Protecting Leather Seats

We also have a newer car with leather seats. I hadn't thought about the carseats making marks, but a friend suggested something from Target. The one I bought is an Eddie Bauer brand and only cost 14.99. covers the bottom part of the seat and hangs over with a couple pockets for storage. It has a lot of think padding and I believe it tucks into the back of the seat. (my husband is the one who put it in)

We didn't get anything for the back of the seats. There is always a mess on the back especially with the snow, but my husband just uses a special leather cleaner from armoral that wipes it right off and only takes a minute. He got that in the car aisle.

Hi! We have always had leather seats and the leather has NEVER been damaged by the car seats. It bounces right back!
Even if damaging the leather was a concern, it's just not safe to put anything under a carseat. Child safety always comes first!
You will find that leather is sooooo much easier to clean than cloth! You will never go back :)

There are some options at Babies R Us for the car seats but we bought some rubber shelf liner I found at Crate and Barrel and it seemed to work. YOu can probably find the same type thing at Target but we had black seats and they happened to have dark grey liner. I would definitely recommend something for the back of the front seat as well if they kick it a lot. When we sold a car they had mentioned that they looked at some that had a lot of footmarks from kids that was discouraging to them.

There are many different types of mats out there that range anywhere from $10 - $30. My husband got an Eddie Bauer one that has little pockets by where the kids feet are. He really likes that, but I wanted one that covered the back of the seat as well. So I got one online. The only thing I would make sure to notice is how it hooks/stays on the backseat. I don't have headrests on my backseat so I kinda had to "rig" mine to stay up. And I bought great things to go on the backs of my front seats at Babies R US for $10 for both.

We have had leather seats now for over 2 years and the seats do bounce right back after the car seats have been removed. You would never have known there were car seats in them. The leather seats today seem a lot more durable then they were when I was growing up.

Good Luck!

a very inexpensive and actually the best I ever found was- stop by the local carpet store and buy or ask for old carpet samples that match your interior! for the backs of the seats I use the over the seat organizers- just be careful not to fill them up too full or they look junky.these usually can be purchased at walmart, target or online at ikea or land of nod.

Hi
I just wanted to let you know it is not safe to put ANYTHING under a carseat(unless it is a pool noodle under a rear facing seat to get it reclined correctly)It keeps the seatbelt from getting as tight as it should. So for the saftey of your children please don't put anything on the seat under them. T.

We just bought a cover for the back of the seats from Amazon for $10.99 to protect our leather seats from the salt and mud..... We bought the brand SafeFit. Read the reviews as the clear plastic ones are not good for cold weather as the plastic cracks per one review.

As the weather has been so cold, I have not been able to put them to use yet (just got them early Jan.) - hoping to get them one once the weather warms up.....maybe this weekend?

I looked under Amazon under car seat protectors.

Good luck hunting for the one you want.

Do NOT put anything under your car seat, it will reduce the effectivness in an accident.

Leather is extremely durable, and the seat will bounce right back when a carseat is removed, usually a day or two and the seat will look like new. So don't worry about the seat becoming permenentely indented, it will NOT. So please do not put anything under your child's car seat. Even if you get a liner or a towel or one of those 'seat protectors' (which are not approved, by the way) your seat will STILL get indents from a car seat because you need ot tighten it down, and no blanket or towel or seat protector will stop that. So don't take the chance.... nothing under the car seat.

AS for them putting feet up on the front seats, www.onestepahead.com has a thing that hangs over the headrest of thefront seat and its plastic, and it protects the front seat from feet marks. Seems like a good idea.

EDITED TO ADD- that I hope that anyone using something under thier carseat would have it inspected by a CPST and NOT your local fire station or police department. A CPST (Certified passenger safety technician) gets ongoing extensive training on child passenger safety, where a cop or fireman only has a few hours of training once. No good CPST will tell you that its ok to put something under your car seat (some will say a shelf liner is ok... but you wouldn't want that on leather, it would melt to the seat in the summer).

I had leather seats in my sports car, and the carseat left dents for about 1 day, then it bounced right back... no damage at all, I traded it in for my SUV and it was totally fine. DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT!

DO NOT USE ANYTHING UNDER THE CAR SEAT!

We cut down a cardboard box & laid it under the entire child seat to keep from getting "dents" in our leather seats.

I just saw the other hints that say it isn't safe to put anything under the car seat. I never thought of it but I guess that would be correct. How about a rubber mat like we put on the floor of our cars to protect the carpet?

Go to a leather shop, furniture shop or auto care center and get some leather treatment. Follow the directions and use it on all the leather in the car. Take special care of the drivers seat, it is the most used seat in the car. The body oils and perspiration will break down the leather. I have some I use on my leather coats and jackets and my son will remark that it is time to treat the leather because my jackets will start to squeek when I move. The leather treatment should clean and condition the leather to protect it from rain, dirt etc.

I had the same issue in my car, I went to babies r us and found a mat that goes on the seat to protect it, it also keeps them from sliding and also a cover for the back of the seats (those come in a pack of 2), they have made a difference and has helped. I want to say the seat covers were 9.99 and the mat was 19.99.

Good Luck,
K. C.

It really isn't recommended to put anything between your vehicle seat and your carseat. If you must use something you *can* use shelf liner or a very thin towel. We have always had leather seats and honestly the carseats do not ruin the leather. Whenever the carseats have been removed the leather pops right back into place.

We put bath towels (folded in half) underneath. They are easy to "install" and can be washed!

I can relate to the muddy, slushy footprints on the backs of the front seats. I haven't had a chance to look for a cover for those yet, but we found a cover at Babies R Us that covers the whole bench seat in back and also has 3 mesh pockets for toys/books/etc. which is handy. It was only about $20. It doesn't go up the back of the bench, though. Until you find what you want, you can always try towels or that rubberized shelf liner under the boosters. Good luck!

Hi, i had the same problem and i just happen to run across this product at walmart. Its in the baby section, there is a section for travel over there and i think the brand is Eddie baur?? Anyways they have a cover that goes on the seat and is specially made for car seats it also comes with net totes for toys and there is also one that goes on the front of the seats too. I can't promise that the walmart here in Kearney has it but if they don't just look online at there website also try target too!! I hope this helps
L.

Tami,
There are great items just for that at Babies R Us & Toys R Us. Check also at this website: www.onestepahead.com for lots of choices. We have both a under-carseat protector and the back-of-seat protector.
T.

We have this product under our carseat. We had it inspected and they said it was good as long as the seat is installed at the correct angle and does not move more than the acceptable amount from side to side.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2267171

Here are a couple protectors for the seat backs. We have not purchased one yet because our seat is installed in the middle of the back seat and we have not found one that will protect around the sides of the front seats.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2308613

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2585668

Check with you local carseat inspection site and/or with your car seat manufacturer to double check that your seat is installed correctly if you do use the seat protector under the car seat.

R.

We had the same problem with our car. I had heard that it is not safe to put anything underneath the car seats. So far we have not had any problems with the car seats leaving marks in our leather seats. I was also looking for something that I could put over the back of the front seats because my little boy likes to kick the seats. I couldn't find anything that went just over the back of the seats but ended up buying some seat covers from Walmart for both front seats. That has worked really well so far.

We used to put towels under the car seats. It will also protect it from getting any tears.