2-year-old climbing out of car seat! Help!

Hi,

have any of your toddlers done this? My 28-month-old, who had recently started to climb out of his high chair (plus over and out of any gates in the house), is able to unsnap the harness of his Britax Marathon car seat and then start to climb out; once, he almost opened the door while I was driving! He is also able to loosen the straps by pulling on the belt on the bottom of the seat. Obviously, this is very dangerous.

We don't drive much with the kids (dh and I coordinate our shifts so the twins are not in daycare), but this is obviously a major problem. His sister, BTW, shows no interest in doing this. Have any of you experienced this? Is there a problem with the car seat? I'm wondering if I should write Britax... maybe there should be a covering around the snaps so a child cannot get to it?

Thanks for any input/advice,

DeLana

 

Some kids just have the gift of escaping! lol!

If it were me, I would spank him and make sure he knew that it wan not okay to unbuckle or climb out of anywhere w/o permission.

 

This too for me would be a spankable offence. I probably wouldn't be had to create a buckle cover to stop him from unbuckling it either. Might do an internet search on it

 

Does your car have child-safety locks? I thought that became standard many years ago (but I've never actually bought a car myself). That wouldn't solve the carseat problem, but would at least keep him from opening the door. Scary! Mine are fascinated with buckles and I dread the day they learn how to UNbuckle them.

 

We have the Britax Marathons and my Katelyn can get her arms out not matter how tight I pull it! But she cannot manuever herself all the way out because of the bottom buckle-- not yet anyway.

When she pulls her arms out I tell her very firmly to put her arms back in. If she does not (and she has done this twice) I pulled over and got out of the car and fixed it and told her this is not acceptable and if she continues to do it we will go home and not go to XX (wherever we were headed). This has worked and I think she is getting that I mean business.

I would remain consistent in what ever type of discipline you choose, they MUST realize there is NO negiotiating when it comes to the car seats. Also as a pp mentioned I would make sure the child safetly lock on the door is enabled.

 

A friend of mine sewed the opening to the adjuster shut so that kept her son from loosening the straps to get out of the carseat, she can still reach the adjuster buckle from under the seat so it was usable. Also, are you making sure the straps are snuggly tight? I know my ds got out once because I didn't tighten the straps enough.

 

A couple of things come to mind for me...
1. Make sure your safety locks are enabled for the back doors. This will keep them from being able to open the doors.
2. Be consistant..whichever route you take for the getting out of carseats. I've known a couple of people that treated it differently. One would pull over and re-fasten, threaten to go home if done again. The other would spank. Either way, if your bluff is called, you HAVE to follow thru!

Thankfully, this hasn't been an issue for us YET! If it does, I do think at 2 +, consequences for actions should come into play. I can't tell you what to do. I don't drive unless EVERYONE is buckled up...from adults to kids. So I would probably pull over and wait until they could remain in their seats or go home. If it was a continuing habit that just kept on and on, even while I'm being consistent, I would consider it a spankable offense.

Best of luck to you, I hope you get some great advice!