If your toddler refuses to get in carseat...

Alliebella

advice please!  He turned 2 in Oct. and this started about a month ago. He arches his back, legs turn to Jello, and completely falls into the floorboard.  It's not EVERY time, but it's too often. Way.too.often.

Please tell me I'm not alone.  Any suggestions or tips on what I can do to deter this behavior?  Because today I almost sped off with him in the floor board. Ok, not really...but I thought about it!! 

Help!

isabella22

No, my toddler happily climbes into her carseat every time

HA!  I wish! 

Bribery.  Toys, milk, cookie, dvd... when all else fails I have to wrestle her in.  I hate it.  Not a good start to the day when it happens in the morning...

Vrbka

my son did this when he was 15 months old (he is only 16 months old now but he don't do it nerely as much now) i would just hold him in until i could get one strap hooked and tell him i understand you don't want to get in your seat but you have to so we can go home.. jsut talk to him nice and calm.. and try to give him something he will want..

oparcm

Been there, done that and it does end so just bear with it and bribe away.  DD did the same thing but now climbs up herself

belle204

When A was like that bargaining and reasoning didn't work. I had to do my best wrestler mama move on her and pin her down with one arm while I fastened the buckles with the other. Believe me, it's a skill I perfected.

amiamish

DS does this weekly. The only thing I've found that works, put my hand on his waist/hips and make him sit in him. Wrestle him into the straps...and buckle fast. LOL

Good luck!

boosma

Okay, I had MAJOR trouble with this with my DD (still do sometimes -- she's 28 months old now).  I do a combo of things:  1) I try to prepare her for getting in the carseat... whenever we are about to leave a place (Target, daycare, whatever)  I start telling her "Okay, we're going to get in the car and you need to be a big girl and ride in your seat".  We used to have to talk to her the whole way to the car.... it seemed to help her ease into the idea of being seated and buckled in.

2) I, like Belle, perfected the art of wrestling her into the seat.  It's not how I want to do it, but sometimes strong-arming her was the only way to get it done.  I swear, I used to think people were going to call CPS on me for the way I had to "muscle" her in the seat.  You learn the power/strength of your forearm in no time flat!

3) The best trick for me has been to bribe her. And I am unabashedly unashamed about it too!   I use Dum Dum suckers and stickers.. you can keep a few in your purse and have them for emergency times.   My DD gets one sucker every day when we head home from daycare.  She knows if she gets into her seat nicely she will get a sucker and sticker.   And there has been a few times where she acted like an ass, and didn't get either one.  It really helped a ton!