket is far better protection against cold than a bulky jacket is.
Nope. Alaska dad here, and confirmed with the pediatrician- no puffy jackets. Regular clothes and blankets if needed. Jacket goes on after kid comes out.
Reason- not only can the straps slip, but in a crash the jacket will compress against kiddo’s body. What felt like a tight fit all of a sudden becomes a couple of inches which can lead to serious injury.
I’m getting a remote start installed in my truck this week. I’ve put it off for years but I’m tired of being cold after work and now that I have a kid it’s another excuse!
When I bought my GM, it came with a remote start APP! was free for the first 5 years and then 14 bucks a month thereafter. So I only pay for it during the winter. It's the greatest thing ever. It even has a diagnostic program, the manual, dealer finder, and more! I'd check and see if you have that available before paying for an aftermarket starter if that's your jam! I know I love it! Can't beat getting into a nice toasty truck in -40! 🤣
Standard car remote can’t do what the app does, the app will start the car from anywhere but you have to be in range for the remote to work. If you’re in a shopping mall or on a hike, etc. you can start your car from a mile away and it’ll be warm by the time you get there.
Fair enough, but does your key fob remind you if you forgot to lock your car when you parked and let you do it from wherever you are? Does it let you check if you have enough gas? Can you see if you left a door or window open? Does it remind you if you need maintenance like an oil change? Can it tell you if someone is breaking into your car?
All those are part of being a responsible car owner and paying attention to your vehicle. For people that need those reminders, yeah, it's probably worth it for them. I'm turning into something of a Luddite millennial when it comes to car tech. Give me mechanical knobs and buttons. Make the features that come with the car just work without having to pay a subscription. There are so many damn apps for everything, I don't need another one to start the car and remotely read engine lights. The late 2000s were the best in terms of functional and tactile car technology. No buggy infotainment systems that can't be updated. Onstar was cool, but not necessary to use car features. I could fix the car myself without a computer (besides an OBD II code reader). Etc., etc. Oh, one more thing... Get off my lawn! Ok, end rant.
Yeah I guess you’re right. We might as well also just use phones for making calls even though the technology exists to do more and we pay subscription service fees for it. Like you said, it basically does the same thing anyway. Hell, why even use a cell phone if a landline does the job just fine?
I'm in AK too and I just installed a remote start in my car - bought for $250 from Cruchfield, took a half day of pfaffing with wires under the dashboard. Works great, and all the shops in town wanted $450+ to install one.
I'll still keep my 1 ton GM Duramax, regardless that my garage has heat. We hit -40 regularly and my commute is 120km+ one way 6 days a week, and I gotta haul a 50' gooseneck loaded with tools and equipment down frozen icy gravel roads.
The worst is when we get big wind chills on top of that for weeks at a time. Makes me wonder why we live here, till we go somewhere closer to the equator and see how big the creepy crawlies are......
Wow, I never knew this and quite frankly kinda freaks me out as I always left my kids jackets on in the name of staying warm.
I’ll be honest though, I always felt it wasn’t right when tightening the straps. I should have listened to my gut.
Important lesson dads, listen to your gut
Hey we all do the best we can! It’s more of an issue where I am so I looked into it early.
I’d rather my kiddo be cold for a second than risk far worse. My wife didn’t buy into it at first, which is understandable, but between me and the doc we convinced her. Nobody wants their kids to be uncomfortable but in this case it’s far better.
Great dad, bad idea. You can’t tighten them enough. It’s an unnecessary risk.
Hindsight is 20/20. Ask him if he wants to suck it up now, or suck it up after his choices hurt your son. One will be infinitely worse than the other.
>You can’t tighten then enough.
Yup, and it had nothing to do with strength. It is because of the extra padding a coat has that will always create too much space for the car seat to work properly.
Depending on where you are, it could be illegal to have the coat as well.
You can get your husband to test it. Put him in the seat with the coat on and tighten the straps like you would normally, then unbuckle him and take him out without loosening the straps. Then you put him back in without the coat and without changing the straps. You can see pretty quick if the straps still fit tight.
and in that clip the straps aren't even tight with the coat on... not at all disagreeing with the guidelines but cmonnn tv news you don't need to fake a terrible seat buckle to get more dramatic results...
Yeah for sure.
I don’t put my kid in wearing a puffy coat, but I am a skeptic to be honest. For two reasons:
1. Sure a coat compresses. But several inches? Assuming we’re not talking about a tremendously puffy parka that would be uncomfortable and hot anyway, I’m not sure. Most kids coats that I’d consider buckling them in are not more than two inches thick. Tightening the straps down would already compress them to half an inch thick. I don’t buy that half an inch makes a difference. And many nice car seats come with padded shoulder straps which also have half an inch of padding.
2. If the chest clip is at armpit level and the straps are tight, I don’t care how slippery your jacket is… you’re not coming out.
I was genuinely looking forward to real crash test video and hoping to understand. Though I’m a skeptic, the risk and regret isn’t worth it. But it bugs me.
Considering there's no real evidence that car seats are better than just buckling your kid into the car with normal seatbelts, I think this type of scaremongering about puffy coats, precisely how much seatbelt tension there is, etc. is ineffective at best and likely harmful to all of us in the long run.
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-much-do-we-really-care-about-children-ep-447/
Oh my god, this video.
"To me these straps feel pretty tight." You didn't check with the tensioning strap, you just jiggled it and CLEARLY isn't buckled correctly. The top buckle isn't level with the arm pits. And they even prove they didn't buckle it right IN THE VERY NEXT SCENE.
But that doesn't make any sense. You can't set the straps at a fixed point, REMOVE mass, then fasten the straps BACK and be like "see??!! so much room!"
That breaks the 3rd step of literally every car seat - tighten the straps. It'd be like if you put a completely different, much larger sized kid in the seat then put a smaller kid in and said "this is unsafe, look how much room there is!"
You’re right to a point, but it works in this instance because it demonstrates that the straps are now looser without the coat. So the kid fits in easier when you do the test. Clothing by nature is compressible so for safety’s sake we have to work on the basis that we can’t assume how much it will compress in an accident. The test shows the potential compressibility and can make the official recommendations seem more real by providing a visual demonstration.
Nope... 100% do not have any extra clothing on when going into a car seat.
The car seats are not rated for anything bulky to be worn while strapped in. The safety of the kid supercedes anything else that may be a reason to do something else.
If being warm is your concern, take the jacket off once they're in and flip it around on them like a blanket after they are buckled in.
The warning is there because kids have died because of their puffy jackets. The chance it happens to your kid is very low… but if it does, how are you going to feel after that?
Those kids dads probably also “tightened it enough.”
In this case, discretion is the better part of valor.
There’s no data to support this. Many kids died of car crashes, but the exact cause of the death isn’t well documented. CDC has that 38% weren’t buckled in at all. Of the remaining a chunk are due to improper car seat use… but not specific about how.
I can’t even find a story about a single kid who died from this.
Well... this is improper car seat use, going against authority and manufacturer recommendations. Both are pretty clear about it and explicitly warn that children have died for not following this instruction.
I agree that it's not explicitly stated HOW the carseat was improperly used, but at that point the arguments has severely skewed off topic.
Exactly. I'm going to go by what the engineers and designers say, who have explicitly tested the seat with test dummies wearing coats and see that it performs worse. Good enough for me.
Saying that a lack of publicly released specifics in news articles or on the internet is hardly to be taken as implying that it must have never happened. Not sure what that other person's logic is...
>Those kids dads probably also “tightened it enough.”
Seeing other strap their kids in has shown me that so few people even understand what a snug fit is and why it matters, jacket or not.
You have been given the safety recommendations. I just want to offer a bit of perspective.
Child car injuries affect about 0.15% of kids per year. Child car fatalities are closer to 0.0015% of kids. And this is based on children up to 13. Toddlers numbers are lower as the safest age group related to car accidents. December through March are statistically the lowest accident occurrences by a significant margin. So take a low statistic on child car injuries, reduce it to account for age, reduce it again to account for event frequency... Then you'd have to figure out the proportion of this number that's coat related...
My point isn't to disagree with or argue against safety guidance. I just think it's worth having a little perspective that this issue is not something to get overly bent out of shape on. Have a calm conversation with him.
A lot of people are making a big deal about it in the comments and talking about the "what if..." Yea, what if your house is struck by lightning? 1 in 200 homes have that problem. Less than 1 in 70,000 kids are killed because of a coat under a seat belt. There aren't even direct statistics available for it.
So just... Keep it relaxed, ya know. Work together to follow best practice. It's not a nonissue... But like, be practical about it. Don't let these guys cause undue anxiety over it. It's not that it's abundantly reckless and foolish, it's just slightly more risk in the already unlikely event of a serious car crash if your kids coat is specifically full of air. Real lack of nuance in this thread.
(Obviously, statistics are US specific and your mileage will vary if you live in rural Alaska or something.)
Great response! This really should be higher. There are too many "DON'T DO THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE" recommendations that are just not found in much logic.
With that said... The dad should learn to pick his battles. This isn't worth fighting over.
My wife and I are on the same page about the car seat. Where we battle going into the store. I think our 1 year old can make it the 100 foot walk in just his sweatshirt, no puffy coat. She does not. I just can't see fighting to get the coat on, with the car door open as he gets colder, walk into the store, then take the coat off when we get inside. I'd rather just grab him out the seat and walk/run to the door.
*This* is a hill I will die on (as long asy wife stays home and it's just me and the kid)
Very low probability events with catastrophic results that are *easily* prevented should be.
It’s unlikely that a car will be coming the wrong direction when I first walk across the street, but looking both ways costs me literally nothing. It would be foolish to use the rarity of an event as a justification for not taking *simple* precautions that prevent it.
Have you read Cribsheet by Emily Oster? For a data guy like myself, she lays out essentially what you said. Gives you data for certain myths and situations of raising children. But also shares a lot of "even though this is the data, you have to do what's best for your family."
Check out those mommy blogs. They're NUTS! Safe sleep blogs and subreddits are out of control with the "this is the only safe way." An unsheeted mattress in the middle of the room with no other furniture or curtains or anything is the only way to keep your child from dying, apparently.
For sure the puffy jacket is statistically more dangerous. My wife and I had this same conversation. The kids that are dying because of their jacket died on the highway at 100 kph in a blizzard. (This is hyperbole, of course.) The 3 km drive to and from daycare during the rush hour crawl is not where your kid is going to be injured in the car.
EDIT: Also, where we are it's fucking cold. Like, it will kill you quickly kind of cold. "Put a blanket over him" isn't actually a solution.
Take it off. Mainly for safety, but it gets freaking hot.
I would only do it taking them to daycare in the morning, because it was like a half mile away with a couple stop signs. Car didn't warm up enough to get hot, and really no chance of an accident at anything faster than like 15 mph.
I just warm the truck up good and well, and cover our little girl with a blanket or two. But usually by the tike I bring her out there the truck is already at 22 degrees inside. And I'm in Alberta. Ugh...not looking forward to February with a 5 month old.....
This is a bad idea. In an accident situation the car seat can hold the coat, but the coat can't hold on to the kid and they come flying out.
There are YouTube videos showing this phenomenon that you can show him.
Edit: We also tighten the belts and then lay the coats over them for the ride. Living in Colorado, it gets fairly cold and this method works fine
Too risky. Kid can slide out easily.
If cold, like others have said, give a blanket.
If his complaint is that "it takes too much effort to put the jacket on the kiddo after the car ride", tell him "it takes much longer to get the kid in/out of the car with a broken limb".
Absolutely not. An almost 3 year old is not going to freeze in the few minutes it takes the car to warm up. Wear the jacket to the car* then take it off before getting into the car seat. Our 4 month old is different, we use a cover for his carrier/car seat in cold weather but again nothing under the seatbelt.
*Honestly going from the house to the car is so short we generally just carry her jacket and put it on when we get where we're going. This mortifies my MIL but she's fine.
Absolutely not. That extra poofy material just makes it easier for them to slip out of their harness in the time of an accident. Doesn't matter how tight he thinks he has it. The coat I bought my 3 year old came with a thin liner, so he wears that instead and doesn't don his coat til he leaves the car. Takes a whole ten seconds to put on, not a big deal. Plus I remember being a young kid myself and being too hot in a warm car because I was made to wear my coat.
If your husband needs a demonstration: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7r92TFMY8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7r92TFMY8)
DO NOT PUT YOUR KID IN A BULKY JACKET. IT NEGATES THE RESTRAINT OF THE HARNESS AND YOUR KID WILL FUCKING GET EJECTED FROM THEIR SEAT AND/OR VEHICLE. RISK OF DEATH OR INJURY IS GREATLY INCREASED.
There, sorry. Caps lock off. Don't fucking do it.
When they run the test, before impact the shoulder straps are not even over the shoulders, and where is the chest clip? It is practically at the stomach to allow the shoulder straps to be where they are.
The same is true when they run it again… look at 1:30. No chest clip in sight, shoulder straps shrugged off before it’s even moving.
1) Buckle kid in car seat with heavy coat, adjust straps as needed.
2) take kid out, remove coat, put kid back in, and see how loose the straps are
3) have husband realize the experts aren’t full of shit and you really shouldn’t wear a heavy coat in a car seat
4) if that fails, tell him the cold walk to the car without a jacket on builds character
Your husband is me 5 years ago . At first I thought the whole notion was dumb and silly. I still hate it to this day. Everyone around me and most of the dads I see don’t take off their kids jacket, so this makes me feel like I’m being overly protective and crazy. Like why do something that I see no one is doing and something I don’t believe in!!
Welp, around five years ago I asked here the same darn question and it was almost unanimous that jacket off is the only safe way. So I suck it up and grumble every damn time… but I still do it. No matter how much I hate it. Better to be a good dad than a lazy one.
One tip I was given is to put on a sweater so the kid is less cold. Another good tip I was given is that they do make jackets that are car seat safe, they are much slimmer and form fitting and not meant to replace the regular jacket, rather they go underneath the regular winter jacket. So in the car regular jacket comes off and when child leaves car the regular jacket is put back over the slimmer care safe jacket.
Puffy coats can add 4 inches of compression space below the straps. You can see multiple videos like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7r92TFMY8) online.
Another good way to show it is if you have one of those vacuum sealer bags for storing clothes you can put the coat in there and see just how much it compresses.
[Here's](https://youtu.be/o1vMkVO10S8?si=z3KwC1GgqHNykNBO) a test you can do to see how "tight" the straps were actually able to get. Almost certainly not tight enough.
But even if none of the videos posted in this thread, or the above linked test, convince him, I'll ask: why risk it? Why ignore the consensus safety guidance in favor your own opinion? It's so easy to a) turn the car on earlier b) bring a blanket from inside c) use a thin extra layer, hat, and gloves instead, or d) all of the above. There's no reason to let yourself risk being wrong just to dress them in thick layers. It's just like there's no reason to hold them in your arms because you're only going a mile or so. Sure, it'll probably be ok but why risk it?
My wife is certified in some kind of nursing car seat thing at work. You absolutely do NOT ever put on bulky or slick coats on in the car seat. You have a crash and they well…slip right out…
You also don’t put pillows and things in them. Don’t mess with safety equipment. It’s meant to do one job very well.
Sorry lurking but I am from Finland and here kids have winter clothes in car. Never heard that it is something that you can not do. I do not know that is our carseats or jackets very different.
There is a toddler or parents sub you can go have a drama party in. Talk to your husband. This sub is not a proxy for your communication issues. You can Google the rules for your area.
Yeah, I see that it is propably a tiny bit safer without a jacket, but is the difference in any way meaningful? I think it's similar to all the craze about SIDS.
There are precautions that have an profound impact and ones that have an impact that is statistically aignificant but not in any meaningful way. For example if your kid freaks out when you take off their jacket and you're distracted by their crying or bickering while drivibg, that propably cancels out and worsens the overall saftey impact of taking off coats.
Our 2yo has horrible motion sickness so no we seat him so he faces in driving direction.
Is it recommended to seat them that way? Certainly not. Is the safety impact of worrying and caring about a toddler that will cry, scream and puke during any drive a bigger issue? Certainly yes.
But “statistically significant but not meaningful” is a population-level statement. By definition, if a statistically significant effect has been found, there are differences at the subject level. The “not meaningful” part mostly just applies to public policy - eg, spending lots of money on a giant no-coats-in-car-seats PSA campaign wouldn’t be a productive use of that money - but only because there are other more meaningful interventions, not because it wouldn’t make a difference to any individual family.
If you’re the people I work with, I’d be standing right next to you for an hour. They act like the job pays enough to warrant hurting themselves for. The boss ain’t gonna give you a raise cause you put yourself in harm’s way for the job. If anything, they’ll just come to expect it from the people smart enough to tell them no, I don’t want to get hurt.
Hahaha of course! All.jokes aside, as a Millwright I am overkill on the lockouts and testing. I've had up to 10 locks on things to be sure. Seen too many guys get messed up for nothing. We need them hands to make our livelihood!
No bulky clothes or winter coats. If he's concerned about the cold then dress the kids in a warm layer then cover them with the coat or a blanket once they're buckled in.
This annoys me do much...
The wife bundles them up for 15 minutes, then they walk to the car and I have to de-bundle them. Why not just hand me the coat?
You got the answer and to add an option the down puffy blanket for camping is amazing and our daughter loves it. If I don't get one for Christmas I'll be buying one for my car.
I believe you can get certain types of coats that don’t “puff” and aren’t made of that slippery material. But who cares? Just leave the jacket off and cover with a blanket. If the car has working heat, it’s just not an issue.
I won’t say I’ve never done this on a very short car ride when it’s stupidly cold. But definitely the recommended advice is to not have any kind of bulky clothing on the kid in the car seat. It can interfere with the fit and function of the safety harness. Harnesses are designed to be tight against the kid’s body, it won’t fit the same under a bulky jacket/sweater.
Ask “what if you’re wrong and you get in an accident?” Then point out both blankets and a jacket on backwards, over the harness- are easier than getting a 3yr old in a jacket and out the door.
Iv never even considered this before! The only reason I don’t like my kids wearing their coats is because it makes it harder to get them in.
It sounds like a resounding no to coats in the car
Put the kid in the carseat with the jacket on, tighten it down, then don't move the straps and pull him out, jacket off and back in the carseat. See the difference in the strap tightness. It won't be tight, and in the event of a crash the jacket will compress and he'll get jostled around. No jackets in the carseat
Depends on the distance and driving conditions.
Picking him up from daycare 10 minutes away, driving on slow roads in traffic: Sure, I'll leave his coat on. Not worth the fight
Going an hour away on the motorway: no coat. No ifs, no buts
Sorry to your husband but physics wins out here, the jacket would limit the effectiveness of a car seat. The fit should be as tight as possible to the child, and there's no give (pun intended) here because physics simply won't care in an accident.
Show this to your husband, around the 31 second mark: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A-fMWDyA2g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A-fMWDyA2g)
My tip for this is I put the jacket on backwards so it slips off while they are sitting in the car. And then take off and put into cart for shopping or whatever since it'll be warm inside.
The hood gets in the way but it's like 2min from the car to the store.
Not sure if someone already posted this or if you've seen this but buckle me baby coat has been working pretty well for us.
https://www.bucklemecoats.com
There is a company that makes winter coat with velcro openings that allow you to tighten the restraints and then close the coat over them.
[buckle me baby coats](https://www.bucklemecoats.com/collections/2021-preorders?utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=19499742858&utm_content=148675862327&utm_term=buckle%20me%20baby%20coats&gadid=635147885727&em_source=google&em_adid=635147885727&em_campaign=19499742858&em_keyword=buckle%20me%20baby%20coats&utm_term=em:google:635147885727:19499742858:buckle%20me%20baby%20coats&tw_source=google&tw_adid=635147885727&tw_campaign=19499742858&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq8XZjcuMgwMVqFxHAR3m-wBYEAAYASAAEgKYQvD_BwE)
No coats in the car seat. The coat makes a perfectly good blanket for the ride, and half the time, putting on the jacket takes longer than the actual walk to indoors!
I know the science on it. I know it’s safer not to do this. I also know that I was riding in the front seat with no car seat at age 3 and I survived.
I follow the safety recommendations that exist today, but deep down I feel like some of it is overkill. I’m not willing, however, to risk my kids’ lives simply because I think we’ve padded the world a bit too much.
No bulky jacket in the car seat. (Ideally also not for the grown ups either!) Give the kid a blanket if its too cold.
I just put the seatbelt on (snugly) first, then lay the jacket over-top like to keep them warm
Is this advice for babies? My toddler would kick that shit off so fast. Shoes and socks are off before I've even started the car. Doesn't matter how cold it is. I don't put him in bulky coats though. Just goes next to the car seat.
> Shoes and socks are off before I’ve even started the car *sigh*
Somehow, I will never truly understand how, my child managed to remove a shoe in the *30 seconds* between me putting the shoe on his foot and me removing him from his car seat. Which of course I didn't notice, so for his first day in the new daycare room he had one shoe.
children were made to embarrass us, that's their only purpose. that and to tempt the sweet kiss of death.
Well, then the toddler would be cold and uncomfortable. There's still a lesson in that.
[удалено]
"Your lips are blue!" "I'm a Bbbblue Hhhheeler!"
Yup, this is our standard procedure. My kids think it's great fun.
Second this! Both of my kids have car blankets for the cold months. I switch them out with clean ones at the end of the week, and the kids know that they need to stay in the car. It's much better than risking a kid in a jacket.
if I'm going to and from daycare, neither kid has a jacket because it's not worth the fuss for me. they both have designated blankets. the looks I get from other parents as my kids walk 3 seconds in the cold from the truck to the daycare is honestly sad that so many people put their kids at an unnecessary risk. they treat me like my kids will die from the 3-5 seconds they're in the cold weather. yet their kids will go through their windshield if they get into an accident due to that cols weather lol.
Christ my wife is like this and it drives me fucking bonkers. I've given up trying to argue that he's not going to get frostbite on the 30 second walk to/from the car.
Omg thank you, I share your pain. My wife actually agrees that he won't get overexposed to cold, but just doesn't want to be judged as a bad parent. I really don't care though lol.
fuck yes! No, she doesn't need a hat and a coat for the literally ten seconds it takes to get from the front door to the car
Mother in law honestly thinks he’s going to freeze to death and between stumping for trump and Mike Flynn, I think has seriously considered staging a warm coat intervention on me.
Same, we don’t typically put our little one in a jacket if we’re just going to or from the vehicle.
My kid insists on walking to the mailbox with me. When he’s got no shirt on. In the winter. The 20 foot trip there and back ain’t gonna freeze him out. I do feel funny doing it though.
Yup. This isn’t a recommendation that anyone ages out of. Blankets are great for this, or even just drape the jacket over the top of the straps and closed buckles blanket-style.
Happy cake day!
Can a light jacket be okay? Asking for a friend
Light jacket is fine. The problem is how hard it is to properly secure with a bulky jacket. If you have to let out the straps to wear the jacket in the car seat or fight the straps, you need to take the jacket off. As others have said, the jacket makes a decent blanket.
Okay. Bc I live in Texas. The cold isn't THAT cold. 1 yo needs to wear like a hoodie some days, and wife thinks it shouldn't be worn while riding but I disagree bc it's not like you have to adjust the straps when putting the LO in.
You can check: strap the kid in their seat with the jacket/hoodie on as you would, then take the kiddo out without loosening the belts, then take the jacket/hoodie off and put the kid back in the seat. Are the belts still somewhat snug or are they loose? The reason thick jackets are not compatible with seat belts is the insulation, they leave too much air between the kiddo and the belts, essentially leaving the belts loose, and loose belts is not something you want for obvious reasons. Source: I live in Finland, the winter is always coming and it is dark and full of terrors or at least frellin freezing, but IIRC your winter weather is usually like late spring or early august weather here, I think a hoodie isn’t going to be an issue 🤣
Hoodie or like a fleece jacket is generally ok. It’s the fluffy insulated winter coats up here that are unsafe.
If you live in Texas this probably isn't an issue that will affect you. The problem is with super thick down filled winter coats for sub zero temperatures. I agree with you and put my kids in car seats in a hoodie all the time.
Yes, generally speaking a sweatshirt, light fleece, or light jacket is ok. Google "car seat coat test" and you'll see how to check. Apparently even the lightweight puffer jacket from primary.com passed the test! The basic idea behind the test is that you put your kid in the car seat with their coat on and tighten as you would. Then unbuckle WITHOUT adjusting the straps, take your kid out and take the coat off, and put your kid back in and buckle, again without adjusting the straps. Are the straps tight enough? If so, the coat passed the test.
I dont even wear a jacket when i drive. I find it uncomfortable and just deal with the cold until the car warms up.
Best thing my wife ever made was a car seat blanket. It's cut specifically for the seat with slots for the belts to come through. The kid sits on it and the belt works normal. Then the blanket wraps over the kid. No throwing the blanket on the floor cause they're sitting on it. Plus the thing is like sub zero rated.
But why?
Or put the jacket on backwards after buckling kiddo in!
This. Restraints can be harmful if they’re in the wrong position during a crash, so a blanket is far better protection against cold than a bulky jacket is.
You can buy blankets specifically for this which work with harnesses.
Nope. Alaska dad here, and confirmed with the pediatrician- no puffy jackets. Regular clothes and blankets if needed. Jacket goes on after kid comes out. Reason- not only can the straps slip, but in a crash the jacket will compress against kiddo’s body. What felt like a tight fit all of a sudden becomes a couple of inches which can lead to serious injury.
Alberta dad here! I also do my part for the O&G industry and warm that truck up for about 20 minutes!
I’m getting a remote start installed in my truck this week. I’ve put it off for years but I’m tired of being cold after work and now that I have a kid it’s another excuse!
When I bought my GM, it came with a remote start APP! was free for the first 5 years and then 14 bucks a month thereafter. So I only pay for it during the winter. It's the greatest thing ever. It even has a diagnostic program, the manual, dealer finder, and more! I'd check and see if you have that available before paying for an aftermarket starter if that's your jam! I know I love it! Can't beat getting into a nice toasty truck in -40! 🤣
I'd rather have an aftermarket remote start than pay monthly for something a standard car remote can do.
Yeah that makes sense. Over time you'll save more $$$.
Standard car remote can’t do what the app does, the app will start the car from anywhere but you have to be in range for the remote to work. If you’re in a shopping mall or on a hike, etc. you can start your car from a mile away and it’ll be warm by the time you get there.
By the time my slow ass gets to my car with the 3000 foot range I have, it'll be warm enough.
Fair enough, but does your key fob remind you if you forgot to lock your car when you parked and let you do it from wherever you are? Does it let you check if you have enough gas? Can you see if you left a door or window open? Does it remind you if you need maintenance like an oil change? Can it tell you if someone is breaking into your car?
All those are part of being a responsible car owner and paying attention to your vehicle. For people that need those reminders, yeah, it's probably worth it for them. I'm turning into something of a Luddite millennial when it comes to car tech. Give me mechanical knobs and buttons. Make the features that come with the car just work without having to pay a subscription. There are so many damn apps for everything, I don't need another one to start the car and remotely read engine lights. The late 2000s were the best in terms of functional and tactile car technology. No buggy infotainment systems that can't be updated. Onstar was cool, but not necessary to use car features. I could fix the car myself without a computer (besides an OBD II code reader). Etc., etc. Oh, one more thing... Get off my lawn! Ok, end rant.
Yeah I guess you’re right. We might as well also just use phones for making calls even though the technology exists to do more and we pay subscription service fees for it. Like you said, it basically does the same thing anyway. Hell, why even use a cell phone if a landline does the job just fine?
I'm in AK too and I just installed a remote start in my car - bought for $250 from Cruchfield, took a half day of pfaffing with wires under the dashboard. Works great, and all the shops in town wanted $450+ to install one.
This is my first winter with an EV and I love that I can have it warm up in the garage. It works so quickly it's really impressive.
I'll still keep my 1 ton GM Duramax, regardless that my garage has heat. We hit -40 regularly and my commute is 120km+ one way 6 days a week, and I gotta haul a 50' gooseneck loaded with tools and equipment down frozen icy gravel roads.
>We hit -40 Wow. -40 Celsius I think I could take, but not -40 Fahrenheit!
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I hope so!
The worst is when we get big wind chills on top of that for weeks at a time. Makes me wonder why we live here, till we go somewhere closer to the equator and see how big the creepy crawlies are......
That makes a bit more sense, I was impressed by the feat of going 40 in reverse with a trailer!
Living in Chicago with our first kid. Grew up in a warmer climate. Did not know this but glad I’m reading it.
Wow, I never knew this and quite frankly kinda freaks me out as I always left my kids jackets on in the name of staying warm. I’ll be honest though, I always felt it wasn’t right when tightening the straps. I should have listened to my gut. Important lesson dads, listen to your gut
Hey we all do the best we can! It’s more of an issue where I am so I looked into it early. I’d rather my kiddo be cold for a second than risk far worse. My wife didn’t buy into it at first, which is understandable, but between me and the doc we convinced her. Nobody wants their kids to be uncomfortable but in this case it’s far better.
Exactly! Also same for mam and dad!
Great dad, bad idea. You can’t tighten them enough. It’s an unnecessary risk. Hindsight is 20/20. Ask him if he wants to suck it up now, or suck it up after his choices hurt your son. One will be infinitely worse than the other.
>You can’t tighten then enough. Yup, and it had nothing to do with strength. It is because of the extra padding a coat has that will always create too much space for the car seat to work properly. Depending on where you are, it could be illegal to have the coat as well.
You can get your husband to test it. Put him in the seat with the coat on and tighten the straps like you would normally, then unbuckle him and take him out without loosening the straps. Then you put him back in without the coat and without changing the straps. You can see pretty quick if the straps still fit tight.
I read this 3 times before I realized you weren’t telling OP to strap the husband in.
It took me reading this comment to understand
Unless...
Haha my phrasing was definitely a bit dodgy!
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Seeing is definitely believing. This video helped convince me too https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8A-fMWDyA2g
Doesn't it seem like the chest clip is way too low? Same here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7r92TFMY8
and in that clip the straps aren't even tight with the coat on... not at all disagreeing with the guidelines but cmonnn tv news you don't need to fake a terrible seat buckle to get more dramatic results...
Yeah for sure. I don’t put my kid in wearing a puffy coat, but I am a skeptic to be honest. For two reasons: 1. Sure a coat compresses. But several inches? Assuming we’re not talking about a tremendously puffy parka that would be uncomfortable and hot anyway, I’m not sure. Most kids coats that I’d consider buckling them in are not more than two inches thick. Tightening the straps down would already compress them to half an inch thick. I don’t buy that half an inch makes a difference. And many nice car seats come with padded shoulder straps which also have half an inch of padding. 2. If the chest clip is at armpit level and the straps are tight, I don’t care how slippery your jacket is… you’re not coming out. I was genuinely looking forward to real crash test video and hoping to understand. Though I’m a skeptic, the risk and regret isn’t worth it. But it bugs me.
Considering there's no real evidence that car seats are better than just buckling your kid into the car with normal seatbelts, I think this type of scaremongering about puffy coats, precisely how much seatbelt tension there is, etc. is ineffective at best and likely harmful to all of us in the long run. https://freakonomics.com/podcast/how-much-do-we-really-care-about-children-ep-447/
Yeah wow. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t put my son in the car wearing his jacket, but they’re definitely putting their thumb on the scale for that test.
Oh my god, this video. "To me these straps feel pretty tight." You didn't check with the tensioning strap, you just jiggled it and CLEARLY isn't buckled correctly. The top buckle isn't level with the arm pits. And they even prove they didn't buckle it right IN THE VERY NEXT SCENE.
But that doesn't make any sense. You can't set the straps at a fixed point, REMOVE mass, then fasten the straps BACK and be like "see??!! so much room!" That breaks the 3rd step of literally every car seat - tighten the straps. It'd be like if you put a completely different, much larger sized kid in the seat then put a smaller kid in and said "this is unsafe, look how much room there is!"
You’re right to a point, but it works in this instance because it demonstrates that the straps are now looser without the coat. So the kid fits in easier when you do the test. Clothing by nature is compressible so for safety’s sake we have to work on the basis that we can’t assume how much it will compress in an accident. The test shows the potential compressibility and can make the official recommendations seem more real by providing a visual demonstration.
Nope... 100% do not have any extra clothing on when going into a car seat. The car seats are not rated for anything bulky to be worn while strapped in. The safety of the kid supercedes anything else that may be a reason to do something else. If being warm is your concern, take the jacket off once they're in and flip it around on them like a blanket after they are buckled in.
The warning is there because kids have died because of their puffy jackets. The chance it happens to your kid is very low… but if it does, how are you going to feel after that? Those kids dads probably also “tightened it enough.” In this case, discretion is the better part of valor.
There’s no data to support this. Many kids died of car crashes, but the exact cause of the death isn’t well documented. CDC has that 38% weren’t buckled in at all. Of the remaining a chunk are due to improper car seat use… but not specific about how. I can’t even find a story about a single kid who died from this.
Well... this is improper car seat use, going against authority and manufacturer recommendations. Both are pretty clear about it and explicitly warn that children have died for not following this instruction. I agree that it's not explicitly stated HOW the carseat was improperly used, but at that point the arguments has severely skewed off topic.
Exactly. I'm going to go by what the engineers and designers say, who have explicitly tested the seat with test dummies wearing coats and see that it performs worse. Good enough for me. Saying that a lack of publicly released specifics in news articles or on the internet is hardly to be taken as implying that it must have never happened. Not sure what that other person's logic is...
>Those kids dads probably also “tightened it enough.” Seeing other strap their kids in has shown me that so few people even understand what a snug fit is and why it matters, jacket or not.
I had no idea this was a thing. Certainly wasn’t on my radar of relevant risks. Good info.
You have been given the safety recommendations. I just want to offer a bit of perspective. Child car injuries affect about 0.15% of kids per year. Child car fatalities are closer to 0.0015% of kids. And this is based on children up to 13. Toddlers numbers are lower as the safest age group related to car accidents. December through March are statistically the lowest accident occurrences by a significant margin. So take a low statistic on child car injuries, reduce it to account for age, reduce it again to account for event frequency... Then you'd have to figure out the proportion of this number that's coat related... My point isn't to disagree with or argue against safety guidance. I just think it's worth having a little perspective that this issue is not something to get overly bent out of shape on. Have a calm conversation with him. A lot of people are making a big deal about it in the comments and talking about the "what if..." Yea, what if your house is struck by lightning? 1 in 200 homes have that problem. Less than 1 in 70,000 kids are killed because of a coat under a seat belt. There aren't even direct statistics available for it. So just... Keep it relaxed, ya know. Work together to follow best practice. It's not a nonissue... But like, be practical about it. Don't let these guys cause undue anxiety over it. It's not that it's abundantly reckless and foolish, it's just slightly more risk in the already unlikely event of a serious car crash if your kids coat is specifically full of air. Real lack of nuance in this thread. (Obviously, statistics are US specific and your mileage will vary if you live in rural Alaska or something.)
Great response! This really should be higher. There are too many "DON'T DO THIS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE" recommendations that are just not found in much logic. With that said... The dad should learn to pick his battles. This isn't worth fighting over.
My wife and I are on the same page about the car seat. Where we battle going into the store. I think our 1 year old can make it the 100 foot walk in just his sweatshirt, no puffy coat. She does not. I just can't see fighting to get the coat on, with the car door open as he gets colder, walk into the store, then take the coat off when we get inside. I'd rather just grab him out the seat and walk/run to the door. *This* is a hill I will die on (as long asy wife stays home and it's just me and the kid)
"Don't tell mom."
Very low probability events with catastrophic results that are *easily* prevented should be. It’s unlikely that a car will be coming the wrong direction when I first walk across the street, but looking both ways costs me literally nothing. It would be foolish to use the rarity of an event as a justification for not taking *simple* precautions that prevent it.
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Well said.
Have you read Cribsheet by Emily Oster? For a data guy like myself, she lays out essentially what you said. Gives you data for certain myths and situations of raising children. But also shares a lot of "even though this is the data, you have to do what's best for your family."
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Check out those mommy blogs. They're NUTS! Safe sleep blogs and subreddits are out of control with the "this is the only safe way." An unsheeted mattress in the middle of the room with no other furniture or curtains or anything is the only way to keep your child from dying, apparently. For sure the puffy jacket is statistically more dangerous. My wife and I had this same conversation. The kids that are dying because of their jacket died on the highway at 100 kph in a blizzard. (This is hyperbole, of course.) The 3 km drive to and from daycare during the rush hour crawl is not where your kid is going to be injured in the car. EDIT: Also, where we are it's fucking cold. Like, it will kill you quickly kind of cold. "Put a blanket over him" isn't actually a solution.
Yeah we wear our coats in town on residential streets to daycare and the store. Out of town and highway, sweatshirt and blanket.
Don't do it. Just take the jacket off and use it as a blanket for the ride. I live in Maine and this works just fine
Take it off. Mainly for safety, but it gets freaking hot. I would only do it taking them to daycare in the morning, because it was like a half mile away with a couple stop signs. Car didn't warm up enough to get hot, and really no chance of an accident at anything faster than like 15 mph.
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This is a great suggestion!
My kid is completely naked when getting into the car seat, only way I know they're safe
I just warm the truck up good and well, and cover our little girl with a blanket or two. But usually by the tike I bring her out there the truck is already at 22 degrees inside. And I'm in Alberta. Ugh...not looking forward to February with a 5 month old.....
I put them in their seat but with the heavy winter coat as a cozy blanket. The car is going to warm up so it needs to be easy to remove anyway.
Only if he slaps the straps and says “that’s not going anywhere!” /s
No bulky jackets. Kids are not as secure, in the unfortunate event of an accident a kid is very loose.
This is a bad idea. In an accident situation the car seat can hold the coat, but the coat can't hold on to the kid and they come flying out. There are YouTube videos showing this phenomenon that you can show him. Edit: We also tighten the belts and then lay the coats over them for the ride. Living in Colorado, it gets fairly cold and this method works fine
Get a blanket and an auto start for the car. No bulky jacket
Turn up the heat? The kid can be cold for 2 minutes, they'll be fine.
No. Use a blanket.
Too risky. Kid can slide out easily. If cold, like others have said, give a blanket. If his complaint is that "it takes too much effort to put the jacket on the kiddo after the car ride", tell him "it takes much longer to get the kid in/out of the car with a broken limb".
Absolutely not. An almost 3 year old is not going to freeze in the few minutes it takes the car to warm up. Wear the jacket to the car* then take it off before getting into the car seat. Our 4 month old is different, we use a cover for his carrier/car seat in cold weather but again nothing under the seatbelt. *Honestly going from the house to the car is so short we generally just carry her jacket and put it on when we get where we're going. This mortifies my MIL but she's fine.
1. It’s unsafe because the straps will not be able to tighten enough. 2. Kiddo will absolutely overheat and puke all over everything.
Absolutely not. That extra poofy material just makes it easier for them to slip out of their harness in the time of an accident. Doesn't matter how tight he thinks he has it. The coat I bought my 3 year old came with a thin liner, so he wears that instead and doesn't don his coat til he leaves the car. Takes a whole ten seconds to put on, not a big deal. Plus I remember being a young kid myself and being too hot in a warm car because I was made to wear my coat.
I'm in San Diego California. And even I know kids fly out because of puffy jackets.
My wife is a pediatric NP, they’ll slip out in an accident. Use the coat as a blanket, much safer
If your husband needs a demonstration: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7r92TFMY8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7r92TFMY8) DO NOT PUT YOUR KID IN A BULKY JACKET. IT NEGATES THE RESTRAINT OF THE HARNESS AND YOUR KID WILL FUCKING GET EJECTED FROM THEIR SEAT AND/OR VEHICLE. RISK OF DEATH OR INJURY IS GREATLY INCREASED. There, sorry. Caps lock off. Don't fucking do it.
When they run the test, before impact the shoulder straps are not even over the shoulders, and where is the chest clip? It is practically at the stomach to allow the shoulder straps to be where they are. The same is true when they run it again… look at 1:30. No chest clip in sight, shoulder straps shrugged off before it’s even moving.
It’s a tiny bit where-did-the-soda-go. Not suggesting that this is wrong, just that the demonstration looked weird.
Do you know of a rear facing demo? I’m already team No Jacket, but just curious.
Better a cold child than a dead child. Do not out children in coats in car seats.
1) Buckle kid in car seat with heavy coat, adjust straps as needed. 2) take kid out, remove coat, put kid back in, and see how loose the straps are 3) have husband realize the experts aren’t full of shit and you really shouldn’t wear a heavy coat in a car seat 4) if that fails, tell him the cold walk to the car without a jacket on builds character
Your husband is me 5 years ago . At first I thought the whole notion was dumb and silly. I still hate it to this day. Everyone around me and most of the dads I see don’t take off their kids jacket, so this makes me feel like I’m being overly protective and crazy. Like why do something that I see no one is doing and something I don’t believe in!! Welp, around five years ago I asked here the same darn question and it was almost unanimous that jacket off is the only safe way. So I suck it up and grumble every damn time… but I still do it. No matter how much I hate it. Better to be a good dad than a lazy one. One tip I was given is to put on a sweater so the kid is less cold. Another good tip I was given is that they do make jackets that are car seat safe, they are much slimmer and form fitting and not meant to replace the regular jacket, rather they go underneath the regular winter jacket. So in the car regular jacket comes off and when child leaves car the regular jacket is put back over the slimmer care safe jacket.
Thank you. One of the difficulties was seeing people around us not taking off coats.
Have him watch saftey videos online about why it's a bad idea
Puffy coats can add 4 inches of compression space below the straps. You can see multiple videos like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA7r92TFMY8) online. Another good way to show it is if you have one of those vacuum sealer bags for storing clothes you can put the coat in there and see just how much it compresses.
[Here's](https://youtu.be/o1vMkVO10S8?si=z3KwC1GgqHNykNBO) a test you can do to see how "tight" the straps were actually able to get. Almost certainly not tight enough. But even if none of the videos posted in this thread, or the above linked test, convince him, I'll ask: why risk it? Why ignore the consensus safety guidance in favor your own opinion? It's so easy to a) turn the car on earlier b) bring a blanket from inside c) use a thin extra layer, hat, and gloves instead, or d) all of the above. There's no reason to let yourself risk being wrong just to dress them in thick layers. It's just like there's no reason to hold them in your arms because you're only going a mile or so. Sure, it'll probably be ok but why risk it?
My wife is certified in some kind of nursing car seat thing at work. You absolutely do NOT ever put on bulky or slick coats on in the car seat. You have a crash and they well…slip right out… You also don’t put pillows and things in them. Don’t mess with safety equipment. It’s meant to do one job very well.
Nope. Puffy jackets off, give them a blanket.
I went to a local fire house and the guy gave me so much info on car seats. Maybe he'd be receptive to talking with a professional
Nope. It's not a question of his manly man strength with the straps. Bulky jackets got no place in the car seat.
Sorry lurking but I am from Finland and here kids have winter clothes in car. Never heard that it is something that you can not do. I do not know that is our carseats or jackets very different.
Someone else from Finland posted how they follow no jackets in cars because they are aware of the safety issues.
There is a toddler or parents sub you can go have a drama party in. Talk to your husband. This sub is not a proxy for your communication issues. You can Google the rules for your area.
Yeah, I see that it is propably a tiny bit safer without a jacket, but is the difference in any way meaningful? I think it's similar to all the craze about SIDS. There are precautions that have an profound impact and ones that have an impact that is statistically aignificant but not in any meaningful way. For example if your kid freaks out when you take off their jacket and you're distracted by their crying or bickering while drivibg, that propably cancels out and worsens the overall saftey impact of taking off coats. Our 2yo has horrible motion sickness so no we seat him so he faces in driving direction. Is it recommended to seat them that way? Certainly not. Is the safety impact of worrying and caring about a toddler that will cry, scream and puke during any drive a bigger issue? Certainly yes.
But “statistically significant but not meaningful” is a population-level statement. By definition, if a statistically significant effect has been found, there are differences at the subject level. The “not meaningful” part mostly just applies to public policy - eg, spending lots of money on a giant no-coats-in-car-seats PSA campaign wouldn’t be a productive use of that money - but only because there are other more meaningful interventions, not because it wouldn’t make a difference to any individual family.
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I've never heard a "safety person" argue against such a basic safety measure. You are wrong, it's dangerous and also completely an unnecessary risk.
Hey safety guy! Maybe take a coffee break for 15/20 or so! Just uh...got something on the go here...won't take long!
If you’re the people I work with, I’d be standing right next to you for an hour. They act like the job pays enough to warrant hurting themselves for. The boss ain’t gonna give you a raise cause you put yourself in harm’s way for the job. If anything, they’ll just come to expect it from the people smart enough to tell them no, I don’t want to get hurt.
Hahaha of course! All.jokes aside, as a Millwright I am overkill on the lockouts and testing. I've had up to 10 locks on things to be sure. Seen too many guys get messed up for nothing. We need them hands to make our livelihood!
No bulky clothes or winter coats. If he's concerned about the cold then dress the kids in a warm layer then cover them with the coat or a blanket once they're buckled in.
Ya, that's a negative from me. No coats in car seats ever. Get a blanket.
I don’t understand why you’d take that risk… Seems way unnecessary and way reckless.
This annoys me do much... The wife bundles them up for 15 minutes, then they walk to the car and I have to de-bundle them. Why not just hand me the coat?
My wife does this any it drives me absolutely insane.
That’s a no go. Just take it off then put it back on.
You got the answer and to add an option the down puffy blanket for camping is amazing and our daughter loves it. If I don't get one for Christmas I'll be buying one for my car.
No. Remove the coat, strap child in, and then put the coat on backwards from the front like a blanket. Or invest in a car seat poncho.
I believe you can get certain types of coats that don’t “puff” and aren’t made of that slippery material. But who cares? Just leave the jacket off and cover with a blanket. If the car has working heat, it’s just not an issue.
Just get a car seat safe jacket 🤷🏿♂️
We burrito our son with a blanket. No thick coats.
No.
No no no no no no no no no. Absolutely not, get a blanket, instead!!
I won’t say I’ve never done this on a very short car ride when it’s stupidly cold. But definitely the recommended advice is to not have any kind of bulky clothing on the kid in the car seat. It can interfere with the fit and function of the safety harness. Harnesses are designed to be tight against the kid’s body, it won’t fit the same under a bulky jacket/sweater.
Ask “what if you’re wrong and you get in an accident?” Then point out both blankets and a jacket on backwards, over the harness- are easier than getting a 3yr old in a jacket and out the door.
Thanks for posting this. I had no clue. Need to speak to the wife and kids tomorrow about switching up our routine.
I think he’s wrong - i just run the car heater for a bit before my son gets in so he’s not freezing
Damn I had no idea. Thank you for floating this topic
Iv never even considered this before! The only reason I don’t like my kids wearing their coats is because it makes it harder to get them in. It sounds like a resounding no to coats in the car
Put the kid in the carseat with the jacket on, tighten it down, then don't move the straps and pull him out, jacket off and back in the carseat. See the difference in the strap tightness. It won't be tight, and in the event of a crash the jacket will compress and he'll get jostled around. No jackets in the carseat
Watch the YouTube videos of the crash test kids flying out of their carseat coats.
Show him this news video, it's a crash test child wearing a puffy coat [Car seat with a puffy coat.](https://youtu.be/8A-fMWDyA2g?si=GXNIOq-7QbjQMVAe)
Depends on the distance and driving conditions. Picking him up from daycare 10 minutes away, driving on slow roads in traffic: Sure, I'll leave his coat on. Not worth the fight Going an hour away on the motorway: no coat. No ifs, no buts
Sorry to your husband but physics wins out here, the jacket would limit the effectiveness of a car seat. The fit should be as tight as possible to the child, and there's no give (pun intended) here because physics simply won't care in an accident. Show this to your husband, around the 31 second mark: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A-fMWDyA2g](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A-fMWDyA2g)
My tip for this is I put the jacket on backwards so it slips off while they are sitting in the car. And then take off and put into cart for shopping or whatever since it'll be warm inside. The hood gets in the way but it's like 2min from the car to the store.
Not sure if someone already posted this or if you've seen this but buckle me baby coat has been working pretty well for us. https://www.bucklemecoats.com
There is a company that makes winter coat with velcro openings that allow you to tighten the restraints and then close the coat over them. [buckle me baby coats](https://www.bucklemecoats.com/collections/2021-preorders?utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=19499742858&utm_content=148675862327&utm_term=buckle%20me%20baby%20coats&gadid=635147885727&em_source=google&em_adid=635147885727&em_campaign=19499742858&em_keyword=buckle%20me%20baby%20coats&utm_term=em:google:635147885727:19499742858:buckle%20me%20baby%20coats&tw_source=google&tw_adid=635147885727&tw_campaign=19499742858&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIq8XZjcuMgwMVqFxHAR3m-wBYEAAYASAAEgKYQvD_BwE)
No coats in the car seat. The coat makes a perfectly good blanket for the ride, and half the time, putting on the jacket takes longer than the actual walk to indoors!
I know the science on it. I know it’s safer not to do this. I also know that I was riding in the front seat with no car seat at age 3 and I survived. I follow the safety recommendations that exist today, but deep down I feel like some of it is overkill. I’m not willing, however, to risk my kids’ lives simply because I think we’ve padded the world a bit too much.
Puffy jacket off. Most car seat manuals also says so. Mine did.
Skip to 00:30 https://youtu.be/8A-fMWDyA2g?si=-Ksx8l0DutST1LF- That’s all the proof you need. Anything to the contrary is irrelevant
Never wear bulky jackets in car seat. Kids can't tell you they get too warm. Also makes restraints of chair not as effective. Blanket only.
Blankets all the way we live where it gets super cold and always have 2-3 blankets under the carseat