Is there such a thing as a seat belt that kids can't take off themselves??

[headless]

Reason being that my friends son is becoming an utter nightmare and has started taking his belt off mid journey. He is nearly 4 and is autistic so the usual reasoning/bribes/bollocking doesn't do the job. She was in tears having had a nightmare journey on the motorway with him climbing over the seats. I wondered whether any of you wise ladies have ever heard of a child-proof seat belt cover type thing or have a fab idea that would do the job. Or even something really obvious that we haven't thought of yet! Many thanks.

Hi there

Jojomaman sell one here they also do an alarm that goes off if the seatbelt is unbuckled, but it doesn't look like you could use both together here.

I've seen a sort of cushion pad thing that positions the seatbelt correctly across their shoulder and legs somewhere as well. That might be useful to stop him getting his arms out of the shoulder strap. Can't find a link at the moment though. Will go and google for you.

hth

Not found the cushion yet, but found an alternative buckle protector here.

Nope, the cushion eludes me for the moment. Did find a buckle protector at halfords though and a couple of alternative seatbelt adjusters, one in Mothercare here and one here.

Hth, must go to bed now.

We've got the one Moosemama linked to (the cover, not the alarm). I wouldn't recommend it for your df's ds. We use it to prevent one particular seatbelt being accidentally undone by being knocked against, or by fiddling fingers, etc. It would not withstand determined and deliberate undoing.

I seem to recall seeing a lap-belt safety device, that sat across the child's lap if they had to use a 2-point belt, and padded their body in the event of an accident. I wonder whether that might help, by making it harder for him to reach around to the buckle.

PrettyCandles, that safety device sounds like the one I was trying to find last night. I thought it might stop him being able to reach around and escape. Still can't find it anywhere though, am starting to wonder if its been discontinued.

I thought the bucklesafe one looked the best for stopping little ones undoing the actual belt, as it requires an adult sized hand to squeeze both buttons, then once it's undone the seatbelt clip still has to be depressed as normal, so its a two stage release mechanism. (video of it in action here)

The In Car Safety Centre does this which would be really difficult for a child to undo.

The only thing I would say is that the parents MUST make sure they have a seat belt cutter in the car. In an emergency you don't want to be p'ing about with clips/buckle covers/etc.

Wow! Thank you all so much, my friend will be so chuffed that there is an answer to this nightmare problem. Good point about the seatbelt cutter though. Thanks again.