Cozywoggle Jacket Review and Giveaway

(Update: this giveaway ended 11/24/2014. The winner was posted here.)

Keeping your kids safe when traveling is a priority for every parent. As the cold weather approaches, we face the challenge of keeping our children warm in the car, while at the same time keeping them safe in their car seats. We have learned that putting our children in car seats with bulky winter clothing is unsafe in an accident. The impact of a crash will simply compress the bulky/fluffy clothing and the child can fly right out of the car seat! See this CarSeatLady video for a demonstration:

(I received a Cozywoggle Jacket for the purpose of review. My opinions, as always, are my own.)

Cozywoggle Jacket Review:

In the past, I have just put a sweater on the kids and then covered them with a blanket in the car. That meant they were pretty cold going to and from car. Traveling by air was a challenge as we didn’t always have a blanket for the car at our destination, which left us carrying both sweaters and coats, and swapping in and out of them for the car.

Enter the CJ’sKids Cozywoggle coat: a coat that doesn’t interfere with the harness in a car seat and easily converts to a regular coat outside the car!

To use, place the child in the car seat, lift the child’s arms and unzip the coat from the side to the wrist. Take the child’s hands from the jacket and lift the back of the jacket over the back of the car seat.

After securing the buckles, the front of the jacket is placed down while the back stays up, keeping the bulky material out of the harness. Re-zip the sleeves if desired. We just left the sides unzipped and put John’s wrists back through the arm cuffs, which stay secured with a velcro strap.

The hood is attached with a zipper, so it can be removed if desired (John didn’t like the extra bulk of the hood behind him, so I will remove this and just put a knit hat on him this winter.) The clever design of the Cozywoggle allows us to pack less when flying since we can use the same coat for outdoor activities and for car rides. 

Straight from their website, here are the fine features of the Cozywoggle:

The Cozywoggle:

• Is the ONLY product that looks and acts as a coat, but is safe to be worn in a car seat.
• Is made from heavy-duty wind/water resistant polyester, and is lined with cozy fleece.
• Can be used with any 5-point harness car seat – either forward or rear-facing.
• Comes in sizes 12 months, 18 months, 2T, 3T, 4, 5 and 6.
• Available in Blue/Yellow, Grey/Orange, Purple, Pink, Navy, and Red.
• Is stylish (and looks like a “regular” coat), warm and washable.
• Has been crash tested in a lab and proven to be safe in a car seat.
• Can be worn in a car seat and all around town.
• Is easy-to-use and is a convenient, all-in-one solution for busy parents.
• Cost is $59.99 ($10 off for previous year’s design).

I’m pretty impressed that they actually went through the trouble and cost of having the jacket tested in crash test!

We received a size 2T Cozywoggle jacket for my son John to test for this review. He is 90% in height for his age, so the 2T was a little small for him even though he fits in most 2T clothing. The body fit great (John is only 50% in weight), but the sleeves were a little short and the hood won’t snap around John’s big head. If your child is of average height and weight, however, I would recommend staying with their normal size. In reading other reviews for Cozywoggle, I see that everyone else found these jackets to be true to size. My guy is just bigger than average! As for this 2T jacket, we will probably pass it to John’s cousin who is the same age but a little smaller. Then we’ll buy a 3T for John to wear this year.

*Update, 11/2015: This year we ordered the 3T for John, who is 36 inches tall and 33 lbs. His big head is still too big for the hood this year, but the rest of the coat fits pretty well. I contemplated getting the size 4 because the arms just meet his wrists. But I think the 4T would be way too big. We stuck with the 3T for this year. I’ll add a photo soon.

John is not one to stand still. He didn’t like for me to unzip the sides of the coat and was even less cooperative with the zipping up. I found he would cooperate better if I sang a song. Whether a “raise your arms” song, or just any random song, singing helped distract him and calm me while I got the jacket set. Even though you see him trying to get away from me here, I was able to zip the side with one pull, taking only a second.

There is a bit of a learning curve as you get the rhythm down and the cooperation from your child. But even if there is a bit of a struggle at first, I think it is worth it because your end result is keeping your child safe in the car. I would think that an older child would be much more cooperative. The two to three year old is probably the most difficult to get cooperation from with this jacket. But other reviews indicate that the children cooperate more with regular use.

Cozywoggle jackets have been so popular this year that they are already running out of stock! Don’t wait to order yours! You can find Cozywoggle Jackets at their website here.