Help!! DD can escape the straps in her car seat......

[robino]

We have a maxi cosi tobi (hate the bloody thing too, would never buy it again now I know what I know about kids and carseats!). DD is 2 and, no matter how well I install her (it even has the colour coded belt thing to tell you when it's tight enough) she can escape the shoulder straps and I suddenly spot her dangling out of the side of it. We do a lot of motorway driving so I end up having to wait til the next junction to pull off and sort it (when I yell she'll put her arms back in the straps but they'd never save her in the event of a crash).

we do have to buy a second car seat because DD2 (7 month) will be out of her stage 1 soon. I am planning to put DD1 in new one (am thinking of getting one suitable up to 11 years) but a dd2 is not ready to come out of stage 1 seat for a while, b)DD1 might still be able to escape the new one and c)DD2 might also have the same car seat escaping genes.

I'm generally quite a relaxed mum but this has me really freaked out. What do I do? Any ideas?

[KTsmum]

I'm afraid we have a britax car seat can't remember the model)and it's no challenge at all for my 16 month DD... It took us 20 min to do the 1 mile to nursery the other day. I was thinking of trying these chest clips:
www.incarsafetycentre.co.uk/shop/special.html

• bottom of the page on the left

Has anyone tried one of these?

I've also moved her to the front where I can slip her back in more easily without getting out the car (and give her mean looks when she looks like she's thinking about doing it!!) But I know the front seat is not the safest place really, even though I don't have an airbag.

[needssleep]

We have the same problem with our Britax carseat. We bought one for my car and one for my Mother's car - slightly different models - and she can get out of both of them.

I feel that if your child can easily escape the straps regardless of how tightly you pull them then it does not fufill the purpose for which it is designed.

I also have a freind with the same seat and she has the same problem too.

[oroses]

My DD (17mos) has also been escaping from the straps of her Tobi. I reached a point where I was too worried to use it again, so I returned it to the store I purchased it from this weekend. They weren't particularly understanding and they suggested I 'distracted' DD when she tries to get out..as if it that would reduce the likelihood of a serious accident.
The store have returned it to Maxi Cosi and refused to give me a refund, exchange or a loan seat.
I think it's appalling that these seats have not been recalled. I have read elsewhere that other people have had the same issue and Max Cosi have replaced their seat with the 2009 model, which does suggest there is an inherent fault with the earlier product.
I intend to report this to trading standards, the consequences of this faulty product don't bear thinking about.