2 year old houdini who escapes the car seat...help!!!

[EstroGena]

My 2 year old DD can get out of her Britax car seat!!! She often surprises me at junctions by popping her head over my shoulder by standing in the footwell having pressed herself free!

She wants to be in big sisters Graco booster! She has escaped two Britax already and Mothercare's advice was that I have to 'learn her' to sit in her seat.....(perhaps they need to 'learn themselves' to speak properly!!!)

So, can anyone recommend anything that has the look of a pink graco but is suitable for a 2 year old so that I can trick her?!?!!

All advice well received!

xx

Get a maxi-cosi. The buttons are hard for even an adult to release... though DS for a while would get his arms out of his and try and reach forward. He never managed to get out of the leg straps though.

Now he's past that phase and loves his pilot seat. Good job - he's about to get another seat with 5-point harness which will take him up to about 8.

I've had recaro and maxi cosi and there is NO Way mine could escape. Button too stiff. Straps too tight.

Sounds cheeky but was the Britax seat cheap?
Are the shoulder straps set to the right level, perhaps they are too high allowing them to slip arms through?

I have a maxi cosi Tobi, DD 2.4 has on occasion managed to get her arms out of the straps when have a strip moment.. but again the buckle is quite stiff so there iis no way she could open it. Very good car seat to fasten in the car and get out quickly.. highly recommend :-)

oops.. meant to say strop moment there!!!! :-0

is she getting out of the straps or actually undoing the button?

if the latter then perhaps something like the kiddy comfort seats with the impact cushion?

or, go into halfords or mothercare and try her in as many as you can and ask her to get out of them. if you find one she can't undo then buy it

30 something years ago, I developed exactly the same habit. My mother was also met with ridiculous suggestions from retailers telling her to train me to sit still.

In the end, my mother got in contact with Britax to advise them of he potential flaws with their product. They invited us to spend some time with them at their offices where they adapted my car seat so I could no longer escape and used me a a guinea pig to test future products (although your little one seems to be taking it to the next level!) Maybe try contacting Britax.

if she is getting out by sliding arms out then pulling herself free (my skinny DD did this too as there was no way to pull the straps tight enough for her not to) then get an extra clip and webbing strap and put it up half way between clip and shoulders (you may have to secure it with tape so she doesn't push it down). In the US our little one had a Britax seat which had this feature and it really worked, go back here and had to do a home mod to get it to work but have since found out we Britax will send the extra strap and clip out to you if you explain the issue to them. Good luck, many a time mine hopped in the front seat whilst I was doing 70 down the motorway

Can you fasten the straps on the opposite side that they are meant to be in. I know I've done this in the past to keep mine in!

Have you tried putting the straps into the next slot higher? It means that you can pull the straps that little bit tighter which could help a bit.

Failing that, go for an impact cushion one. You then have it afterwards for a high back booster.

Maxi Cosi seats are rubbish for this. We've had four different Prior Fix seats and DD has been able to get out of every one of them no matter what we did. If she wriggles enough she loosens the straps.

I really think that the impact cushion seats are the only way to go. Too late for DD now but will definitely look at for dc2.

In the meantime, we bought a Houdini Stop and it worked great.