Pros and cons to winter bundling methods?

Nedra

Car-Seat.org Ambassador
So once I found out that kids CAN wear a coat in the car as long as it is thin enough that it compresses when the harness is as snug as usual, I have started to wonder about the pros and cons of each method and why folks would pick each one. Here are my thoughts, please add to them if you have more ideas.

Method: Thin layers and/or jacket on backwards over the straps
Pros: Can buy any coat you want so a relatively inexpensive option. Kid doesn't get overheated in the car because they can kick off the jacket if they want.
Cons: It's a pain to take the jacket off when you get out to the car. For those of us in very cold climates, it can be physically painful to be in the car before it is heated up -- let alone without a coat. (There are days when it's so cold *I* would throw a fit if asked to remove my coat in the cold car.) If you have more than one car seat in the back seat, it may be difficult or impossible to sit in the back seat with the child and help him/her get out of the jacket and into the seat.

Method: Buy a car seat poncho or cozywoggle.
Pros: Harness is tight against whatever clothes the child can normally wear under a coat. Coat does not need to be fully removed.
Cons: Ponchos don't look warm enough for the coldest weather. Both options involve fastening the harness under a coat, which seems cumbersome to me, but I haven't tried it.

Method: Buy a thin, car seat safe coat.
Pros: Convenient. The kid gets into the car seat and is strapped in with no additional steps (once it's been determined that the coat is safe for them to wear in the car seat).
Cons: The insulation that makes these coats thin-but-warm can also be more expensive. Can't buy a size up for them to grow into because the extra fabric may be too bulky in the meantime. Kid is trapped in the hot coat even after the car heats up (can't shed a layer).

Anything I am missing? Which method do you prefer and why? We live in MN and so this is on our minds!
 
ADS

MotoMommaNH

New member
I don't have any more pros and cons to add as I think you covered it well, but the length of the car ride dictates for me what I choose to do. If its just to daycare or the store, we use the Gap primaloft jacket. If its to Grammys house or somewhere farther we go with the layer than can be shed, like a backwards coat or blanket (although sometimes we use blanket for the cold morning ride to daycare too).
 

tiggercat

New member
I can't be bothered fiddling with fabric and adjusting/tightening/etc. I leave the harness appropriately snug in t-shirt/jeans and either squish them in as is, or slip the coat off the buckle. Generally my kids wear a hoodie or fleece under their coats anyway, so it's not like they are going to freeze in the time it takes to buckle.
My booster/seatbelt kids also prefer to just remove coats than listen to me question (did you unzip? Is the coat out from under the belt? Is your lapbelt under your epi pouch?). My poor kids. Lol.
Nearly 13 years of parenthood in Canada and I haven't lost one to hypothermia yet, so I must be doing ok :)

Sent from my iPod touch using Car-Seat.Org
 
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Suzibeck

Active member
I think you about covered it. We have a Snozu coat from Costco that I love. It is terrific for short trips in a cold van or those days when we are in and out of the van a lot for errands. I don't have the patience or time for coat going on and off multiple times on those outings. The Snozu coat is warm but squishes down to nothing. It was also inexpensive. On longer drives, I do have her take it off and put it on backwards so she can toss it when she gets too warm. It totally depends on how long we will be in the van. My mom made us a poncho when youngest was a toddler, it has two layers of fleece with a windbreak layer in between. It was warm but cumbersome and did tend to blow away from her body on really windy days.
 

Mary_Ann

New member
I live in Québec, where it gets really cold in winter. When we run errands, dd (5yo) wears a hoodie and a thin insulated wind breaker. When she goes to daycare, she wears a hoodie and she removes her big puffy coat. I heat the car 5 or 10 minutes before leaving, so it's usually warm. I always have blankets in the car and of course she wears a hat, scarf and mittens.

Dd2 is 9mo and I didn't wanted to deal with removing coats, so I bought her the MEC Cocoon bunting suit. It's really thin and I just had to loosen her harness a tiny bit (1/4"). I don't think it will be warm enough to stay out at daycare, but she will wear her MEC ursus fleece bunting underneath.

The Cocoon was $69, not to expensive IMO. The Patagonia puffball bunting was $115 and they were almost identicals.
 

sb518

New member
I put DD's coat on her backwards when we leave the house, without zipping it. Then sit her in the seat, have her pull one arm out at a time, and buckle her under her coat. She still complains about her back being cold when she first sits in her seat, but too bad.

Or I will pull the sides of her coat out of the sides of the harness, and once she is buckled I can zip it back up over the harness.
 

NVMBR02

New member
We have pretty much tried everything.

For us, a thin coat, filled with down or primal loft seems to be the best for everyday activities. We are in and out of the car a lot. Most of the time we are at whatever place that the car is cold and needs to warm up again. Just a fleece didn't work out well, when we did several layers in the car the kids got hot, and having everyone remove their coat and put it back on several times a day was a pain.

We are also in MN, just south of the cities, so we get a fair amount of wind which makes a big difference.
 

carseatmama007

New member
I put DD in a thin coat. If it's really cold, she'll bring a blanket in the car. We keep our car in the garage, and temps down here are fairly mild, so the car never gets all that cold. And once it's heated up, she removes the blanket (if she brought one) and is peachy! She's incapable of overheating, I think lol, she gets cold SO easily and whines when I turn the AC on in the car in the summer (especially now that she's FF and it hits her directly).
 

sm1982

New member
I unzip and pull the harness through the sides of the jacket. If it's really cold, I'll re-zip over the harness. They aren't my kids so I don't pick out their winter gear (although part of their Christmas gift this year is one of the Gap jackets).
 

katymyers

Active member
As a child I can remember getting so hot in the car with my coat on I would feel lightheaded and sick, once I was old enough to I guess decide on my own I pretty much just stopped wearing one ever. I was young and stupid and also refused to wear decent shoes or long sleeves or anything but I survived. I'm not worried about my kids who get put in good quality fleece jackets, a hat, mittens, warm shoes and socks, and long sleeves and layers. They wear full winter gear when playing outside or going on walks but for going in and out of stores to and from the car the fleece is fine.
 

VoodooChile

New member
I purposely bought the darn $150 Moondoggy coats this year so they could be worn in the car (it's only November and it was 25 this morning), but it's such a habit, the kids take them off as soon as they get in the car. Like clockwork. I guess I taught them well.
 

cookie123

New member
My grand kids are also in the habit of removing their jackets in the car. They are generally just wearing a long sleeve tee. They won't keep their coats on backwards. They must love to freeze. We also live in MN.
 

jacqui276

New member
I try to buy thin car-seat safe coats. My main reasoning is that sometimes it is so cold in my car that I wouldn't be willing to take my jacket off, DH likely wouldn't follow the rules of taking the coats off in the car if it was a non-car seat safe coat (nor would my sister who frequently transports my kids), and when I take DD to school I drop her off at a drop-off line where sitting and waiting for her to get her coat on in the car before getting out would disrupt the flow of the line.

I splurged and bought moondoggy jackets for my kids this year. DS was in fleece last year but I didn't feel like it was warm enough. I bought a size too big for DS since I know that he will grow throughout our long winter and I refuse to buy him 2 $150 jackets for one season. I don't find it to be an issue with buckling though. I haven't had to loosen the harness at all from what it is at to be snug when he is just in a hoodie.
 

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