Has anyone had this happen to them?

[Joanni]

Has anyone has/had a child that unbuckles their car seat?

I just had a terrifying experience where my 2 year old son, managed to unbuckle his seat belt in a tantrum and get out of his seat WHILST I am driving alone, on a 60mph road in heavy traffic that’s constantly moving. I am absolutely beside myself.

He was sat in his seat properly buckled in, quiet and happy. All of a sudden, he starts a tantrum out of nowhere, kicking, screaming and crying and I hear his seat belt unbuckle. I managed to turn around and to my horror, he was getting out of his car seat whilst having his tantrum. I already know this road has no lay-bys and I’m frantically trying to concentrate on the road (obviously trying to be as calm as possible), trying to lean round with my left hand to pin him down whilst he’s kicking and hitting me, amongst all this heavy, high speed traffic and trying to think where I can stop safely.

I managed to turn onto another main road where I knew there was a lay-by and pulled in. I tried so hard to get him back into his seat and every time I did, he would unbuckle the belt. I simply couldn’t get home. I called my partner and he was over an hour away in work and I am now stuck by the side of a busy road, with a screaming toddler who won’t calm down no matter what I tried. Thankfully, my partner called his parents and they, by some miracle, were in their car and only 2 minutes away from where I was, to which they came to me immediately. My son wanted nothing to do with them, too clouded by his tantrum. He only wanted me at that point and I had no choice, but to sit in the back with him, managed to get him back into his seat and hold my hand firmly over his belt buckle and my partners Dad had to drive me home (and yes he is insured to drive my car).

I have no idea how I am going to get him to nursery next week! I’m absolutely petrified of being in the car alone with him again because the outcome of that situation could’ve been much worse and we are so grateful nothing worse happened.

We are going to look for another car seat tomorrow - going into stores to test the belts ourselves. Has anyone got any recommendations? What did you do to stop it? We understand keeping them occupied whilst in the car is essential and reinforcing the importance of keeping the belt on..but I’m sure you all know reasoning with a 2 year old is not easy, especially in the middle of a tantrum.

I really need help because I cannot have this happen again!

The car seat was the Ickle Bubba Rotator 360 Spin Group 0+/1/2/3 car seat.

I'm so sorry, that sounds terrifying!

The only really escape proof seat I think I could suggest for this would be one of the Cybex Pallas type ones, with the impact shield? My son (16 now so a long time ago, but you can still buy them) had this type of seat and at age 2, his arms were physically not long enough to reach the car seatbelt buckle to undo it. You can try them out in Mamas and Papas or John Lewis stores if you wanted to see what it's like before buying.

Otherwise, trying to cover the buckle in some way might be a solution. Sometimes people suggest sticking the prickly side of velcro to the buckle, as it makes it uncomfortable for a child to press. But if he was utterly beside himself then that might not work to deter him.

Is he prone to these sudden tantrums? I realise he's only little, but did you ask him afterwards when he was calmer what happened to make him want to get out of the seat? If it was very out of character, I wonder if it was something like a wasp had got trapped inside his clothing and as he moved it stung him, or if he was wearing a belt and it interacted with the seatbelt and pinched his skin - something like that? Does he have any marks on him anywhere you can see?

Yes I had this problem you can get a harness cover to stop them undoing it.