[LovingJesusinAZ]

My son is almost 2.5 and a few months ago discovered he can undo the crosspiece of his carseat. He used to only undo it occasionally and re-fasten it. The past week or so it's been a CONSTANT thing. He won't keep it fastened. Last week we were on a road trip and he spent the first 1.5 hours undoing it while I would climb out of my seat and re-fasten it. Immediately he'd undo it. Twice DH had to pull over and give him a talking to. At a rest-stop we ended up finding a twist tie that DH used to tie the two pieces together. That kept it on for the remainder of our trip (about 2 more hours). Because DH and I were together I could do "seat belt watch", but when I'm by myself I can't really do anything--I'm driving.

It's obviously a huge safety issue, but I don't know how to get him to keep it fastened. I can't really discipline him while driving. Whenever we get home, even if it's just from the grocery store, he likes to sit in the driver's seat and we usually let him. We've already told him he can't sit in "Mommy's seat" if he takes off his seat belt, but so far that hasn't been enough incentive for him to keep his car seat fastened.

Any suggestions?!?!?!

[bkallens]

Hmmm, we haven't go to that stage yet, so I haven't thought about it much. Maybe if you cut the end off a sock so it made a tube you could squish it on one side of the clip while you buckle it and then slide it out so it covers the whole thing once it's buckled. I don't know if that would be enough to keep prying fingers off of it. Good luck, hope you figure something out!

[Samual]

Is the actual clip faulty/loose I know there is no way Jamie's little fingers would be strong enough to open his clip.

[ljb]

DS (also, 2 & 1/2 yo) can get out of his car seat too. Luckily, he has only done it twice and we were in a position to stop, discipline him, rebuckle and get on our way.

One thing that has helped us is sliding the clasp way up under his chin. - I know for a while, we were getting pretty laxed with the placement of that clasp and the lower it was, the easier it was for his lil fingers to work it. I certainly won't stop a determined child from getting out, but it might just deter him enough to realize it isn't worth his time to try.

Other than that, I suggest stopping the car until he cooperates, explaining that you can't go anywhere until everyone is buckled safely in the car. DS doesn't really care about going places, so that isn't much of a punishment for him. Although, it is the same thing if he tries to stand up on the swing set - The ride stops. He is understanding that type of consequence these days.

Good luck - hopefully this is short lived.

[ruthann8]

I had a couple of cousins that refused to stay in there car seats and there parents just let them climb out of there seats. When I babysat we would go somewhere fun and if the got out of there seats I pulled over and we didn't move until they got back in. Of course a 15 min drive ended up being 45 min but after the first couple trips they always stayed in there seats. But I live in small town Iowa and could pull over anytime they would do it.

[Momof2kids]

My son did the same thing.....we buckled it backwards--does that make sense? Flip the buckle over and snap together...that may take him some time to figure out how to use his hands backwards.

[ljb]

Originally Posted by Momof2kids

My son did the same thing.....we buckled it backwards--does that make sense? Flip the buckle over and snap together...that may take him some time to figure out how to use his hands backwards.

I like that idea!

[LovingJesusinAZ]

Originally Posted by ljb

I like that idea!

So do I! In fact, I'm going to mention it to DH tonight.

Unfortuantely on our road trip DS was going this on the interstate so there weren't a lot of (safe) places to pull over. In town he's been doing it when I'm on the freeway, so again, not a lot of safe places to pull over.

[Samual]

It must being annoying not being able to drive anywhere with him until he cannot open his latches anymore.

[LeanyBean]

Flipping the buckle backwards has helped us in the past. Perhaps adifferent style seat may help too.