Furthermore, the warranty of our car seats will be invalid if an accessory not developed by us is used in conjunction with the seat, ie a permanent attachment to the seat. This is because any accessory attached to a car seat would require homologation to ensure the seat still performs in a crash as it should. Therefore we would advise against using accessories not developed and tested by the car seat manufacturers. On the other hand, an accessory which is not attached to our car seats won’t affect the warranty as it won’t have an impact on restraint performance during a crash.' These mirrors are popular, but many safety experts feel they are a distraction, and we wouldn't recommend using them. They’re designed to solve a range of different issues you might encounter while your child is sat in his or her car seat including:

Ways to keep your family living costs down, and kids of all ages happy Get our Family newsletter – it's free monthlyIf you want sunshades, try to choose ones made by car seat manufacturers, as they should have had some level of crash testing. For more information on viscous injuries please readViano’s and King’sresearch in Biomechanics of Chest and Abdomen Impact, as well as other research within the area. 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. 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. 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.

Although the technology exists, none of the regulations around the world utilise the sensors that could measure the dangerous loads arising from the chest clip and compression. The image below shows the Q3 crash dummy. 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.

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Some manufacturers make cup-holders that clip on to the side of the seat, and some seats have cup-holders built in. 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 The vehicle safety-belt MUST be worn over the top of our harness unless they are exempt for medical reasons. 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. 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.

If the car seat cover does not have this, then technically it will mean the car seat is not meeting all the legal requirements. However, as most child car seat harnesses come with padded shoulder pads that cover the straps, you may find you need to mount the clip quite low, so it sits across the stomach and not the chest.It’s a simple, safe solution to prevent children from slipping their arms out of their car-seat harness. It simply fills in the gap at the side where the child would normally squeeze their hand through and stops the problem occurring. It doesn’t interfere with the harness mechanism; it takes just 20 seconds to fit. 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. There are numerous child car seat accessories available to buy from the major baby retailers and online.