Snug Like a Hug

The purpose of a child restraint is to stop a child’s movement in a crash as safely as possible.

A snug harness plays a key role in enabling the car seat to do this.

Your child’s harness must fit against them snugly, ‘think snug like a hug’! If the harness is too loose against your child, their body can easily come loose from the harness, and be mostly unrestrained during the crash.

It’s simple to check if your child’s harness is secure enough, by using the “pinch test”. At your child’s shoulder, try to pinch the harness in an up & down movement (not side to side). If you can pinch any harness between your fingers, the harness is too loose.

Many parents and caregivers do not have their child’s harness tight enough. Ensuring your child’s harness is snug, could be the difference between your child staying safely in their child restraint or experiencing the uncontrolled forces of a crash.

When harnessing a child into their seat follow these key pointers:

• Push their bum back into the restraint

• Ensure they’re sitting centralised

• Click into the crotch buckle

• Pull up on the harness straps to remove all the slack around the hips and thighs (this part is often missed and leads to a loose harness)

• Pull the harness adjuster to tighten harness

• Perform the pinch test at the shoulder/collarbone region

• ‘If’ you have a chest clip – click this together and then position in line with the child’s armpits.

For a child, always remember that a harness should always feel ‘Snug like a hug’ and “that’s pretty tight!”

Have you been doing your child harness tight enough?

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