Bulky clothing affects children's safety in car seats

[caption id="attachment_40663" align="alignright" width="300"] TRAVEL SAFELY: A puffy jacket causes a harness to fit too loosely[/caption]

FEW parents are aware that bulky clothing and children's car seats can be a dangerous combination.

Of course, now that winter is here, you want to bundle your kids up warmly against the cold, but a thick jacket and a car seat is a no-no!

A study by the American Academy of Paediatrics last year found that the clothing worn by children in the car could have a negative impact on their safety in an accident.

If a child is wearing a thick coat when it is strapped into the harness, the coat will compress during a crash. This means that the harness is actually too loose, which could lead to an increased risk of injury, explains Robyn Farrell, executive head of First for Women Insurance.

"Therefore, your child should be dressed only in clothes that they would wear inside your house," she says. "This way their harness can be securely fastened and be as snug as possible. Avoiding extra slack in the harness applies to children in booster seats as well."

When the child is properly harnessed, the plastic retainer or chest clip should be across the child's chest at armpit level, she explains.

The harness may appear to fit tightly if the child is wearing a "puffy" coat, but too much space is created by the soft fabric.

You can test this by doing the "pinch" test: keep the big winter coat on and harness the child in the car seat. Tighten the harness as you normally would for travel.

Then unbuckle the harness and, without loosening, take your child out of the car seat. Remove the jacket and place the child back in the car seat, buckling the harness once more. Again, check for tightness.

When buckled, it should not be possible to pinch the webbing at the shoulder. When the harness fits snugly, your fingers should just slide off the harness when you try to pinch it together.

Chances are that you will now need to tighten the harness even more to get it as snug as it needs to be to fit your child properly.

If you cannot get a sufficient tightness with a very bulky coat, try using a less dense jacket.