Car seat help

[Blossomsnow944]

Just before Christmas I purchased an Axkid Minikid 2 online for my 17 month old due to the good reviews I had seen online and many recommendations, and also I hope to rear face my toddler for ideally another year at least.

everything was fine at first however after about a month I noticed that my toddler could get her arms out of the straps, and it also seemed that when I was getting her in the seat it felt like there was a lot of resistance with the automatic head rest, it’s hard to explain how but it would lock when I was trying to strap my child in.

i contacted the retailer that I bought the seat from (online small-ish business) mid February saying I had experienced the above problems for the past 3/4 weeks.

since then, the retailer has asked for various photos of the seat which I have complied with, but it is getting to the point now where I work full time so I am unable to constantly send pictures of the seat, and my child is able to get her arms out of the straps whilst I am driving which is making near enough every car journey stressful and lengthy. The straps are pulled tight to her chest so I assume it could only be the automatic head rest that isn’t locking and is moving up causing her to get her arms out.

what would you do in my situation as I paid £300 for the seat because I thought it would be safe and last a long time, but I don’t seem to be getting anywhere with the retailer? Should I request for them to return the car seat to do their own investigations?

It does sound like something is wrong with the headrest - I've got two minikid 2s, and it should slide smoothly. Does the manual lock on the top of the headrest seem to work properly, moving when unlocked, fixed when locked?

I have had a strap jam once or twice, and fully loosening off the straps (and headrest) and then fully tightening them with no child in the seat seemed to sort it.

I assume the retailer doesn't have a physical shop anywhere near you?

That said, some children do get very good at sliding out of car seat straps, even if everything is working perfectly. Does she have the toddler insert in and is she sitting properly back and straight when you do the straps? Also worth double checking how tight they should be, as making them too tight can encourage some children to escape. Something like the besafe belt collector can help if it's become a habit - I believe the besafe one is crash tested.

There is a bit of a knack to the headrest thing, you have to pull the straps down in one smooth movement, if you stop it will lock up. I find the Minikid tricky for this reason, but I don't use it regularly (a friend has it and I have occasionally put DC in it).

You can also lock the headrest manually. It will creep up if the straps aren't tight enough in order to tighten them, this is a safety feature, but sometimes with younger children I seem to recall it can be an issue and you might want to lock it manually. I will try to find where I saw this and share if it's shareable. I think it's this video: - this channel also has a Q&A video about the Minikid 2 which has some questions about the harness being tricky to fasten.

Being able to get arms out is not necessarily a fault with the seat. Children just need to suck in their tummy and they can escape. It is a bit of a flaw with 5 point harnesses. You could add the Besafe Belt Collector or a fabric wrap around thing called 5 Point Plus.

I am not sure why the retailer is asking you to send lots of pictures, it might be best to seek advice from some kind of consumer organisation, maybe moneysavingexpert?

Are the staps twisted in the seat at all? I think we once found that to be the issue with our Minikid. We have headrest issues with our Minikid 4 (so we've locked/parked the headrest) but our Minikid 2 in the other car is pretty smooth.

The escaping is quite common I think. One of mine never did this but the other did at age 1, they grew out of it. We had to buy a device to trap them but my friend tried it with her son and he still escaped. This was in various brands of sest.