HELP! Can you lock MA straps?

[supercalifragilous]

I let my friend borrow our old spare MA, but her 3.5-y/o DD knows how to loosen herself and is smart enough to wait to do it while we're on the road. She sits all the way in the back row, driver's side, in the minivan, so my friend didn't even know she was doing this; I happened to ride with her yesterday and saw it myself.

Her arms are long enough where she can reach & pull up on the loosening bar and then lean all the way forward.

I'm not willing to chance safety on behavior modification; is there a way to lock the straps so they cannot be loosened?

[Joolsplus2]

Call Britax and ask about their 'training' (kit? thing? It might be on the website now?) and they'll send it to you...it keeps kids from fiddling with the adjuster. You can also pin down the flap and roll up the strap so she can't get to it.

And it's ok to give kids a watered down version of 'stay buckled or you'll die' so that they are compliant...

[supercalifragilous]

Thanks Jools!

I didn't see it on their website, but I'll call them first thing Monday morning.

That's a great idea about pinning it down in the meantime (though her little one is waaaay persistent).

I love the "stay buckled or you'll die" threat - LOL! But this little one is impervious to death threats as well, plus she's technically still buckled, just extremely loose. The straps are like Christmas lights hanging on a tree - just for decoration. (She's the youngest of 3 and has developed a "bring it on" with a smile attitude.)

I almost choked when I buckled her in and saw that all she did to get out was undo the chest clips to climb out - she didn't even bother with the bottom buckle (probably can't push the red button hard enough).

[Joolsplus2]

Well, I hope the tricks to keep it tight work :). Some kids can be sooooo challenging... <I totally knock on wood that so far my only problem is my ds who refused to even learn to buckle a booster till he was 6ish...I'm doomed to have some kind of challenge with my third kid, for sure>

[KAK22]

We had to get the training kits for both of our MAs. You can also pull the harness adjuster down so it's out of sight and out of mind. Since DD is still RF, we put it between the vehicle seat back and the MA.

[pastrygirl]

I had the training kit and it worked great... until my husband broke it! :shake: He pulled too hard and it snapped -- he didn't realize he needs to pull down once the kit's in place, not up. So now I put the excess strap between the MA and the vehicle seat (RF). I have a newer MA cover that has the flap sewn down, so it's a bit harder to loosen. I hope that's enough to discourage my son from pulling on it when I have to switch him FF someday.

[supercalifragilous]

I called Britax yesterday and they are sending me the training kit for free; she said it should be here in 5 days! YAY!! Thanks for the tip - I didn't even know they had those! They really should put them on their website.