Have You Been Cleaning Your Car Seats the Wrong Way?

This post is in partnership with Britax.

Cleaning my children’s car seats isn’t something I do voluntarily. It’s always in reaction to one of them puking, peeing, or spilling something all over the seat, which means my clean up is frantic, rushed, and, frankly, the last thing I want to be doing. And because of that, I’ve been doing it wrong for the last five years. 

I’ve been removing the covers of my Britax Boulevard car seats, tossing them in the washing machine, and letting them air dry. (Tell me I’m not the only one who’s been handling them this way.)

I pride myself on reading instructions thoroughly and following directions carefully, but I’ll admit that when it came to our car seats, I focused exclusively on the safe installation of the seats and very little on the care and maintenance of them. And pulling out the manual was the last thing I thought to do in the wake of a car seat fiasco.  

What I should have been doing all this time is handwashing the car seat covers—machine washing them could potentially remove the flame retardants in the covers, compromising their safety in an accident. Each car seat manufacturer has different care instructions (check the User Manual) but these cleaning instructions apply to all Britax seats… until now. 

[easy-image-collage id=14087]

Britax’s new line of SafeWash™ car seats makes it easier for parents to keep their kids’ car seats clean by offering removable covers that can be machine-washed and dried. Additionally, SafeWash seat covers do not have added flame-retardant chemicals, making them safe to machine-wash and dry again and again while maintaining safety properties. 

While working with Britax on this post, I shared my faux pas about washing my Boulevard car seat covers, and they suggested I use brand new ones. This is a company that truly puts the safety of children above all else. If you have now realized that you need to replace your car seat covers, too, I suggest you also reach out to your car seat manufacturer. 

Now that I know the risk of machine washing car seat covers, if I was in the market for new car seats, I’d definitely purchase the SafeWash car seats. I prefer having my washing machine do some work for me while I tackle the rest of the car cleanup (learn from my mistakes and do this to make cleanup easier). 

The SafeWash covers are available now at participating Brixy specialty baby stores or purchase from Brixy online. The line includes an infant car seat, convertible car seat and harness-2-booster, all of which maintain the premium safety and functionality for which Britax is best known.