It may seem strange to write an article about toddler winter gloves when it’s so obviously becoming spring out there, but after going through the coldest February in recent memory (or the last 100 years) I wanted to share some of the solutions to the problems we had with our toddler’s winter gloves and the solutions we tried.
The Problems with Toddler’s winter gloves
A lot of toddler winter gloves, for some reason, cut off directly at the wrist. This is fine for an adult who knows enough to tuck their gloves into the sleeves of their coats and keep it that way – but toddlers are notoriously busy. My daughter is a “digger” and loves to get her arm and hands as into the action as much as she possibly can. This resulted in very red and cold wrist and forearm areas. The gloves were too short to tuck into the jacket and stay there through all the play. The jacket sleeves weren’t long enough to cover her gloves. Nothing pinned together properly. Staying inside wasn’t an option.
What we were using
N’Ice Caps – Thinsulate and waterproof mittens
Some parents reported that these toddler winter gloves stayed tucked under their toddlers coat. This was not our experience, although they are longer than most kids gloves I’ve found. These were our daily winter wear over the past few cold snaps and I can confirm that they are very warm and the Velcro absolutely helps in keeping the mittens in place (it’s part of our multi layered system).
N’Ice Cap Toddler winter glove clips
We also tried these mitten clips – they seemed to work well on short trips, like to the store or to an indoor play center. When it came to playing for any period outside these did a great job of keeping my toddler winter gloves from falling on the ground, but not such a great job of keeping them on her hands.
We also tried these toddler winter glove clips. Similar to the N’ice cap clips, these did a great job of making sure we didn’t lose our toddler winter gloves, but alas, they did not ensure that the gloves stayed on my daughter’s hands; still worth the investment, but much more useful in preventing lost gloves when sending your toddler to daycare or school.
What actually worked
Keeping toddler winter gloves on was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. We tried a lot of off the shelf solutions, some better than others, but none that was perfect. I started looking around for the best solution and found that the best solution is a home made one.
I used this guide (but omitted step 4) as a baseline and cut up a few of my tube socks. I made sure that I left them fairly long, long enough to go all the way up my daughter’s forearm. The tube socks were new-ish and still had a lot of “stretch” in them – they fit my daughters arm well – snug but not tight.
Then, once she was wearing her gloves, but before she put her jacket on, I added the sock gloves. This still leaves her thumb and fingers free, but makes the glove nearly impossible for her to take off. The sock-glove goes right the way up to her elbow and then is covered by her coat.
This solution helped stop her wrists from getting cold – after the first use, there was no redness and no chill on her wrist. She complained a few times that she couldn’t do some things (grabbing the string of a sled is difficult when you’re developing fine motor skills and someone has strapped gloves to your hands), but overall she was happy that her wrists weren’t sore after a lengthy play outside. I have told friends and family of this solution and thought I should share it before I forget it!
Here is a store that sells basically what I’m talking about – worth a look. GloveGator