Cheryln Jenkins created
CJ's Kids, LLC. Cherlyn is a mom and entrepreneur who has also been a special education teacher and behavior specialist for 20 years. After learning young children should not be placed in a car seat while wearing their coats, she had a newborn and a toddler. Determined to find a way to keep her children warm as well as keeping them safe, she invented the Cozywoggle. She could not fathom juggling extra coats or blankets to keep her children warm and she was unable to find a safe solution.
The Cozywoggle is the only product on the market that looks and acts like a coat, but that can also be worn safely while in a car seat. She felt this product should be available to all parents so she started CJ's Kids, LLC in 2012. CJ's Kids, LLC is in Alexandria, VA where Cherlyn tries to balance the non-stop excitement of work as well as family responsibilities.
Wondering why you really should not place your child in a 5 point harness with anything bulkier then a thin fleece sweatshirt? CJ's Kids, LLC has explained it very well
here.
Cozywoggle
The Cozywoggle ($75ARV) is a car seat SAFE coat that is crash-tested to be safe with any 5 point harness car seat, whether forward-facing or rear-facing. This awesome all-in-one solution comes in five different colors for little girls and little boys as well as sizes 12 months through child size 6!
The Cozywoggle is not just a coat with a zipper up each side, this coat is truly designed with children in mind! As you can see in the above photos, the sleeves fully unzip for ultimate comfort based on your child's preference. Both sleeves have a velcro strap that covers the zipper so it does not poke your child and make any car ride uncomfortable. The hood is easily detachable, both Ezio and Cade love having their hoods up, but I know there are many children who become annoyed by them. The detachable hood is also nice because if it causes to much bulk behind your child's head you can simply remove it by unzipping it. the body of the coat is fleece lined for ultimate warmth and comfort for your child and last, but not least the neat little fabric flap at the top of the main body zipper, this helps to prevent your child's chin from being pinched when you or your child zips the coat up as well as preventing the zipper pull from poking your child in the chin. This is the only coat with this little flap at the top that we have and I love it!! Sometimes when one of the boys is wearing their jacket the zipper pull flips up and pokes their little chins, which seems pretty painful.
Ezio is fully buckled into his 5 point harness car seat and is seated rear-facing. He will be 2 years old on the 20th of December and while it is recommended to rear-face for at least 2 years, you can and should continue doing so beyond 2 years of age. Rear-facing is the safest possibly was for anyone to sit in a vehicle. Cade is 3 1/2 years old and also still rear-facing. While Cade's feet do reach the back of the seat and some do fear broken legs in the event of an accident, there is not a SINGLE reported case of broken leg(s) in a car accident from a child rear-facing and having their legs on the back of the seat. Besides, I MUCH rather run the "risk", which there isn't one, of him breaking a leg rather then him potentially being ejected from his car seat or the vehicle or even
internal decapitation, which all can and DOES happen to child who are forward facing. Why go with the minimum, which by law is 1 years of age AND 20 pounds? Why not exceed that for your child's safety? I am very passionate about car seat safety and for the right reason, to keep my babies safe and ALIVE! They only have one chance at life.
As you can tell NONE of the coat is under the straps of his car seat. This is the key! The zippers on the sides of the coat/along the sleeves allows you to place your child in the car seat, buckle them in securely without having to loosen straps for bulky winter wear and then you place the Cozywoggle over them. They can wear it with their arms in the sleeves as Ezio is in the above photo or they can keep their arms out of the sleeves, it is really just a preference of your child's. As I'm sure you've noticed (to the left of Ezio) we have lots of blankets in the car. Up until about 3 weeks ago the heat in our car didn't work and I refuse to put a coat on my children under their car seat straps so those blankets as well as warm, long sleeve shirts or very thin long sleeve fleece sweaters were their warmth when it first started becoming cold. The Cozywoggle, keeps both Cade and Ezio (of course only one at a time) very nice and warm. They are both very comfortable wearing this coat and if you look at the photo below you will see just how much Ezio loves it.
We got in the house and he was so excited to have the coat on fully. Even after we took it off it continued to bring it to me for me to put it on him. He has drug this coat around with him ever since we received it and anytime daddy or I say that we are going somewhere he immediately runs for this coat! I got a 4T so that Cade could wear this since Ezio has more warmer sweatshirts then Cade does, but as you can tell Ezio has claimed it. Which is fine by me. Ezio usually wears an 18-24 months size, with this coat being big on him it covers his legs in the car seat as well as his arms and chest.
The Cozywoggle is definitely a product I do and will continue to recommend to not only family and friends, but of course all of my wonderful readers as well! The coat is crash-tested as stated above, just proving how safe it really is. For the amount of warmth it provides I do not feel it is overly bulky at all, in fact, it is probably thinner then your average winter coat (it is thinner then Cade's other winter coat).
Cozywoggle Sale!
Cozywoggle's are on sale from now through December 17th for only $50! You save $25 if you order now!!
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Disclosure: I received the above item in exchange for my honest review. All opinions and experiences with this product are our own and may differ from those of your own.
