How to SAFELY wear a winter coat in carseats...

[CDNTech]

We are constantly asked about winter coats in our climate. Here is a safe way to wear a winter coat in the carseat. It's important to always test to make sure the harness is snug enough.

Put your child in the seat without a coat on and adjust the harness correctly. Now take your child out of the seat and do *not* loosen the harness. Put the coat on and put the child back in the seat. If you do not have to loosen the harness to make it fit, the coat is fine. If it is too bulky, read on to learn the coat trick. The coat trick allows you to keep your jacket on without compromising the tightness of the harness.

Okay, confession time...

The coat is an "on the thinner side" one from Walmart... I think it cost me $30. It is his winter coat that he wears outside to play in the snow with.

It is slightly too big for him, but I didn't want him to outgrow it half way through winter.

He is also wearing both inner and outer layers in that photo.

Did I mention this was confession time?

This is why the coat trick works... even with all those no-no's the harness is still the exact same snugness as it is with him just wearing a t-shirt.

You can see one side of the coat pulled through the harness...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2195/2058283888_ccfdf145b9.jpg?v=0

Both sides pulled through the harness with the buckle done up...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2276/2058283900_5cc5992131.jpg?v=0

Coat zipped up over the harness...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2399/2058283914_271c8ec7d7.jpg?v=0

[Judi]

Or you can have them wear it backwards, over the harness!

[CDNTech]

You absolutely can wear it backwards over the harness. :)

However that is not always practical here in Canada where it can frequently get down to -40 degrees celsius with/plus the windchill. This offers a safe alternative so that you never have to take the jacket off. ;)

[Jewels]

You absolutely can wear it backwards over the harness. :)

However that is not always practical here in Canada where it can frequently get down to -40 degrees celsius with/plus the windchill. This offers a safe alternative so that you never have to take the jacket off. ;)

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, today is a whopping -24C (-13F) not including the wind. Last week it was +8C (46.6F) :eek:

[Mama2J]

That is a really great idea! I've been trying to find a trick for J's jacket. It is the thin LE Marinac, but since he is small even the smallest size (4) is big on him. It bunches up and makes the harness really tight and hard to buckle. I've been pulling the bottom part of the jacket up so that the bottom of the harness is against his shirt instead of the jacket, and that helps some. I didn't think of actually pulling it through the harness strap though.

[flipper68]

I tell parents to take it one step further - pull the jacket off the SHOULDERS so the harness is a close as possible. (It's not usually -42 around here, but it does hit in the negative numbers, especially the windchill)

You'd still be able to zip it most of the way up.

This goes for adults, too.

[thepeach80]

I do that, but I never thought to zip it up afterwards. lol

[flipper68]

Coats that have snaps/velcro in addition to zippers work even better: faster than zipping the zipper and you only really need 1 or 2 to cut the draft to the tummy or neck.

[Northriver]

THANK YOU for posting this "trick"! I have tested our harness and I squish my toddler, wearing her coat normally, into the harness at the correct tightness, but it takes time and effort. The hood is up and the coat is smoothed all around, any bunching in the coat and it is nearly impossible to buckle the harness. The backwards trick does NOT work for us unfortunately, my toddler just takes off the coat and throws it off. Temps here are in the teens, not as cold as some of you are suffering, but still too cold for no coat!

I'm so glad I noticed this post. I'll be trying your trick next time we get in the car. Thanks again for such useful information!

[Mama!]

K, not in a super cold climate, but does this not create airspace between child and the back of the carseat?

[CDNTech]

K, not in a super cold climate, but does this not create airspace between child and the back of the carseat?

This is why you double check by putting the child in the carseat (without a jacket) and doing up the harness. Then, without loosening the harness, take the child out and try the coat trick. You should have no issues with putting the child back into the carseat without loosening the harness.

[CarSeatPoncho]

Also, the weight of the child will compress the back of the coat somewhat.

[Momto3Divaz]

:thumbsup:

[singingpond]

This is really great advice. Even my DH, who is usually more lax about following all the carseat safety decrees around here :rolleyes:, has taken to using the unzipped-jacket-pulled-under-the-straps trick, after I described it to him. I am in the long-term habit of walking around the car and double-checking harnesses after anyone else buckles the kids in (a habit which DH puts up with very patiently), and the other day I found nothing to adjust and nothing to tighten. We've also taken to not loosening harness straps between uses (DH's preference all along), because it eliminates the uncertainty about whether the harness is tight enough (and because the harness adjusters on both the Wizard and the Radian are such a PITA on that last bit of tightening).

Thanks again for posting this, and I'm glad I finally tracked down this post again (wasn't it posted somewhere else initially?) so I could leave rep...

Katrin

[CDNTech]

Thanks again for posting this, and I'm glad I finally tracked down this post again (wasn't it posted somewhere else initially?) so I could leave rep...

Katrin

I had responded to a thread on how to safely wear a winter coat and then thought I should really make it an article so that it's easily accessible. :) Glad you liked it!

[crunchierthanthou]

Has anyone been able to use this method successfully rf?

Ds has a light coat (one layer of thin fleece with a canvas outer layer) that we use in the car. I can squeeze him in without loosening the harness any further than plain clothes (we rarely loosen the harness before buckling). I've tried Jen's method a few times and can't get the harness buckled. I gave it another try yesterday. I ended up loosening the harness just a bit and then tightening it back down, thinking I got a decent fit. Ds was yawning by the time I got him buckled, retightened and zipped so I decided to take him to the bathroom before we drove home. We just left his coat in the car and ran back in. I was surprised when I rebuckled him coatless that I had to tighten it at least another inch.

I think the angle of the straps coming from below the shoulder coupled with bulges in the coat near his collar bone to route the coat to the outside just doesn't leave enough webbing to work with. :shrug-shoulders:

anyone else?

[mommyto2angelgirls]

i can't get it rf either. i have dd2 in a ma. no matter what i pull where i can't rebuckle the harness.

[CarSeatPoncho]

If the coat has a hood that is not detachable, that might make the flaps of the coat not "spread" enough. Maybe?

[jaded]

WAY back in the day, Monika back on the PP board posted about this trick.

[Kat_Momof3]

I always did it rf... just have to make sure that you either use a coat without a hood or that the hood won't interfere.

pull the sides completely free of the harnesses (not tucked in at all), which requires a hood that is narrow at the neck area.

it helps if you loosen the straps first to put baby in (if doing the check, just don't loosen when you unbuckle to take baby out, then put baby in without the coat), but it definitely works.

I have pics of Ruthie and this trick in her Nautilus, but not as thorough. I'll have to get some more when it gets cold again next winter.

[Jewels]

Since the cold weather is approaching us I thought I would bump this :D

[brittany741]

Excellent! I was hoping for a solution!

[stayinhomewithmy4]

I used this method all the time last year. It works perfectly! I prefer jackets that don't have hoods or removable hoods. The kids wear a hat instead and it makes it easier to pull that jacket around the straps. I'll be trying it RF this year - hope it works!

[lemurmommies]

I used this trick last year (RF) and am using it again this year (FF.) I really thought it worked great!

I posted a link to this thread on another board, though, and the debate started as to how this is any different than riding with a Bundle Me under a child, since there is still a layer between the seat and the child. When it's in the -20s I'm not going to take my kids coat off completely, but I didn't have a terribly good answer except that the Bundle Me can also cause the straps to be positioned incorrectly.

[Jewels]

I used this trick last year (RF) and am using it again this year (FF.) I really thought it worked great!

I posted a link to this thread on another board, though, and the debate started as to how this is any different than riding with a Bundle Me under a child, since there is still a layer between the seat and the child. When it's in the -20s I'm not going to take my kids coat off completely, but I didn't have a terribly good answer except that the Bundle Me can also cause the straps to be positioned incorrectly.

It would be different because the straps aren't going through anything and won't get caught.

Also the slots on the bundle me's go up and down (/) not sideways (-) which causes them to bunch and get caught (possibly stuck) in the slot and on the velcro.

This is a great way to wear jackets in the winter. You can also put them in their seat without the jacket and tighten the harness properly, take them out without loosening the harness and then put them back in with their jacket on, again not loosening the harness so that you know it is tight enough.

[pastrygirl]

Is it better to wear no coat? Or if you can do this trick, is it about the same? I was able to do it this morning with my son's coat -- everything moved out of the way nicely. For the ride back, he demanded that I take off his coat. I guess he's been trained! :p

I guess what I'm asking is is only OK in a pinch, or is it OK all the time?

[CDNTech]

Is it better to wear no coat? Or if you can do this trick, is it about the same? I was able to do it this morning with my son's coat -- everything moved out of the way nicely. For the ride back, he demanded that I take off his coat. I guess he's been trained! :p

I guess what I'm asking is is only OK in a pinch, or is it OK all the time?

Either way is fine... whichever works better for you. The beauty of the coat trick is that the harness is the same tightness with it on or off. There is no compromising on safety. :)

[newmama]

What a great post- just what I was looking for- thanks!! I'm going to try this tomorrow.
One question- does it matter if the hood is up or down? I have the Britax Boulevard and this seems to push DD's head forward slightly anyway. Or does it matter?

[CDNTech]

What a great post- just what I was looking for- thanks!! I'm going to try this tomorrow.
One question- does it matter if the hood is up or down? I have the Britax Boulevard and this seems to push DD's head forward slightly anyway. Or does it matter?

I find it works better with the hood up... with the hood down, it just adds extra layers between the seat and your child.

If they want the hood off, I just take it off *after* I've buckled them in with the hood up and out of the way. :)

[featherhead]

I finally tried this with my dd yesterday. She's been wearing a double layer fleece jacket, with appropriate layers underneath, but yesterday was around -40 with the wind chill. Fleece just doesn't cut it in that kind of weather! We had to go out so I decided to try the coat trick with her parka which she usually just uses for being outside in winter. I was amazed at how well it worked. I thought with a smaller child, like my dd it wouldn't work as well, but I was wrong. I was even able to tighten her harness a tiny bit more than usual.:thumbsup:

[jillianrose]

Ugh, I've got three kids and it's -40! I'd freeze to death in my own garage before I got them all buckled in safely this way! And I can't imagine trying to do this outside their school with the windchill we've been having.

I've been buckling them all in with their winter coats for years. Is it really that unsafe? Why?

I always pull up their coats so that the lap portion is flush against their laps.

Two are in FF Radians, the other in a Britax Bodyguard Booster.

I want them to be safe...

[jillianrose]

OK, so you guys have reformed me. I watched the youtube video and it became a "no brainer"! My kids are riding with their coats on backwards. My friends think I'm crazy and I'm disappointed that I cannot sway them, but I'm relieved that my children are riding safely. Thanks for reforming me! This site is a lifesafer, literally.

[CaseyRN]

Ok this might be a dumb question but I'm going to ask it anyway. If the coat is still on the shoulders it seems like that would be a problem. I'm thinking about how in DD's MA the straps always appear looser in the belly area but really snug in the shoulder/collar bone area. So if that is where the coat is going to be under the harness how does that not cause a problem?

[Jewels]

Ok this might be a dumb question but I'm going to ask it anyway. If the coat is still on the shoulders it seems like that would be a problem. I'm thinking about how in DD's MA the straps always appear looser in the belly area but really snug in the shoulder/collar bone area. So if that is where the coat is going to be under the harness how does that not cause a problem?

The coat is still under and around the front of the straps affect how tight you can get the harness and the cold -40 temperatures don't help that any either.