By Nicole Fuge
This Summer, we’re loading up the fam and hitting the road for an epic adventure to Byron Bay – which will be fun (read: not fun) with a wiggly one-year-old!
Road trips have taken on an entirely new meaning since it was just my baby-daddy and I (no more spontaneous trips over the border because we’re craving an epic breakfast at Three Blue Ducks at The Farm). We now need to perfectly time our travel with naps, in the hope of having a gorge sleeping baby for most of the way, and then there’s factoring in feedings and nappy changes, and because bebes come with A LOT of sh*t, it’s goodbye extra leg room – the car is packed to the roof with the pram, travel cot and luggage for three.
Now that school’s out for Summer, the roads are going to be hectic, with more traffic and clueless tourists to contend with. So don’t be stupid this silly season!
Holden’s 3 top safety tips for a fab family road trip
1 // Make sure your bebe is in the right car restraint
That means checking it’s the right one for their age and size, that it’s been installed correctly in your car, and has been properly adjusted to fit your little one. The school of thought is to leave them in their restraint until they outgrow the size limit – don’t move up to the next restraint just because they’ve reached a certain age.
2 // Strap in
The straps in car seats can be confusing AF. But it’s important to make sure they’re properly secure. Common mistakes are the top tether strap is too tight or too loose, or even twisted, and that the tether point isn’t attached to an anchor point; instead it’s wrapped around the head rest, attached to a cargo barrier or attached to a luggage strap.
Same goes for the inbuilt harnesses, make sure they’re not twisted or loose, check that the shoulder height is correct and that the harness is buckled in properly.
If your bambino is in a booster seat, make sure they’re wearing their seatbelt correctly and that it’s not behind their back or under their arm.
3 // Don’t leave your kid in unattended in the car, ever!
Not even if they’re fast asleep and you don’t want to wake them when you arrive at your hotel. This is because your car is an ‘unconventional oven’ and it gets real hot, real fast (75% of the total temp rise happens in the first five mins after you’ve parked the car). Here in Australia, we love our sweltering Summers, so think about how hot it gets inside the car if it can be more than 30ºC hotter than it is outside… even on a cooler day, it can still get above 70ºC (WTF?!)
