Summer is just around the corner, and keeping your child cool during a car ride is of paramount importance. Throughout a few simple techniques, we’ll show you how to keep your child cool in a car seat so that both of you can enjoy the car ride, and eventually enjoy the destination, without the disturbance and dangers of overheating.
Contents
1. Hydration
Before we skim the surface of this topic and the importance of keeping your baby cool at all times inside a vehicle, we have to stress the major importance of keeping your child hydrated at all times.
Never go out with a child without their drink, whether they’re still being breast-fed or they’re consuming normal food and water, always keep your child as hydrated as possible.
2. Sun Blockage
Next, you would want to minimize your child’s exposure to the sun as much as possible, and that can be done with multiple techniques and a few accessories that we’ll discuss momentarily.
3. Shades
First of all, let’s talk about shades that can be installed on your car windows, and they do come in a multitude of shapes, sizes, and styles. As long as it does its job without disturbing your driving; as in it doesn’t fly away or fall off, then go for it.
4. Tinted Windows
While if you wish to go for a more permanent solution, then you might want to look into tinting your windows. In today’s markets, there is a ton of different options for tinting your windows, such as carbon tint, ceramic tint, and dyed tint.
They all have their advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, window tints can be applied at home with incredible care and attention to detail, or you can go to a professional office where they can take that burden off of you for a certain sum of money.
That can range around $25 per window. In the end, tinted windows are designed to not just block the sun, but reduce the heat penetrating the windows as well. Subsequently, they’re highly beneficial.
5. Proper Car Seat Placement
A lot of today’s car seats are generally more than just a car seat. They can be moved around, used as a stroller, or a carrier. So, whenever you’re replacing the car seat into your car again, try to put it on the seat that is least exposed to sunlight. That, of course, will differ from one place to another.
6. AC
99% of cars nowadays have pretty advanced AC systems installed in them, and that is because they have become an essential part of our lives. Using your AC in the right way can make a mountain of difference between a heated annoyed child and a calmly sleeping angel.
7. Ducts/Noggle
If your car is fitted with rear ducts, then make sure to point and direct them towards your child, so that they enjoy the benefit of the cool air.
Yet, this option is not available in all vehicles, and that’s why we have the Noggle, which is a tube of sorts that is connected to an AC duct inside your car and is completely bendable in all places. You can direct it towards your baby, and they can still enjoy the AC limitlessly.
8. Pre-Condition
Before you get into your car and strap your child in, it’s always advisable to turn on your car and pre-condition so that you are not thrown along with your child into the heat of the day out of nowhere. Also, this will reduce the chances of your child picking up a nasty cold from the extreme change in temperature.
9. Colors
It’s a widely known fact that darker colors attract and keep the heat from the sun much longer than lighter colors. Subsequently, in the summer, try to dress your child in much lighter colors that won’t hold on to heat so close to their sensitive bodies.
10. Accessories
There’s a bunch of accessories that you can buy literally everywhere in order to better prepare yourself for the heat of the summer. We’ll discuss some of these accessories with you.
Car Seat Liner
What car seat liners do in general is that they expel the moisture away from your child and allow and encourage the flow of air through its mesh fabric in order to circulate the air around the child as much as possible. Moreover, they’re cushioned to make your baby much more comfortable in their car seat.
Child Seat Cooler Mat
This is another option that can replace the pre-conditioning that we have previously spoken about, and that is a cooler mat mostly. These mats are freezable, so you place them in your freezer and take them out when necessary to place on your child’s car seat.
This will help create a fresh, crisp environment for your child to sit inside the car. Nonetheless, keep in mind that this is not for use with the child inside the car seat.
Seat Saver
A seat saver is a cover-up for your car seat, which helps prevent the accumulation of sweat and dead skin on your child’s car seat, which can lead to allergies and other diseases. The seat saver is mostly machine-washable, so you can wash it every week or so instead of having to take out the car seat, disassemble it, and wash it.
Small Fans with Spray Bottles
The small fans that run on batteries with the spray bottles of water have been on the market for as long as one can remember, and they’re not just for children but for adults as well.
Nevertheless, fixating one of these in one of your core corners in order to keep your child cool is definitely an inexpensive way to protect them.
Cooling Towels
Cooling towels are normally placed on the child’s head, and they don’t only help bring down their temperatures tremendously, they also encourage sweating which is the healthiest way to naturally rid the human body of extra heat.
11. Parking
It is undoubtedly a negotiable point that you should never EVER leave a child alone in a car. So, this parking situation is happening with the adult in the car.
12. Shaded Areas
We know that this is not always an available option and that finding a shaded spot for parking can be a near-impossible task. Yet, miracles do happen sometimes, and when you do, grab onto them and stay in that place until your child and yourself have cooled down enough to move.
13. Windows
The fact that your car is running is already generating way too much heat. So, when you’re parked, turn off your car, and open the windows immediately to let the fresh air in. Along with a cool sip of water and a spray bottle next to a cooling towel, your child will be perfectly fine.
Final Thoughts
How to keep your child cool in a car seat is a broad-spectrum subject. You can achieve that through using more expensive techniques such as alterations to your car in regards to tinted windows, and AC vents.
Or, you can choose to go with the simpler options such as spray bottles, constant hydration, and cooling towels whichever way you choose to go, you are the parent and your gut feeling is always wise.
