As the temperature soared to over 30C, first-time mum Katie Turner and three-month-old Tilly headed for the beach.

But the day ended with an emergency visit to the GP after Sydney’s mum discovered a bright red mark on her toddler’s upper thigh.

“I immediately felt guilty, I should have known that,” says Katie 7Life.

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It was summer 2015.

Katie had buckled Tilly into her car seat and headed for the 50-minute journey to Dee Why on Sydney’s northern beaches.

The mother was apparently battling the rest of Sydney trying to escape the summer heat as Katie pulled into the first car slot she found.

With Tilly on her hip, the couple arrived at the seaside at 10:30 a.m.

After a dip in the water and some sand castle building, Katie was back at her car by 1 p.m., ready to beat the afternoon rush hour traffic.

“It should have been around the mid-30s (degrees),” Katie says.

Tilly, dressed in a thin singlet and diaper, was buckled into her car seat.

Instantly, the three-month-old started fidgeting – and continued to do so for the entire trip home.

Finally outside their house, Katie jumped up and began to unhook her unfortunate baby from her seat.

But as she went to fetch her crying daughter, she stopped short.

A red burn mark in the shape of a metal seat belt buckle was imprinted on his leg.

“I realized I had burned her with the buckle…I just took her to the doctor right away,” the worried mum said.

Katie thinks Tilly got burned on her way home from the beach.

The GP dressed the wound and advised Katie to change it every day for three weeks.

“When I told them what happened, the doctor said it happened often,” Katie says.

“He just told us to park in the shade next time or put a muslin cloth or towel over the loop.”

Fortunately, Tilly made a full recovery.

But Katie couldn’t believe there wasn’t a real solution to this preventable burn.

She started looking online for seat belt protectors in the hopes that there would be a device to protect the metal from the sun – to no avail.

From local stores to internal websites, Katie couldn’t find anything to keep the buckle’s metal from heating up.

Fill the void

The mum was flabbergasted that there was nothing on the market – so she decided to fill the void.

“I started talking to groups of moms and couldn’t believe what some of them were doing to freshen up their car seats,” Katie says.

“Some put blocks of ice on the seats, others turned on the air conditioning for five minutes before entering.

“They all knew the problem, but there was no real solution.”

The mother continued her research and even monitored the internal temperature of a car on an average Australian day of 30 degrees.

“Around 2 p.m., the dashboard of the car indicated 90 degrees Celsius,” she exclaims.

“No wonder children and animals die in cars, no wonder Tilly got burned by the buckle!”

For Katie, that was enough to start her business.

She registered her business name – Buckle Bandage – and put on her thinking cap.

She dreamed of a child-safe product that would prevent the belt buckle from heating up.

After years of research – and over A$50,000 of her own cash flow – her dream has come true.

Made from recycled materials, including discarded shampoo and conditioner bottles, The Toddle is 100% Australian made and owned.

It’s safe for little ones to put in their mouths, machine washable and complies with all relevant government laws.

The product simply sticks to the side of the child’s car seat and the fabric folds over, creating a physical barrier between the metal buckle and the sun.

Tilly, now seven, is lucky not to have a permanent scar on her leg from the incident.

The schoolgirl has also left her car seat and begs her mother to design a cover for all the seat belt buckles.

Editorial Note: Seven received no monetary benefit from this content.