Help! My son can get out of his carseat!

Lindsay - posted on 03/12/2011

I have the exact same problem with my Aspergers 3 year old. She can get out of her car seat without undoing the clips. She waits until we are not looking. I have no idea how she does it. We have tried 3 different cat seats now. Because of her Aspergers we cant get her to listen to us. Its hard to go anywhere without pulling over and putting her back in time after time.

Mandee - posted on 04/09/2010

What type of a car seat are you using? We had that problem, but modified the seat so she cannot get out, and it made a huge difference.

Tamara - posted on 04/06/2010

When my son would undo the chest clip i would pull over to do it back up and explain that every time I have to pull over the longer it takes to get where we are going and when we would be close to our destination I would remind him that we would be there already if he had left his sea tbelt on. it took a little while and lots of patient and not so patient talks but he eventually left it on...eventually I think we said something to the extent of getting in really big trouble with the policeman and they might take us to jail if he didn't keep it on and they have these rules to keep us all safe. He never did develop a fear of the police-thank goodness!

Emma - posted on 04/06/2010

Can you believe it is our "typical" son we have trouble with? He undoes the buckle of this car seat and we "solved" the problem by taking the straps off and putting them back the wrong way round. so the button for unclipping the belt is facing the child and "hidden" if that makes sense? It doesn't work on all car seats but even if it works short term it may help

Deanna - posted on 04/06/2010

just checked out some more search results for the ez-on vest and saw they had some for sale on Amazon.com, unfortunately it looks like they are a little pricey. about $220 dollars

Deanna - posted on 04/06/2010

hello everyone,

I just googled ez-on vest and found their website if anyone wants to look into it. I guess it mounts on to your vehicles car seat safety mounts. i haven't looked that far into it yet. Not sure what to do if your vehicle does not have those mounts. here is the website for those of you who want to look into it. http://www.ezonpro.com/index.shtml

Susy - posted on 04/06/2010

What I try is keep my older son buckled up, so as soon as my 2 year old sees her brother sitting and buckled up she wants to do the same, she gets out of the seat bealt because her brother does so, so she wants to repeat her brother behaviour.

I will also look into the EZ straps someone mentioned before, it will help if they can tell us where they bought them.

Tracy - posted on 04/06/2010

Thanks for posting! I am having the same problem with my two year old. He is taking off the shoulder straps in the car. I also caught him trying to open the car door while we were in motion. He is unable to open the car door as they are always locked. He is also able to unlock doors inside the house and we had to install a special bar for the sliding glass door in the back. He is my only boy and really has me on my toes! I've never experienced these types of safety concerns with the girls. I will have to check out the EZ-on vest to see if it will help my situation. Thanks.

Deanna - posted on 04/05/2010

thanks so much for all the suggestions everybody, at times if I can give my son something to hold he will not try to get out of his carseat but he would get bored if i gave him the same thing everytime. sometimes something will occupy him and other times it will just make him mad and he will throw it on the floor.
Michelle, where did you get thie EZ-on vest you talked about? that sounds like it would really help. also his car seat does have the shoulder pads that are over the harness, i could try to put them below the chest buckle, but i'm not sure if they would be long enough, the way he gets his arms out is by sliding the chest buckle down to the leg buckle.

Michelle - posted on 04/04/2010

My son wears an EZ-on vest. It slips over his arms and zippers up the back. You have to attach straps on your car that come with it. 2 straps come over top of seat and attach to vest, and 2 straps come between seats to attach at his waist. This has worked great for him and he likes wearing it.

Mandy - posted on 04/03/2010

Hi there i have a son he is now 11 but when he was 18months he used to undo his seatbelt i tride all sorts of things to stop him toys books ect... nothing seemed to work then one day i put him the front and kept him there even when he went into a big seat he still used to do it so i decided to put a sock over the top of the clip but that didnt work so then my aunty said to me one day put a belt cove on it as it hides it better and its padded too. how about trying putting the padded seatbelt cover over his straps then he may not take them out as it maybe rubbing on himand he is getting too big for it. if he is a harnes one my son came out of the harnes type at 2yrs as he was doing all of the same too try it might help you. Lv Mandy xx

Rachael - posted on 04/03/2010

hi deanna, i used to my sons favorite kids music on in our case it was (the wiggles) then we'd all sing along this often kept them occupied, i also used to have a bag of colouring books & crayons, pens & there favourite toys (thomas the tank engine trains etc) plus if they where getting restless i'd play games with them like "what can you seeout the window" then ask is that a red car? etc, until they where older then it became eye spy, i hope this helps.....

April - posted on 04/03/2010

Just brainstorming here... I wonder if attaching a grippy rubbery material (similar to the stuff they make those rubber jar openers out of) to the straps would help, as it would hopefully grab onto his clothing and make it more difficult to slip out of the shoulder straps. I suppose it depends on how persistent he is. Or, maybe this will inspire someone else's "outside the box" solution... :)

Red - posted on 04/03/2010

Oh my son used to scare the crap out of me. I would see him run across the back of the van in the rear view. Well I would put the straps as tight as they go with out cuttting of the blood flow and I had him in a 5 piece harness. I ended up getting him something to hold the was two tone so the light would keep his attention. I also woulds have to do short trips as in 30 min long.

Sheila - posted on 04/02/2010

We were driving once, and I heard big sister yell, "he's standing up!" I looked back to see my little three year old (ASD) standing, but thankfully he also had the look of How did this happen? and he began crying. It was the first and last time because I don't know what I would have done if he had continued with it.

I hope you find a good solution.

Sheila

Julie - posted on 04/01/2010

It is not an unusual problem. He can do it so he will do it. It is a concern because we want to make sure our kids are safe. Can he understand rewards for appropriate behavior? Maybe try rewarding him with a treat. For example, "If you stay in your seat you can have your juice" or a banana, toys, stickers. If he gets out he doesn't get to keep his treat, but if he gets back in he can have it back. You can be more drastic and set aside time to practice car seat behavior. Put him in the car seat and drive around your immediate neighborhood. When he gets out pull over, tell him he must stay in and fix the car seat. Drive more and when he gets out again, pull over, tell him he must stay in and fix the car seat again. Repeat this with every car ride you can and make your point until he understands that you will not allow him to get out of his seat.
You know him best. Just do what you can to protect him and don't feel guilty. A behaviorist may be your best solution.

Deanna - posted on 04/01/2010

thanks for the info, i checked with them and unfortunatly they do not have anything that will work for my specific situation.

Cherish - posted on 04/01/2010

Hi,

Here is a link to some special needs car seats and buckle guards...

They are expensive,BUT if you find one that will work,look on ebay or amazon for a cheaper one :)



http://www.especialneeds.com/pediatrics-...