Do you know how to do the car seat pinch test?
Car seat experts recommend this alternative to the 2-finger rule for checking the tightness of your child's harness
Child car seat safety is such an important subject, we recently devoted a whole Facebook Live to answering some of the toughest and most confusing questions.
One topic that frequently comes up is the potential dangers of winter coats being worn in car seats, and following on from there: how to ensure your child’s harness is tight enough at all times.
It may seem pretty obvious to some, but there is one thing you can do to check your little one is strapped in correctly: it’s called the pinch test.
Here’s how to do the car seat harness pinch test:
How does it work?
As car seat safety experts Julie and Claire of Child Seat Safety Ltd (aka the Car Seat Ladies) noted in the above clip, it's an alternative to the 2-finger rule, which is a way to see if you can fit two fingers under the harness. If you can, that means the harness is not tight enough.
However, the 2-finger rule doesn't account for the different sizes of people's hands - so they recommend using the pinch test, instead.
- First you place your fingers on the harness, around the child’s collarbone area.
- Then try to pinch the harness strap and if you can get a good pinch between your fingers, that means the harness is not tight enough.
- If you can’t get the strap to pinch between your fingers, that means the harness is tight enough, and your child is strapped in properly.
It might seem pretty simple, but it’s definitely an important one to remember.
Do you know the 7 vital steps to strapping your child in a car seat safely?
Watch the full car seat safety Facebook Live here…
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