Winter Car Seat Safety – What You Need to Know

By:  Trudy Slaght

Have you ever done something that you knew wasn’t the safest, but you felt you had no choice?

When my daughter was a baby, I used a thick cuddle bag in her infant seat. I knew that it wasn’t recommended, but living in Alberta, I felt there was no other possible way to keep her warm in the winter. I had done my research on car seats. I had read my car seat manual. I was careful to keep the harness properly tight on her, and I knew that it was safest to keep her rear-facing as long as she fit the seat she was using – but I felt there was simply no way to avoid using a cuddle bag and still keep her warm.

HARNESS STRAPS: The webbing assembly attached to a car seat shell that restrains the child in a crash. It has a buckle, a method to adjust it snugly against the child, and usually a chest clip.



CHEST CLIP: A plastic device that holds the shoulder straps of a harness in place on the child’s chest to achieve good pre-crash positioning. During a crash, the clip often is designed to either slide down the straps or separate if it has two parts. The harness clip should be placed at the level of the child’s armpits. The purpose of the clip is not to hold the child in the restraint, but to keep the shoulder straps in position, which is especially important if the harness is not adjusted snugly.

SHELL: The “seat” portion of a car seat that holds the child in position relative to the harness.

INFANT-ONLY CAR SEAT: Designed to fit babies from birth to a minimum of 22 lbs. Many brands are now designed for babies up to 35 lbs. Made to face only the rear of the vehicle, most have a carrier handle so that the car seat can be easily removed from the car. Many also have a stay-in car base. They are also called infant car seats or baby bucket car seats.

REAR-FACING INFANT/CHILD SEAT OR CONVERTIBLE CAR SEAT: A car seat that can be used rear-facing for infants up to 30 to 45 lbs depending on the model. They can then be turned to face forward until the child reaches the product's upper weight limit which can range from 40 to 65lbs.

CUDDLE BAG: After market car seat product designed like a sleeping bag to go between the child and the seat and then over the child. It has holes in place for the harness straps to come through. These are not recommended. In the case of an collision the padding may compress and leave the harness slack.



SHOWER CAP COVER: After market car seat product designed to fit over the top of a car seat to provide warmth. These covers have a hole in the middle so that your baby can look out and get fresh air. They do not interfere with the harness system of the car seat so they are a much SAFER alternative to CUDDLE BAGS.



REAR-FACING REQUIREMENT: Recently there has been a change to the standards that car seat manufacturers have to meet. A part of that change is that children must be 22lbs and walking unassisted in order to forward face. Additional requirements vary from model to model - for example, most manufacturers also require one year age minimum.

LEGAL MINIMUM: The minimum legal requirement is that children who are less than 40lbs or less than 6yrs old must be restrained in an appropriate child restraint that is used according to the manufacturer's directions.

I thought I was fairly well educated on car seats, but as time passed and I became more passionate about car seat safety, I learned more about the risks of using a cuddle bag. By then, I was pregnant again and expecting a winter baby. I still recall the day I sat on the couch getting my son’s car seat ready, and debated with myself over whether or not to put the cuddle bag in to his new car seat. This time I truly understood that it wasn’t safe to use, and yet I still tried to convince myself that if I was careful to tighten the harness properly, that maybe it would be ok – after all, winters really ARE cold in Alberta.

In the end I decided to skip the cuddle bag in my son’s car seat, and much to my surprise and relief, I was able to keep him toasty warm without it. Nine months after he was born, I travelled to Red Deer to take the Children Restraint Systems Technician (CRST) course, and from that time on I’ve used my passion and experience to help the parents I encounter on a day-to-day basis.

I’ve been where you are. I’ve faced a harsh winter with a baby and made it through without the use of bulky clothing or a cuddle bag. I know what it’s like to worry about keeping your baby warm.  With a few tips and some preparation, you too can keep your baby warm AND safe in the car.

Before I go in to the “how,” I want to go over the reasons why snowsuits and quilted inserts aren’t safe to use in a car seat. Some of you may already be familiar with the consumer information notice that Transport Canada issued to parents a number of years ago regarding aftermarket products. [i] While the notice itself is 8 years old, most of the products that existed at the time the notice was issued are still readily available, and the information in the notice remains the same. Despite the deaths of children due to the use of aftermarket products, manufacturers continue to sell them because they are unregulated.

A few companies place a letter inside the packaging of their products stating that their product meets all applicable standards and doesn’t change the performance of a car seat – but how can a product meet standards if there are no standards that apply to aftermarket products?

Most of the sleeping bag style products for car seats add bulk between the child’s back and the shell of the car seat, and most of them change the way the harness straps sit on your baby. Bulk is bad because anything with air in it will compress in a collision – leaving slack in the harness. If the harness isn’t in the right place, your baby’s safety may be compromised.

Now that you know what not to use and why not to use it, I want to reassure you that it’s still possible to keep your baby warm on those cold winter days. All you’ll need are some blankets, a hat and mitts for baby, a lightweight sweater for those extra cold days, and if you wish, a shower-cap style cover for the infant seat. Shower-cap style covers are either fleece or quilted fabric with an elasticized edge.  They are designed to go over top of the car seat. Most of them have an opening on top that you can open to see baby’s face.  They are safe to use because they don’t go between baby and the car seat nor do they affect the fit of the harness.

Once you have yourself organized, start by putting the hat and mitts on your little one, then place him in to his car seat. Be sure to slide his bum all the way back and ensure that his back is snug to the shell of the car seat. If you’ve used a thin sweater, put the hood up, and be sure that there is no bulk sitting around the hips or over his shoulders. Once baby is positioned, place the harness straps over him and buckle the harness according to your car seat manufacturer’s directions. Tighten the harness so that only one finger can fit between baby’s collar bone and the harness strap, then slide the chest clip up to his armpit level.

Once baby is safely buckled, layer blankets over top of him and tuck them in on his sides. If you have a cover for the car seat, you can place that on right before you head out the door. On longer trips you will want to remove the cover at least partially once you’re in the car to prevent your baby from over-heating.

For those of you who have graduated from the infant seat stage to a larger rear-facing seat, or have chosen to forego an infant seat in favour of using a rear-facing infant/child seat right from the beginning, your preparation is going to include shopping for a jacket that isn’t a slippery fabric and isn’t bulky or puffy. Winter jackets are generally bulky and puffy.  In a collision all the air in the jacket is squeezed out leaving the harness too loose, so it’s important to take the extra time to find a jacket that is lightweight but warm. Fleece works well, as do fall or spring weight jackets. You’ll also want to put extra blankets in the car so that you can cover your little one up once he’s safely buckled in. On extra cold days you may need to use a winter coat over top of the lighter coat to get from your house to your car, but you will need to remove it once you get to the car.

The same steps used to buckle your baby in to his infant seat apply to buckling your baby or toddler in to his rear-facing seat. Place him properly in the seat, back snug to the shell of the car seat.  Buckle the harness according to directions, tighten the straps, raise the chest clip to armpit level, and then put blankets over top of your little one. Remember that once you’ve been on the road a little bit, the car is going to heat up, so it’s quite common for toddlers and preschoolers to throw those blankets off when they start to get hot. If you have trouble getting your little one to keep blankets on, some parents find it easier to put the winter coat on to their child backwards once he’s buckled up.

Parents understandably have many concerns when it comes to keeping their children warm in the winter, and I’ll be the first to admit that it takes some extra time to be able to keep them both warm and as safe as possible. But if you take that extra time, you will give your child the best chance should you ever be in a collision – and that safety is worth a few minutes of time.

My daughter is seven now, and my son turns five next month. I’ve been through many winters with the two of them in car seats.  They have been safe and warm ever since I learned how to accomplish both at the same time. It is my hope that these tips help you as well. As the saying goes – when you know better, you do better.

[i] http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/roadsafety/safedrivers-childsafety-notices-d200401-menu-336.htm

Trudy is a mom of 2 kids living in Edmonton. She’s a Children Restraint Systems Technician (CRST)- Instructor Trainer and has been involved in helping keep kids safe in the car for the last 4 years. She enjoys meeting and talking to parents and finds it satisfying when she is able to make car seat safety a little easier for them.

Our sincere apologies to Trudy Slaght and to our readers for the inaccurate sidebar information and photos in the Winter 2011-2012 issue of Birthing Magazine.  The sidebar contained outdated information on carseat weight requirements and other features.  A number of the photographs were European carseats and the photo next to the cuddle bag definition was actually a shower cap style cover.  Please find below Trudy's original article below with corrected information and photographs. Many thanks to Trudy for helping us correct this information.

Kirsten Goa, Editor-in-Chief