Is your child safely strapped in?

According to the UK Department of Transport, 60 to 80% of all car seats are used incorrectly, with harness tension being the most common problem. This is a particular issue in winter as it is hard to tell whether you have a good harness fit if your child is wearing a thick coat or snow suit.

For a car seat harness to work properly, the straps need to be tightly strapped against your child’s chest. When a child wears a snowsuit or thick coat, the straps are usually adjusted to the thickness of the coat, not the chest. If the car was in an accident, the coat could compress, making the straps too loose and reducing the level of protection for the child.

So how do you know if the harness tension is correct or if a coat is too bulky for in-car use? Do the Two Finger Test:

1. Put the coat on your child.
2. Strap your child into the car seat and tighten to ensure a snug fit.
3. Remove your child from the car seat – without loosening the straps.
4. Take the coat off your child.
5. Strap your child back into the seat – but don’t adjust the straps.
6. Do the Two finger test. If you can fit more than two fingers underneath the harness at your child’s collar bone, the harness tension needs to be tightened or avoid using the coat in the car seat.

Watch this video on how to do the two finger test and see how much slack a thick coat or snow suit can cause in your child’s safety harness. You will be amazed!

How do you keep your child warm on those cold winter days if they can’t wear a coat?

Parents can simply place a blanket or coat over the top of their child, however, for younger children prone to kicking their legs, this can easily fall off. The Baby Hoodie is the perfect solution. It is simply placed in the carseat, with slots for the harness straps to pass through. Your baby is then strapped in as normal with the straps tight against their chest (we recommend they wear their normal indoor clothes). The Hoodie is then wrapped around the baby, keeping them snug and warm, but is easy to fold open once the car heats up. As it has no fastenings, clips, zips or Velcro, it also offers easy access to the harness release button – another key point for parents to bear in mind.

For babies in rear facing infant carriers, this can all be done in the house – no need for a coat at all. For toddlers in stage 1 and 2 seats that remain in the car, we suggest that you wrap your child’s coat around them before walking to the car and then remove it once they’re in the car, quickly strapping them in and wrapping them in their hoodie.

See this video on how to hoodie

Other safety issues

If you choose to strap your child into their car seat wearing a coat, you must ensure that the straps are pulled very tight for them to be safe. But this will have an impact on the child’s comfort and freedom of movement (you can be sure that you’ll hear complaints from the back seat!) To prove how much their movement is restricted, try to put your child wearing a coat into their carseat harness, which has been adjusted for fit over indoor clothes. It’s near impossible – your child needs to be a contortionist! This normally results in the parent loosening the straps, which stops the complaints from the child, but means they’re no longer safe. Simple solution. Lose the coat!

Another problem with strapping them in wearing a coat is that your child can quickly become overheated. For babies unable to tell you what’s wrong, this can be dangerous. It is safer to use something that is removable – whether it’s a blanket or coat popped on top of them, or a product like our Hoodie, which can be opened up easily.

Finally, did you know that there is a reason the car seat harness eject button is red? It’s so that it is easily visible so that the child can be removed quickly in an emergency. Whatever product you use to keep your child warm in their car seat, ensure that it provides easy access to the eject button in an emergency. The more zips, clips or Velcro involved, the more difficult it is. It’s for this reason that the Baby Hoodie simply tucks over the baby, with no additional fasteners.

For more information on the correct fitting and use of car seats, go to http://www.childcarseats.org.uk/carseatsvideo/chapter2a.html

Tested for safety

Did you know that there is no legislation governing car seat accessories? So while car seats are rigorously tested, most car seat accessories aren’t. In fact, it’s near impossible to know what limits to test as there aren’t any guidelines specific to accessories. But we’re parents and the safety of our – and your – children is paramount to us.

Our Morrck Baby Hoodie was tested at The Transport Research Laboratory test centre in April 2010, an internationally recognised centre of excellence providing world-class research, consultancy, testing and certification for all aspects of transport.

We have taken extensive advice on testing from the Department for Transport (DFT) and the VCA (part of the DFT). After much discussion and taking into consideration all of the advice we had been given, we decided that it would be pragmatic for us to do a sample test using a popular car seat to ensure that the standards for harness safety remained within ECE Reg.44.04 specifications where appropriate. On the basis that as all car seats must comply with the same standards, it was agreed that it would be a representative test.

The All Season Baby Hoodie was crash tested under the strict conditions of ECE Reg.44.04 in a Britax Safe Fix Plus car seat using a 12 month size crash test dummy. Appropriate measures of the frontal impact test were met, well within the required limits.

The Baby Hoodie has also been tested against and passed fire retardancy (BS4569:1983 ignitability -surface flash - of pile fabrics and assemblies having pile on the surface) and toxicity standards (BS EN 71 -1995- Part 3 Toxicity).

We have also conducted the 2 finger test which showed there is no significant difference in harness tension when a baby hoodie is used vs. when it’s not.

All our test results are available to view, should you wish to: