I know I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

I'm thinking about winter. Last winter was a) an incredibly mild winter and really wasn't cold many days at all and b) easy because my daughter was in an infant car seat. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do in terms of snow suit and what not for this year. I'm aware of the no jacket in the car seat. What I'm wondering is if I buy her a two piece (snowpants and jacket separate), would the snow pants be okay to wear in the car seat or are those too bulky as well? I figure if I can have her wear the snowpants in the car we could just put the jacket on backwards on top of the straps.

If this isn't okay, what tips do you have?

I have heard of people pulling down the snow pants to below the thighs to buckle. I wouldn't want them between child and harness any more than a poofy coat. I think there are fleece thermal pants that I believe can be worn with a waterproof layer over top.

It's absolutely fine to use thin warm layers in a car seat. You do not need to do anything extreme in terms of stripping her down to her clothes, and re-dressing her at your destination. Some people choose to go this route, and that's fine, but there ARE safe winter wear alternatives that can be worn in a car seat.

Your baby is 1? If so, you're golden. Toddlerhood is when it's easy. It's when they're school age and needing winter wear for recess and the trip to/from school when things get complicated (and rather annoying, IME ).

Start with an undershirt (ie: onesie) and then layer a long sleeved shirt overtop. Add pants (I love fleece and lined pants/jeans), and use warm socks on her feet. From there you can add a layer of fleece. I far prefer a one-piece fleece to a two-piece anything when it comes to an infant or young toddler. It's easier and you don't get the bulk of a coat stopping right at the hips where straps should be laying tight against the body. My personal fave is the MEC Ursus suit, but a very close second is the one-piece by Columbia. Last year I was lucky enough to find a one-piece fleece by Columbia that also offered an optional zip off wind breaker for overtop. The wind breaker portion was extremely thin and so I felt fine adding it as an additional layer on the coldest of days.

Add a hat, cover her hands, and use Stonz over Robeez lined boots (or not, but it's my personal fave combo), and quite honestly she will be snug as a bug.

It's ok to loosen her car seat straps a *little bit* to accomodate one layer of fleece. You want to make sure you get the harness nice and snug once she's buckled. The issue with winter wear is compressibility, which really isn't an issue with fleece. Use common sense, and keep the harness very snug, and use as little clothing as needed to stay warm enough that particular outing.

Once she's buckled in and tightened you can add a blanket on her lap.

Hope that helps.

I was going to post a thread asking the same question!

Sorry to hijack it a bit, but what does everyone do for school aged kids? DD will need super warm winter wear for recess and lunch and gets dropped off at a drop off line at school so doesn't have time to strip down and redress to get out of the car, Her jackets aren't super puffy but definitely thick and wintery.

jacqui276 said:

I was going to post a thread asking the same question!

Sorry to hijack it a bit, but what does everyone do for school aged kids? DD will need super warm winter wear for recess and lunch and gets dropped off at a drop off line at school so doesn't have time to strip down and redress to get out of the car, Her jackets aren't super puffy but definitely thick and wintery.

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She's in a booster? You can likely do the open coat trick. It's hard to explain through typing. Basically you buckle her with her coat open and then zip it up. Trudy has pictures of it. It's funny I'm so into summer mode right now that I'm having a hard time visualizing the process in my head enough to type it out. Can your dd re-zip her coat when she gets out? And then put her mitts back on and add her backpack?

We have a Columbia fleece outfit for bitterly cold days. It got worn about twice last winter.

Honestly, I generally just warm up the car ahead of time, put a hat on kiddo, and throw a blanket on her. I don't ever wear a coat (even at 5 below), and my kids hate coats. I have found that many times, fighting kiddo to get a coat on takes longer than just grabbing kiddo from the carseat and running into the store or wherever. We keep fleece blankets in the car, and bring the coats along just in case we were to get stuck in the snow or break down and need to be out. But my kids rarely actually wear them.

We use one piece fleece suits as long as we can. Luckily my 3 yo is tiny and can wear his size 2 for another year.

My older kids wear silk or thermal under layers with fleece pants and a fleece jacket.

We use super thin Patagonia coats. The exact name is escaping me, but I tighten harness down with just long sleeves and then when she wears the coat, no adjustment necessary. it's not the one we hang around outside in though at least not typically in dec-feb here...we use fleeces in fall and spring, but they bunch and are a little thicker than this jacket...the name will come to me, I swear.

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atw said:

We use super thin Patagonia coats. The exact name is escaping me, but I tighten harness down with just long sleeves and then when she wears the coat, no adjustment necessary. it's not the one we hang around outside in though at least not typically in dec-feb here...we use fleeces in fall and spring, but they bunch and are a little thicker than this jacket...the name will come to me, I swear.

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Puffball? It's super skinny unlike the name implies and works well in a child seat. TechnoKid had a couple, we loved them. The North Face Perrito is similar; that's TechnoBaby will be using this upcoming winter as I got a decent deal on one and she doesn't fit the PuffBalls we have yet.

There is also the PuffRider, but it's thicker and not the same as the PuffBall.

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TechnoGranola said:

Puffball? It's super skinny unlike the name implies and works well in a child seat. TechnoKid had a couple, we loved them. The North Face Perrito is similar; that's TechnoBaby will be using this upcoming winter as I got a decent deal on one and she doesn't fit the PuffBalls we have yet.

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You're my hero! That is exactly right. (puffball, but we have puff rider too) A needs a new one, she'll be handing her beautiful purple down to her baby brother. She's finally just too tall for it! I haven't checked if they make them her size, so thanks for the scoop on Perrito!

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I'm in Illinois, so our weather is all of the place, not as colds as you guys though. But my kids just wear fleece lined coats. They always complain of being to hot in their car seats. Even in freezing weather, I'll pick them up out of their seats and their sweating. If were going to be out side somewhere, I just bring the heavy coats with us.

Kelley

I try to use a one-piece fleece or a lightweight down jacket or down snowsuit b/c it's so compressible (Patagonia's are great!)--just make sure to tighten the harness straps fully.

I never did snow pants in the car- that would be way to warm with the heat on. I buy the 2 piece coats from Walmart and leave them unattached. Kiddo wears both pieces to the car if it's cold enough that he needs both and I slip the outer shell off to buckle him in. We stopped that after a while and he only wore the outer shell- I left it on him but unzipped it and pulled the sides out so the harness wasn't over it at all. The back of the coat compressed enough that I didn't have to loosen his straps.

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After the baby bucket for Matthew we used a Columbia fleece 1 piece with mittens and feet covers and a hood since none of those things stay on other wise. That worked very well.

canadiangie said:

She's in a booster? You can likely do the open coat trick. It's hard to explain through typing. Basically you buckle her with her coat open and then zip it up. Trudy has pictures of it. It's funny I'm so into summer mode right now that I'm having a hard time visualizing the process in my head enough to type it out. Can your dd re-zip her coat when she gets out? And then put her mitts back on and add her backpack?

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Yup she's in a booster and can zip up her own coat. Thanks for the suggestion!