Spike in his car seat that stabbed my poor baby for 18 months
A MOTHER who thought her infant son suffered from chronic car sickness was horrified to find a hidden spike in his car seat that had been stabbing him in the back for 18 months.
Nichola Griffiths, a mother of six, was at the end of her tether with two-year- old Max’s temper tantrums every time he was strapped into his £80 Britax Prince car seat.
The youngster would fight and struggle, and then scream and cry throughout each journey, sometimes even making himself sick.
But Nichola, 42, and her husband, Nigel, 52, were horrified when one day they put young Max in the seat without a shirt on and, at the end of the trip, discovered the plastic spike had created an angry red mark.
Nichola said: ‘We just thought he was acting up. I even went to get some car sickness medicine, but they said he was too young to be able to take anything so we just had to put up with it.’
The real problem emerged on July 18 after Nichola, from Farsley, West Yorkshire, strapped Max in without a top on because of the hot weather. Nigel said: ‘When we took him out we could see this big red mark on his spine. I thought it was a bee sting at first – but then I couldn’t find the bee in the car.’ After inspecting the car seat they found a hard plastic spike hidden under the fabric that had been poking their son in the spine.
Nichola said: ‘ It was like putting Max in a torture chamber every time we went somewhere. I feel sick thinking about it. I think he must have hated me every time I put him in it because he couldn’t have understood why I was doing it to him.
‘Britax is really reputable. We didn’t scrimp or cut corners – we got the best we could. It was meant to protect him and keep him safe, but really it was doing the opposite.’ The family got in touch with Britax, which sent out a replacement and asked them to send the offending seat back so it could be examined.
Nichola said: ‘Ever since we’ve started using another seat the problem has just gone away. Max loves car journeys now.’
A Britax spokesman said: ‘We identified a quality issue with the product and a replacement was supplied.
‘A thorough inspection of our stock and materials was carried out and we did not find any comparable issues. It was a regrettable but isolated occurrence.’