Baby Beats the Britax

Having my third child late in life, with better resources to care for him than the first two I had in my early twenties, I did not blink about spending big dollars on a Britax car seat. I knew from years of reputation that they were the only car seat I would feel comfortable putting my precious child in. I told my husband it was the Cadillac of car seats and shared with him the may good reviews I'd read about it. I felt very good about our decision and had absolute peace of mind that our son would be safe all the way up to 65 lbs.

Our child was about 10 months old when we started using this car seat. We never needed the extra pad because he was already bigger than that when we put him in it. I used it for a couple months in the rear facing position. It always fit well in our Suburban with 2nd row captain's chairs. The access was easy although I did have to stand on the running board to get the baby up that high into the seat. (I'm only 5'3".)

I actually find it a little trickier to get him in it now that it is forward facing. We have since traded our Suburban for a Honda Pilot. I am glad that I can now place the car seat in the middle of the bench. And it's a good thing too because now I frequently have to reach back and adjust the baby in the seat.

At 2 1/2 and 28 lbs. my son is now able to push the chest clip down and wriggle his arms out so it winds up being a lap belt low across his hips. That's when I have to reach back and readjust him. This has been going on for several weeks now. I tried putting safety pins on the belt to prevent the clip from sliding down but he pushes right over the clips. I've called Britax twice and they say there's nothing they can do to modify it. I wanted them to send me some sort of rivet to put on the strap just like an adult seat belt has at the bottom so it won't retract too far. (You know, the plastic button thing.) But, they said they can't add any more pressure to the strap.

My final disapointment came yesterday when he took his arms out and then reached around and pushed the red button and got the buckle undone too. Thankfully we were already home and parked in the garage when that happened. I experimented with rubber bands around the straps but that didn't help. I have since turned the safety pins vertically and put them through the chest clip onto the belt. That seems to be working for now.