Mother of three comes up with ingenious solution to fix the dilemma of kids' coats in car seats

While we have made significant advancements in almost every field, humans seem to lack answers to some small everyday problems that affect people. One slowly realizes how certain aspects of life can be made much easier if people put their minds to it and find a viable, cost-effective solution. Dahlia Rizk noticed a small but significant problem every time she tried to get her daughter Yasmine, who is now 20, to remove her big winter coat to fit into her car seat. Rizk spoke to Good Morning America, saying, "When I calmed down, I thought about it again and realized if the zipper wasn't in the middle of the jacket, this wouldn't be a problem."

Rizk happened to take proper notice of what was a very common problem that parents residing in colder areas faced. Getting their children in and out of the car proved to be quite a task and left the children and them exhausted on all fronts. Moreover, car seat safety advocates officially recommend that kids do not adorn anything that is thicker than a sweatshirt while buckled down so that the straps remain close to their bodies. At the time, Rizk was unable to find any coat company that catered to her specific needs, so she took matters into her own hands by moving the zipper to the side.

Doing so allowed the fabric to be moved out of the way of the harness. She did not realize at the time how there was a whole market wanting such a product and moved on with her life. But that all changed when she saw a mother struggling with getting her kids in and out of the car, reminding her of the problem she also used to face. Rizk said, "It was a gross, slushy kind of day and the blanket the mom used for the kid in the car seat was dragging in the mud. And the mom had that same defeated look I had so many years ago."

Feeling empowered thanks to social media, Rizk decided to take a leap of faith and managed to get someone to make a prototype of a jacket she designed. After this, she went off to a lab in Michigan to have the jacket crash tested. Rizk explained her design philosophy: "What I wanted to do was have the coat perform as similarly to no coat as possible, and that's what it did." Intertek tested the product and confirmed that it was compliant with the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

And so, Rizk, who primarily worked as a mental health counselor, started her own company, Buckle Me Baby Coats. The coats are available at a wide price range, from $79 to $150. Most importantly, their zipper opens along the side, allowing the front panel to be removed, enabling the safety harness to be in direct contact with the child's chest and shoulders. In December 2016, she put up a video of her nephew wearing her coat design that went viral and prompted her to begin a Kickstarter campaign a few months later. She officially began selling her products online in September 2017.

She currently runs the company out of her home and is pretty active on Instagram. Her two children also help out with managing the business. Working with her on her business has led her to children to call Buckle Me Baby Coats their mother's "fourth child." She reflected on the entire experience and said, "I think it's what moms do when they see something wrong. I said, 'Let me see if this works,' and it did. I said, 'Let me see if there is interest,' and there was."

You can follow Dahlia Rizk (@bucklemebabycoats) on Instagram for similar insights on parenting and mental health.

This article originally appeared on 12.7.23.