Winter Car Seat Safety
November 29, 2005

With winter here, parents bringing out their babies' winter coats or snowsuits to keep the baby warm during travel. However, thick winter coats or snowsuits can compromise your child's car seat safety. For car seats or booster seats to function properly, the straps need to remain tight against the child's chest. Winter coats and snowsuits make car seat safety difficult because they change the way a child fits into the car seat. Though it may appear that your child is properly secured in his or her seat, they are not. The filling in thick coat and snowsuit will compress in an accident. When the car seat straps don't fit securely against the child, there is a chance the child may be ejected from the car seat or that there will give be just enough space between the child and the straps to cause serious neck and head injuries.

REMSA would like to share the following information to keep your children safe this winter:

Check All Winter Coats for Car Seat Safety

It's easy to check and see whether a baby's winter coat or infant snowsuit is too thick to be safe in a car seat.

1. Put the winter coat or snowsuit on the child.
2. Put the child in the car seat and buckle the harnesses as you normally would before car travel. Adjust the straps to the appropriate fit for your child.
3. Take the child out of the car seat without loosening the straps at all.
4. Take the coat off your child.
5. Put the child back in the car seat and buckle the harnesses again, but do not tighten the straps.
6. If you can fit more than one finger under the harness at the child's collar bone, the coat is too thick and is not safe for use with the car seat.
7. Do not use thick blankets, such as lamb skin inserts, that fit into the interior of the car seat. These have not been tested in approved crash test. They may create the same strap space risks as thick coat and suits.

Keep Baby Warm and Safe

Even if you can't safely use your child's winter coat in the car seat, there are ways to keep baby warm when temperatures drop.

• For babies in an infant seat, dress them warmly in normal clothes, such as a shirt, sweatshirt, long pants and a hat. Buckle the child into the infant seat, then cover the baby with a light blanket tucked around the sides. Make sure nothing is behind baby's back! Finally, add another heavier blanket over the top of the infant seat.
• Also for infant seats, there are car seat covers available that fit over the entire exterior of the infant seat once the baby is buckled in. These covers have a peep-hole so that baby's face remains uncovered. Parents should be sure the child is buckled up under the cover, though, as it's easy to forget when the buckle is out of sight.
• For older babies and toddlers, take the child's coat off before buckling them into the car seat. Once the harnesses are secure, put the child's coat on backwards over their arms to keep them warm without compromising safety.
• Whenever possible, warm up your car before putting the baby in the vehicle.
• When buying winter coats, keep thickness and car seat safety in mind. Polar fleece jackets and snowsuits are warm but thin, making them a smart choice for winter baby wear.

To set up a media interview with a REMSA representative, please call Scott Walquist at 775.686.2116.

REMSA is a private, not-for-profit emergency medical services system serving northern Nevada. REMSA’s state-of-the-art 9-1-1 dispatch communications center is fully accredited, as are all emergency medical transport services of the company. REMSA provides quality patient care with no taxpayer support or other subsidies.

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