21mo escaping straps and undoing car seat buckle!

[Mummyof287]

21mo is undoing the straps (tried anti escape system but she has got out of that) and is now also undoing the buckle on her carseat.Today she was standing up in her carseat whilst I was going around a roundabout, trying to find somewhere safe to stop.
Wary of chest clips due to safety concerns but probably would have tried it if it was just straps not the buckle as it would have been less dangerous than her climbing about, and I think now she can do the buckle she will open the chest clip too anyway, plus whenever the buckle isn't on i would still need to stop and intervene to do it back up.

Have tried distraction with screens/food/music/toys etc but she is still doing it.

Only thing we can think of now is covering the buckle with something, but don't want to make it hard to get her out in a hurry, or do something which means the crotch buckle isn't snug to her body.

Any tips from anyone who has been through similar much appreciated!

Shirt or cardi put on after they're buckled and button all the way up in front of the straps

Our DD could get out of anything but could be distracted with a snack.

HoudiniStop is good for this.

I had a little escapologist.

I had heard others recommending that, trouble is I'm not sure it would stop her being able to undo the buckle.I guess it might mean couldn't reach it though....

You might want to look at the car seats with impact shield? That is more impossible for them to escape. Beware there are two kinds - the older type is secured by seatbelt and particularly determined DC can push on it enough to loosen and then wriggle out. The newer Cybex models have little clips on the side of the seat that have their own straps to tighten.

If you want to try and persevere with the current seat, prickly side of velcro on the buckle or the in car safety centre sell a heavy duty buckle cover. Make sure you're not doing straps up too tight, sometimes people overdo the tightness and then DC is uncomfortable and just wants to escape more.

Thanks- I will try this tip tomorrow, if I can find something long enough to cover the straps and the buckle!

While a chest clip isn't ideal, DC hanging out of straps is quite a lot less ideal! It would probably not solve the unbuckling issue though.

What about mittens for the journey so she can't fidget with the buckles, ones with the cord that goes round behind her so she can't take them off? I'm always a bit scared of food in the car incase ds chokes while I'm driving. Buttoning a cardi up over the buckle is a good shout too.

I've heard mixed things about the safety of impact shields, and quite reluctant to change the car seats as we only got our current ones (2x cybex sirona's) end of last year and paid over £400 for them.
Also, we like DD to go rear facing and am I right in thinking impact shield carseats are FF only?
How would the velcro work? Apologies, not quite sure what you mean?
Will look up about the buckle cover, thanks.
Yeah I probably have been doing them up too tightly to be fair, trying to keep her in but maybe causing the opposite, so will try easing off on that.

HoudiniStop doesn't entirely solve the problem (DD used to burst out of it like The Hulk) but it bought time to safely stop the car.

Shout at her really badly 😬 I hate this approach buuuut there are some things that are not to be taken lightly

Impact shield seats are all FF I think max the cybex anoris t had the bed ADAC score BUT it's really expensive

Velcro - get adhesive velcro and cut a bit of the rough side to fit the buckle release and stick it on so it's painful/unpleasant to push on.

A fit check might help to work out if it could be made comfier maybe, not sure.

To be honest I was thinking this too...I've ordered one to try, which will come tomorrow hopefully.Like you say at least it may stop her climbing around the car!

Shout at her really badly 😬 I hate this approach buuuut there are some things that are not to be taken lightly

I think this would work with an older Child to stop them, and I did firmly tell her no repeatedly, but it just made her think it was a game, and at 21mths she is too little to understand the concept of things being dangerous, so I think shouting would just scare her, and she wouldn't understand why she was being shouted at or be able to modify her behaviour accordingly.

Thanks for the additional info about the velcro, sounds a good trick! 👍

Please be careful adding anything to a car seat to make it more secure. Nothing should be added that isn't endorsed by the car seat company you're using and you have to check with your insurance company whether any additions to a seat will invalidate insurance - some have a blanket ban on any additions to any car seat.

Doesn't help to solve your problem, I'm sorry, but it is a massive consideration to think about.

There is loads of info available on ROSPA's website if you want to read more.

I don't have any further suggestions OP, but have you seen this 😄

https://youtube.com/shorts/o75SwBWpZdM?si=RO3lyoCEYuBJ0Bna

I would go with really shouting at her tbh.

You need her to be scared, too scared to try and get out of the car seat. She might not understand that it's dangerous, but she will understand that it's scary. And it is scary so you're not lying to her!

I knew a parent once who slammed on the breaks so the child fell and hurt themselves and didn't ever do it again....but that's probably not a very good idea!

I’ve heard of people putting the stiff bit of sticky velcro over the red clip so it’s sore for them to press on. might be worth a try

The impact shield seats are forward facing, and definitely less safe than rear facing (maybe questionable if you get the airbag one but that's very expensive as said) but the evidence seems to be they are roughly as good as a forward facing one with 5 point harness. There is a lot of misinformation about them because they were originally marketed as being a sort of in between safety wise between the RF and FF seats, but this isn't quite right, some of the info correcting this has tended to over-egg the downsides associated with them and make them sound like death traps, which they aren't. But then again all the ERF pages will have you think that anything other than gold standard best practice is an instant death sentence, which isn't quite true either. Most of the time just like with any kind of risk management it's about weighing up the options that you have how they compare to each other, rather than aiming for a one size fits all solution that might not fit your situation.

Do you have Isofix in the front, could you move her there? Or does she have a mirror to see you with?

Yes I would do it a bit less tight, and check you have everything adjusted correctly. Cybex like 2 fingers width between the child's shoulders and the headrest. There might be a newborn insert that needs removing too, it's not very obvious in that seat.

Cybex have their own sensorsafe chest clip which you can add to the seat. It's pricey but it's actually tested with the seat so may be better than the generic Houdini straps etc. It will also sound an alarm if she undoes it, but that doesn't apply to the main buckle.

The velcro thing is it you think about the fact velcro has two sides, one is soft and one is prickly? Get some of the stick on stuff and cut a piece of the prickly side to fit the buckle. Because they have small fingers it becomes unpleasant for them to press on it. Adults can still do it however.

Another escapologist here! Following for ideas. The only things that work here are either giving DC books to 'read' or tiring them out so they're too sleepy to escape. Everything else just gets viewed as another puzzle to be solved and escaped.

I agree with the shouting. This isn’t the time for a reasoning or firm no. They thought it was funny when you did that so it’s gaining attention.

absolutly losing it with them and yelling each and every time they do it will put an association in their mind. You don’t want them to be scared but what they are doing is so dangerous.

no smiling, or nice please sit down/stop that/wait. Next time they do it really really shout. Stop the car, put the belt back on whilst telling off. They need to know this isn’t negotiable and you won’t remain happy if they do it.

it took twice of me doing this and they never did it again

My son was a hudini - he grew out of it BUT we had a period of time we used this

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HowseHold-Universal-Prevents-Passengers-Unbuckling/dp/B0BDMXHNDK/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2AX2O5SFQE081&keywords=seat+belt+locks+for+kids&qid=1693027674&sprefix=Seat+belt+lo%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

It doesn’t affect the car seat, just means they can’t undo the seat belt buckle at whim ( while i was overtaking on the motorway ).

Shouting sounds horrible but to me it’s the same as shouting at a child running into the road.

It was the only thing that worked with my 2 year old granddaughter.(I didn’t shout, her mum did). Dd had tried absolutely everything else and decided to shout as a last resort, she shouted at her as she was escaping, then stopped the car and sat and gave her lots of cuddles, explain that mummy will shout if you undo the seat buckle. She hasn’t touched the buckle since!

We did the 'shock' method too. We picked a time when we were going somewhere they really wanted to go and told them that they needed to stay in their seat or we would go home. On the way they got out, I braked hard enough that it was safe but a bit scary, told them off, strapped them back in and then went home.

You have to be really conscious that anything you 'add' to a car seat does not impact on its safety. The button is red and highly visible so that in an emergency, anyone can quickly press the button and get them out.

Hi just to update, we have solved the issue (hopefully permanently!) With a houdini stop chest clip and this fantastic handmade popper fastening buckle cover from Ebay which has worked a treat.Still abit dubious about the chest clips and they do make it more fiddly to get her out, but will keep it on for a little while then will hopefully be able to remove it and just keep the buckle cover as that was the biggest issue.

Such a relief to finally know she is safe and secure in the seat!