Toddler constantly escaping car seat - help!

[SandandSky]

We have tried special clips, having him in the front… all sorts. I am at my wits end. We live near a road where lots of accidents happen and though I try and avoid it I can’t always. I am so worried he’s going to climb out and be hurt, I think having to use that road amplifies it. I considered moving him to a bigger seat but DS is only just 11kg at 26 months so I am reluctant to.

please please please any advice or recommendations for my tiny Houdini!

And I know “use the car less” would be a great option but I have to drive my other kids to school - we don’t have one in the village we live in

I’ve just googled and you can get anti escape car seat straps, maybe worth a try? Good luck. X

What car seat do you have now and how is he managing to escape?

I have tried them and he can undo them

How old is the toddler? Eg. My DS is almost 2.5 and I’m fairly sure we could instil in him how utterly wrong it is to undo the car seat straps. an 18mo not so much.

You can get covers that go over the buckles which would make it take longer for him to get out. Is he rear facing? Atleast if he did undo the straps the risk would be slightly lower.

He can unclip it at the crotch bit
He can unclip the “anti escape” straps
he can get his arms out of the straps to matter how tight I do them

26 months. He knows he shouldn’t but he does

What seat do you have?

We used the be safe belt collector for our houdini. Only thing she couldn't get out of! (& crash tested) Thankfully out the other side now. Good luck!

My granddaughter can do this too, although she’s older at 34 months. The last time she did it, I stopped the car, told her why we couldn’t go any further (because she wasn’t staying strapped in) which was sad as I was taking her to soft play and we literally sat in the car for about half an hour. We then returned home and she missed going to soft play. She’s never undone it again since.

I would try this for whenever you are going somewhere nice with him. Unless he stays strapped in, you go home and there's no activity.
Plus you need to tell him every time you get in the car that if the straps stay done up, he's a very good boy and will get a (insert treat of choice here) . I think at this age I automatically gave DD a box of raisins as I strapped her in the car which ensured cooperation in getting sat down and kept her occupied for a good few minutes.

When mine was 2 -3 he’d do this. Grown out of it now.
I found a bowl of rice cakes or his tablet - so his hands were busy worked with pine of those Velcro anti escape things. (He could still get out but it took longer and made more of a noise).

You could try putting him in a large jacket and dont zip it up. Put him in the car seat and buckle, then pull the sides of the jacket around and in front of the straps and zip it up so the straps are covered. Then safety pin the zip shut from the inside of the jacket so he cant see it (use an old fashioned nappy pin with the safety cover)

If he works that out, then sew the sleeves of the jacket shut so he cant use his fingers.

If he works that out then add ties to the ends of the sleeves and tie them together once he is buckled in the seat

Both of these points are good advice. At 26 months he should be old enough to be taught not to do it. It will probably be a time consuming and annoying process for you but much better for everyone involved in the long run.

You might be at the point where you want to try an impact shield car seat instead of the type with a 5 point harness. The impact shield is a different way to restrain the child, it's like a large bolster in front of them which is held in place by the car's seatbelt and pins them in place. They are not so popular now but used to be used quite a lot. Cybex have a few and so do Joie. In general I think the Cybex ones are likely to be a bit better quality/better designed.

The cheapest ones use the seatbelt to hold the bolster in place. For extremely persistent escape artist children this may not be enough as they can if determined enough simply wriggle very very slowly allowing the belt to loosen and then the can slide out. Cybex have a slightly updated version (Pallas G) which uses a clip to hold the bolster in place which they can't loosen. And if you're very concerned about safety and money is no object they do have a super duper one with an airbag in it called Anoris T, but it's extremely pricey.

I think the above post with all the complicated tying into the makeshift strait jacket is a joke but just in case... please don't do this, it would be a huge safety issue to remove him from the seat in an accident as well as potentially being quite distressing for him!

The behavioural management suggestions are also all good. Another idea along these lines is to make a sticker chart for the car so he completes a set number of successful journeys and gets a prize, this helps to build good habits. Repeat as long as is necessary, making the chart longer each time until the habit has stuck but he's lost interest in the chart.

It might be worth considering whether he has hypermobility or sensory issues as these things could make the car seat uncomfortable for him.

Also first thing to check (sorry for mentioning it last!!) is that it's adjusted properly for his height. Having it too low can be uncomfortable.

@BertieBotts thank you so much! I read this the other day and have bought a cybex impact shield seat… I had never even heard of that type of car seat before. It is doing the job so far!!!

I was going to come on and recommend the Cybex Pallas G - we have one in each car, and they're brilliant! Hopefully that helps reduce the Houdini escapades @SandandSky

Oh brill - glad that it was helpful :)

Little update and back to this thread because it was so helpful before….

the Pallas G was brilliant for six months up until this week, where he’s worked out how to get out of this one too.

I am at my wits end, we can’t just avoid going in the car!

Oh no :(

Is he now old enough you can do some behaviour management e.g. a reward chart for staying in the seat?

Also, it may be that if you swap back to the old seat, he might have forgotten initially how to get out of it.

You'd think the age some of these monsters are at now (20-oddyrs) they'd have solved the problems by now 🙄.

I don’t understand what you are getting at or how it is at all helpful?

Yeah we are trying a reward chart at the moment but he doesn’t really care about it 😂 I think we could cancel Christmas and he would be fine if it meant he got away with something he shouldn’t! (using the potty currently very fun too)

Have you tried taking a piece of velcro (the prickly side) and sticking it on the clip? Sometimes that's enough to deter them from pressing on it.