Of course, a cup in the car could fly free in an accident and a cup-holder may not prevent this, so bear this in mind. Infant car seats tend to have built-in sunshades, which are not only useful for keeping the sun out, but also provide a layer of protection from flying glass if you're in an accident. Our car seat testing experts were concerned that this could potentially increase dangerous amounts of pressure on the soft area of your child’s abdomen in the event of a crash. We cover car seats under ‘Spare parts and Accessories’ for damage. While the accessories would not necessarily invalidate cover, we would always urge drivers to act responsibly and to put safety first. However, we'd strongly advise you to be careful what you go for. Car seats are crash-tested in the way they are designed to be used, and adding accessories such as chest clips or seat covers that aren't approved by the manufacturer could compromise the seat's safety and/or void the warranty.

This product was approved to R44 regulations. However, when we carried out our own crash testing with it, we discovered that the product doesn't keep the shoulder part of the vehicle seatbelt low enough in a frontal collision. The horizontal belt also pulls up during a crash, meaning the seatbelt will pull across your child's delicate abdomen and potentially cause dangerous internal injuries. We believe that using the Smart Kid Belt would be no safer than transporting your child using just the vehicle seatbelts, something that is prohibited for children who are less than 1.35 metres. This is a plastic clip that’s attached to the integral harness to hold the straps together, ideally at chest height. It’s designed to stop your child slipping their arms out of the harness. It’s unlikely we would reject a claim based on car-seat accessories alone. That said, we would encourage parents to ensure their car seats are fitted properly to reduce the risk of injury.' NFU Mutual Ways to keep your family living costs down, and kids of all ages happy Get our Family newsletter – it's free monthly The issue with child car seats is that, even with a correctly ­fitted harness, a toddler can easily push their arms under the harness straps. Toddlers wriggling their shoulders out from their car seat harness is a common problem and renders the car seat ineffective in the event of an accident.

This is a device that’s mounted to the in-car Isofix anchor points to help you position your car seat so it’s closer to the car window, and it will allow more room in the central seat if needed. The manufacturer recommends only using it with group II/III car seats. The aftermarket accessories that these companies manufacture are not regulated by the government. This means that these accessories have not been crash-tested, so there’s absolutely no way to guarantee that they will keep your child safe. Now, let’s say that the third-party company that’s promoting these “safe” car seat harness covers have crash-tested their products. That’s great, but the product hasn’t been tested with your child’s car seat, so you don’t know if the harness covers will work with your child’s car seat, and it’s best not to risk it.

We haven’t yet seen any issues with car seat accessories causing problems at claim stage and therefore cannot envisage a scenario where a claim would not be covered.' As a result, the harness straps will be looser than they should be, which could expose your child to higher forces in a crash. If you are worried about your child being cold in the car, dress them in several thin layers. Explain to your little one why it's important to wear a harness and how it keeps them safe. You can even make a 'doing up the harness or belt into a song' to try and make it as fun as possible. This is for the same reason that you shouldn’t dress your child in bulky winter coats. Although you may feel that you’ve done the harness up tightly, the soft padding of a coat will compress in an accident. However, they confirmed that this is not too much of an issue if your child is strapped into their car seat using the car’s adult seatbelt, as that will absorb most of the impact. But it does mean that you shouldn’t use this device if your car seat is only installed via the Isofix points and your child is strapped in using a harness.

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In some cases the use of accessories could be a source of contributory negligence if for instance, the driver becomes distracted and causes a collision, or if loose pieces obstruct the use of controls. Any resulting police penalty could have an impact on premium or the driver’s ability to renew.' Saga

An article on Motherlyrecounts the story of a mother who used third-party harness covers on her child’s car seat. The mother and her 2-month old baby were involved in a car accident and the material that was used to make the harness covers slid across the baby’s clothes, causing her to fly out of her car seat on impact. The baby, thankfully, is alive and well, and the mother now warns people about the dangers of buying accessories from third-party companies. We asked Britax, one of the leading car seat manufacturers, for its view on seat accessories. A spokesperson said: 'We invest significant time in the research, development and testing of our own manufactured accessories which accompany our child car seats. This ensures that the accessories offered enhance the consumer experience by offering added comfort and practicality, but doesn’t interfere with the crash performance of the car seats.If the car seat cover does not have this, then technically it will mean the car seat is not meeting all the legal requirements.

Some manufacturers make cup-holders that clip on to the side of the seat, and some seats have cup-holders built in. Our car seat experts were concerned that installing a RiveMove may change the load distribution between the Isofix points, meaning they may no longer withstand a crash. It helps if you’re not in a hurry to get somewhere and is best started when you get a new seat or change the car.It's useful to have a secure place for a child’s drink to go so that he or she can reach it, to save you pulling over or engaging in dangerous driving while trying to retrieve the bottle. We would advise using one recommended by the manufacturer. If you want sunshades, try to choose ones made by car seat manufacturers, as they should have had some level of crash testing. The use of child car seat accessories wouldn’t affect child seat cover, or invalidate the vehicle insurance in the event of a claim. However, the cost of the accessory itself wouldn’t be covered as it doesn’t form part of the original car seat.' LV Also, in an accident, there's a real danger that the forces of a crash would cause the mirror to come loose and hit someone.