Hi,
I wrote a post about this a week and a bit ago. I only got one response, maybe because I'm not a parent or have Britax convertibles?
I sincerely doubt that either of the snide rationales you propose have any truth in them. This is a volunteer site and no one is paid for their time or efforts. Some postings have multiple responses, others don't. C'est la vie.
Personally, I didn't see the thread myself at the time you posted, I just looked it up now to see what was said. You actually had 2 responses. Flipper 68 wrote a wonderful outline of various suggestions. Not much more could be added, imo. IluvBabies shared what happened to her daughter and her solution (the velcro). Neither was thanked for their time and effort.
I also agree with a previous poster who said that strict discipline about this issue is likely too much/different for a just turned 2 yr old vs. an almost 3 yr. old. I also say this from a child development perspective which is my profession.
If anyone has more ideas, please share-thanks!
At the age of 22 months, dd tried to be a houdini in the car. She didn't actually escape, but it was a warning. So later, I used my child mirror & a quiet street in conjunction with one another. As soon as my daughter's hands touched her buckles, I dead stopped the car, I turned around, took hold of her harness buckle, and spoke as harshly as I could "NO... NO... NO! TOUCH!"
No reasons needed other than Momma says so! needed. She was too young for explanations then. My daughter was terrified of me for that moment and began crying hysterically. Yes, I completely shocked her world because Momma was usually quiet, comforting, and calm. I wanted to emphasize that on this matter, there was no possibility of any relaxing of rules. After 30 seconds to let Mama's displeasure set in, I soothed her down after getting out of the car and being right next to her seat.
She tried going after her seatbelt again, but on another day, not that one. Too traumatised. I kept an eye out for another time to just test the waters. 3 days later, she was antsy & hyper... sure enough, she tried opening it again. I repeated what I did the first time and she's never touched them since. She's 3 now and I can reason with her, but a year ago, there was no way.
But to be honest, I don't have any idea how well this would work with a child that is not being disciplined by their own parents or are in foster care. There are rules and regulations, and "scaring a child to keep safe" is not really something that probably would go over well with policy and public. It's very difficult to define the boundaries of what you can do on a website where there's advice freely offered.
That's possibly why you also didn't get a lot of advice on your first posting. Not being her parent, you are in a different legal & ethical category on what you can and cannot do for discipline.
To answer one of your questions from your first post:
Since you have her in a fwd facing seat, yes, the harness has to be in the top slot. If her weight is under the carseat rear facing limit, you can turn her around rfing and move the harness down to the middle. That would make it tighter. But I would highly recomend getting a mirror to see that back seat, that would make it easier for you to keep an eye on her.
hth & good luck.
M