How To Protect Car Seats From Child Seats

We all know that car seats are extremely important for the safety of our little one while traveling. As a concerned parent, it’s ok to wonder how to protect car seats from child seats to avoid having to pay for expensive repairs.

In this article, we are going to explain easy steps on how to protect car seats from child seats, focusing especially on seat protectors, because they are the best possible solution.

We also dwell on some of the options, even the cheaper ones, and tell you how to handle the situation when the damage has already been done. Read On…

What Are Car Seat Protectors and How Safe Are They?

Car seat protectors are simply covers that protect the car seats; offers comfort while traveling, prevent stains, and are quite easier to clean than your car’s original upholstery.

As far as the seat of your car is concerned, car seat protectors will not do any (permanent) damage to it.

When you take them out, you might see some marks or stains in the shape of the protector, but don’t worry, these are just temporary due to the pressure. They will disappear if you give your leather enough time to rest.

The important thing to bear in mind is the seat protector shouldn’t have any sharp edges jabbed into your seat which is the real enemy.

Although, they might cause issues with the child safety seat since they separate the child safety seat from your car seat, which might not be a good thing as it can reduce the safety of the whole apparatus, especially if it’s not properly installed.

Fortunately, proper installation and regularly checking the apparatus can help avoid these issues.

How To Protect Car Seats From Child Seats: 6 Practical Steps

Things You’ll Need:

Car Seat Protector
Mat
Brush
Vinegar
Shelf Liner Papers
Towel

1. Let a Professional Install Your Child Car Seats

If you don’t want your child’s car seats to damage your fine leather car seat, then it’s fine to get a professional upholsterer to help you with the installation process.

The main reason why you’ll need to hire a professional on this is the fact that they will at least know what they’re doing.

Also, it will help save you a lot of time trying to figure out what goes where and whether or not a particular placement is safe for your leather car seats or not.

Another reason is that a professional installation is going to ensure your child’s seat is safe, secured, and of the right tightness required to avoid slips and scratches which will build up to damage the surface of your fine leather car seat.

A professional also ensures that the seat is right for the weight of your child. If this is not done and it happens that your child seat carries too much weight contrary to what it’s built to take or carry, it’s a disaster waiting to happen for your car leather seats.

What will happen is that it will build pressure on your leather seats and within a few days you’ll begin to see clear markings which will later develop into withering and wear.

One effective method to determine whether a child seat is well installed or otherwise is when it wobbles. The wobbly nature of an installed child seat will destroy your leather seats easily.

As a concerned parent, what you need is a properly installed child seat that will not wobble, non-moving at least until you want it to, and safely tightened by a professional that knows the job so that everything remains where it’s supposed to be.

Following this step, you’re sure that your fine leather car seats will be safe from your child’s seats.

2. Throw in Some Mats

Another easy way to protect your leather car seats from your child seat installation is by setting up a mat underneath the child seat.

This item comes in all sorts of forms such as non-skid, plastic, canvas, or quilted. You can either buy them on Amazon, from a supply store near you, or you can make one yourself if you’re pretty handy.

The rubber mats are the most popular mats you can go for if you don’t want to make one yourself. They roll up and can be cut to size to fit a particular area where the child seat sits.

Mats are a great way to help prevent your child seat from sliding which causes your leather car seats to scratch or dent. They help maintain your child’s seat in the position it’s meant to be in.

3. Use a Car Seat Protector

This is another effective method to protect leather seats from child seats. Car seat protectors come as durable and easy-to-use covers which are going to take up all the friction that the installed child seats caused.

This item acts as a shield for your leather car seats. Some of these protectors are designed with unique waterproof qualities which prevent liquid stains from your child passenger from getting onto your leather car seats as they can build up and wear your leather seat.

Generally, there are different kinds of leather car seat protectors available. Some come with normal seats which will only help to protect the part on the car leather seats where your babysits.

Others are built-in with some added feature that protects the rest of the leather seats to take care of your baby throws and spillages whenever they occur. Another type of car seat protector that is my favorite is the Lusso Gear Car Seat Protector.

This unique item helps to prevent scratches that may come as a result of the car seats sliding over the leather car seats causing damage to the surface of leather seats.

4. Cleaning and Conditioning

One sure way to ensure to protect your car seats from your child seat is by practicing a proper routine cleaning, conditioning, and allowing the leather car seat to properly dry and rest for some time.

Thoroughly cleaning and conditioning will allow you to clean parts of the leather car seats where you would somehow not approach. Take your child safety seats out first before you begin to clean and condition your leather car seat.

Make sure you know the contents of the leather cleaning solution or products before you begin cleaning your car seats. Also, you must know how to apply these solutions or products.

Ordinarily, you will see all the necessary information you will need to know about the leather cleaning product such as cleaning agents and their pH levels, conditioning ingredients, like mink oil, linseed oils, waxes, and how to apply it for optimal results all on the product package.

Before you begin cleaning your leather car seats, you should vacuum or brush off all unwanted particles and dust from the leather surface and all hard-to-reach areas around the child seat before you apply your cleaning solution.

As you begin cleaning, use small amounts of water and vinegar to wipe the leather surface using a microfiber cloth.

If stains refuse to go away, spray a solution of vinegar and water on the leather surface to effectively remove the stain.

After that, use a microfiber cloth to clean the surface of the leather. Remember, it best advised to always follow up your cleaning with conditioning.

Conditioning your leather car seat will restore the seat’s natural oil and protect it from your child seat’s friction and pressure.

But before you do this, a spot test must be done to check whether the conditioner you decided to use will fit your leather and will not discolor or damage the leather.

If you’re sure of the leather conditioner after carrying out the test, rub the leather conditioner on your leather surface carefully without over saturating the leather surface.

Then allow it to sit and rest for a couple of hours for all the marks that your child seat might have created to completely disappear or significantly diminish.

Hint:

Leather conditioners with wax and petroleum contents may make your leather car seats sticky and may not give you that finish you will want to get after conditioning. Therefore, avoid conditioners free from these two ingredients.

5. Put a Towel under Your Child Seat

This is probably the easiest and cheapest way of protecting your leather car seats from your child safety seats.

Fixing a towel under your child seat is great if you can’t afford it or wouldn’t want to spend any money protecting your leather car seats.

This method particularly effective especially if the towel you use is very thick. This item will be able to give you almost the same security level a leather car seat protector provides.

However, while this may be effective for your leather car seats, it may not give you the long-term use a leather car seat protector provides. For safety concerns, placing a towel under your child’s safety seat is safe and won’t cause any problems towards child safety seat installation.

Tip:

Avoid folding or rolling up the towel underneath your child seat otherwise it will compress in case of a crash and may result in some injuries to your little one. So always make sure that you keep the towel flat!

6. Use Shelf Liner Paper

One of the reasons for most damages caused by child seats on leather car seat surfaces is the wrinkles and spaces on the edges of child seats left on the surface of leather car seats.

This is the place where the use of Shelf Liner Papers becomes necessary because it will help soften the sharp marks which will be caused by your child seats on the leather car seats.

Also, Shelf Liner Papers can help your child seat to sit permanently well on the leather car seats and the sliding and the movements of the child seat which poses serious damages to your fine leather car seats will be prevented.

Alternatively, if you still want to use a seat protector, go ahead and use it then place your Shelf Liner Paper on it. This helps protect your leather car seat from child seats.

Read Also: How To Protect Car Seat From Vomit

How To Remove Seat Marks From Leather Car Seats

Well, this depends on the nature of mark the seat caused. The main thing you’ll want to do to avoid them effectively is by using a protective surface between the seat and the leather or any of the methods mentioned earlier.

If your leather car seats have already been stained or marred by your child’s seats, here is a video showing you how to safely remove the marks created by the child safety seat installed in your car.

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Conclusion

I hope this article has given an in-depth discussion to answer the question, how to protect car seats from child seats.

However, having the right information will help you to determine how best to protect your car seats from your child seats.

Why not go away and apply any of these 6 easy methods. I believe with methods you’ll be able to protect your fine car leather seats from being ruined by the child seat you put up.