Today my 2 year old unbuckled the seat belt installing his Radian....

This morning Sam was in the car and I heard him back there fidgeting with something. His Radian is RF behind the passenger seat, my 98 Honda has a lap belt only in the center, usually it's folded up and tucked in the bight but I had been messing with infant seats to see if something will fit in the center and forgot to fold it back up. I thought that's what he was playing with. When we got where we were going, I folded it back up and shoved it in there. A couple hours later... we drove 15 miles home.

Much that afternoon, I open the car door to put him in the car seat again and my jaw fell to the ground because there was NO seat belt there. It was completely unbuckled and fed itself out of the belt path. I drove 15 miles on the interstate with my kid in a seat that wasn't even buckled in! Feel free to revoke my tech card now, GEEZ. :thumbsdown:

He is a chronic shoe remover in the car, so he's usually barefoot (until we get somewhere obvs lol), and with the same motion that kids can loosen the superlatch straps - my kid unbuckled the buckle with his foot.

SO what the hell do I do now??? I don't think he can do it with shoes on so I'll try to make sure he leaves his shoes on, but MAN. I am terrifed now that he's going to do it and five seconds later we'll get in an accident. UGH.

I have a Marathon I could switch him back into, but I really do have the Radian love, it is SO much easier to get a squirmy almost 3 year old in and out of. UGGGH.

I've seen suggestions before to tape something like a toilet paper roll around the buckle to make it inaccessible.
I can just imagine how scary it would be to find the seat unbuckled like that. Wow!

Can you flip the buckle so the button is on the inside?

safeinthecar said:

Can you flip the buckle so the button is on the inside?

Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was going to suggest too, or the toilet paper roll thing too, both sound good to me.

safeinthecar said:

Can you flip the buckle so the button is on the inside?

Click to expand...

Nope.... they're this style:



And 3 buckle twists just to get the thing in.

I might try the toilet paper roll route... though he always likes to play with the empty paper towel rolls so that may spark *more* interest.

My kid did this in his Radian, two times!!! It was awful b/c I realized I drove with an unbuckled seat. (I think a sibling unbuckled it). It's a FF seat.

I flipped the buckle so no one can reach it. Problem solved. But hmmm...I see you have the belt twisted already.

bnsnyde said:

My kid did this in his Radian, two times!!! It was awful b/c I realized I drove with an unbuckled seat. (I think a sibling unbuckled it). It's a FF seat.

I flipped the buckle so no one can reach it. Problem solved. But hmmm...I see you have the belt twisted already.

Click to expand...

Yeah... even if I can get it tight if I undo it a half twist (it's three full stalk twists) I don't think my seat belts will buckle if the female is turned backwards, they have to line up. :/

I'm ok with putting something OVER the buckle itself... but does anyone have any concerns about getting him out of the car in a crash? Emergency would just cut the seat belt anyway, right?

I don't know how well this would work but maybe you could stick the scratchy side of some velcro onto the buckle button so it is less comfortable to unbuckle especially with bare little piggers

Maybe something like a sock with the toes cut off over the buckle would work? Thread the seatbelt through it before buckling and then slip it down over the buckle before or after tightening, however it is easier?

What about clear packing tape over the buckle?

Tinfoil works also

DS does that too. I punish him for it... by scolding and making him help me re install. But, I have taken a piece of card board, cut a T in it, and then slid it onto the belt so it blocks to push button. I can take a pic if you need.... it's hard to explain....

Yikes! That's scary stuff. I hope you find a solution

judesmommy said:

DS does that too. I punish him for it... by scolding and making him help me re install. But, I have taken a piece of card board, cut a T in it, and then slid it onto the belt so it blocks to push button. I can take a pic if you need.... it's hard to explain....

Click to expand...

I know exactly what you mean, and that sounds GENIUS, thank you!!! I'm going to do that!

I almost always have to move his seat into someone else's car once or twice a week, so that sounds like an easy option that's not going to be a pain for uninstalling and reinstalling too. THANK YOU!!!