Son can escape from car seat!!!

Nicki

davidsonsl wrote: »

Great idea I hadn't thought of that, diagnosis I have been told however will take 6 months!!!

that might be a bit long to have to walk everywhere . -Hope you can find something to tide you over in the meantime. Are there always 2 adults when he is travelling in the car? Perhaps it would be easier to ensure that he stays strapped in if he were sitting in his car seat in the passenger seat rather than the back of the car, particularly if you think this is attention seeking behaviour. You might need to disable the airbag on the passenger side if you go down this route though.

davidsonsl

One thing I must say which I have obviously failed to mention is that at no time has he actually removed his belt whilst I am driving. Having 3 children under 5 I will where ever possible leave them in the car - dont get me wrong if I can't see them I wont leave them but for example I pick the pump outside the petrol station window and leave the kids in the car whilst I pay - like I am sure so many others of you. This I could always do safley but now as soon as I step inside the pertol station the straps are off and my son is running riot in the car, handing out chewing gum and breaking things. It may only be a few minutes but he can cause alot of chaos in that time. All I ask is that his car seat restrains him!!!! am I really asking too much????

davidsonsl

Nicki wrote: »

that might be a bit long to have to walk everywhere . -Hope you can find something to tide you over in the meantime. Are there always 2 adults when he is travelling in the car? Perhaps it would be easier to ensure that he stays strapped in if he were sitting in his car seat in the passenger seat rather than the back of the car, particularly if you think this is attention seeking behaviour. You might need to disable the airbag on the passenger side if you go down this route though.

Unfortunately I am mostly on my own when travelling and have tried him in the front, I found however that no matter how tight you pulled his straps he could get his arms out and could bend over and reach anything in the centre consol and glove box - did I mention he was very intelligent??? LOL!! cunning as a fox this one!!

the_other_mce

davidsonsl wrote: »

I did actually try my twins in big boy seats and after 2 weeks gave up, my other son never attempted to get out of his but my escape artist frequently either undid his belt or just pulled the belt so he could slip out. I put them both back in the baby seats thinking he was "safely restrained" and could not get out of that one!!! how wrong was I ????

Gosh - you do have your work cut out! I know the feeling! When my oldest first escaped she was 11 months old and we only realised she was out of her seat when a little voice said 'me have juice mummy?' -it took a few seconds for us to realise she was sitting on the console between our front seats!! You've never seen parents panic so much - we were on a motorway en-route to the in-laws!!
Maybe toddlers reins tied round the back of the seat, plus the car seat harness on short journeys only? - the only concern is if there is an accident it would be harder to get him out... I tried this on the supermarket trolley for my DD but I realised it wasn't a good idea when a lady stopped me as I was getting something off of a shelf and said ' do your realise your baby is hanging upside down out of the trolley??' My houdini's head was about 2 inches from the floor :eek: - another few seconds and she would have been out of the reins but probably unconscious, the reins stayed put but DD didn't! For a year or so after that I tried to only go shopping when D/h could come along as well, unless it was a 'grab and run' .
Would he sit still and watch a DVD if you had a DVD player for the car?
or maybe try one of the back of the seat trays for colouring in?
Crisps/sweets might work for a short time... leaving them at home is the less stressful but not very practical option!!
Good luck!!

pookienoodle

why not try one of these as a distraction,if he cannot see the buckle he may not want to undo it.
http://www.car-travel-games.co.uk/SHOP/tray.html

bubblegumcola

My son does this too. He is 3 and a half and in a big booster seat which is secured with the seatbelt. To stop him taking the seatbelt off, cos he can undo it quite easily I have a red plastic thing which slides over the seatbelt and rests over the button you press to release the seatbelt. I can't remember where I bought it as I first got it for my older son and I've no idea what its called. It was probably from Halfords or John lewis, I must have got it about 6 years ago when my other son was about 3.

vaio

It takes a while to remove but I found packing tape worked well

Seriously, I had an extra stick-on mirror so I could see him from the neck down and managed to convince him that

a. the car wouldn’t go if he wasn’t strapped in and

b. that I had eyes in the back of my head

yummymummyoftwo

I know exactly how your feeling my son did the same and it was a very scary time as he did it everytime we were in the car so I scoured the net in search of something and i found this http://www.privategp.co.uk/home_of_hugittm.htm
I got it from ebay and it was a god send it was easy to attatch and to undo you just twisted the hug it and it released the seatbelts and ds never got out of his seat when I used this but for some reason its not available any more from that site but it will give you the idea.