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8 winter car seat tips you need to know
Make sure to carry out these essential car seat checks before you head off for
the festive break with your family
Whether you're planning on meeting family over the holidays or staying put, it's still important to ensure you and your baby are as safe as possible if you're travelling by car in freezing weather.
Follow our tips to avoid any car seat mishaps during the winter and festive period.
1. Heat up your car before placing your baby in their seat
If it's particularly cold weather, it's worth allowing around 15 to 20 minutes to heat your car up before you place your baby in their car seat.
This is particularly the case if your newborn is going into a baby to toddler car seat, as opposed to an infant carrier.
Baby to toddler seats are designed from birth up to four years, but because of their size, you can't use them to carry your baby from indoors out to the car like you would with an infant carrier. The seat remains in the car all the time, and in cold weather it could feel very chilly for your baby to sit on.
Allowing some time for the car - and the child car seat - to warm up will hopefully mean that your baby remains comfortable once they're strapped in.
Do not strap your child into their car seat while they're wearing a bulky or puffy snowsuit or jacket.
This is an extremely common problem as parents worry that their child will get cold while travelling. However, puffy clothing can stop you getting a tight enough fit on the harness.
Our advice is to dress your baby or toddler in multiple layers (don't forget a hat), which can be removed or added if needed.
Strap them into the seat - the harness should be tight enough so you're just able to fit two fingers between the shoulder straps and your child's body - and then lay a blanket over them to wrap them up warmly.
For very young newborns using an infant carrier car seat, we'd recommend you strap them into the car seat while you're still indoors, start the car to warm it up, and then take them outside and click or strap the car seat into the back seat.
Nothing ruins the festive spirit on a long car journey than a car-sick child or an explosive 'poonami'.
Make sure you've got a back-up bag that's easily accessible with a change of clothes and plenty of wipes. This will also mean you can wipe off the worst of the mess from the car seat if needed.
Remember, Which? car seat testing always checks how easy it is to remove a car seat cover and whether it can be machine-washed - a godsend in cases such as this - so be sure to check out this information in our car seat reviews.
4. Check for common car seat issues
The stress of getting everyone and everything packed into the car may mean you could forget to check for common car seat issues.
These can include twisted or loosely fitting harnesses or seat belts (as seen in the image above), buckle crunch (when the seat belt buckle is touching the plastic shell of the car seat and could put pressure on it) and a loose harness.
Note that the child in the picture above is also wearing a puffy coat while strapped in.
You might be tempted to invest in some car seat accessories to make any long car journeys more comfortable or less fraught.
However, we'd suggest you approach these with care. Car seats are crash-tested in the way they are designed to be used and adding accessories that aren't approved by the manufacturer could compromise the seat's safety and/or void the warranty.
Our car seat testing experts have assessed a range of car seat accessories and given their thoughts on whether they're safe or not - read our guide to car seat accessories for more information.
6. Know the car seat laws
UK law states that children need to sit in a car seat up to the age of 12 or until they reach 135cm tall (whichever comes first). Failure to do this could lead to a fine and points on your license.
However, this law also extends to all children you or anyone else is transporting in the car.
This means grandparents need to strap your child in properly, as does your childminder - it is the responsibility of the driver to ensure the child or children they're transporting is correctly strapped in.
Roads in the run-up and during the holidays can be hectic and in addition you have to contend with potentially wintry driving conditions.
Plan out your route and allow enough time, plus extra for traffic jams and breaks.
The last thing you need at Christmas is to be entering into negotiations with your toddler on whether they really can hold on until you get to the next services.
8. Take regular breaks
Taking a break from your journey when you've got young children is a necessity. Not only does it give you a rest and older children the chance to have a loo stop, it's also vital for babies in car seats.
Experts recommend that babies spend no longer than two hours at a time in a car seat before having a break (and much less than that for babies under six months - about 20-30 minutes).
This is because an infant carrier will hold your baby at an angle, rather than flat. This provides good support for their head and neck in a crash, but it could affect their breathing if they're positioned like that for too long.
