She’s clever! What maker told mum whose two-year-old kept unbuckling £250 car seat
WITH a price tag of £250, you would expect a top-of-the-range car safety seat to secure your child.
But a mother claims her two-year-old can easily undo the buckle of her seat and has even fallen out and cut her head.
Mel Fordham, of Honiton, Devon, says daughter Everly has been unclipping herself from her Joie Spin 360 seat during journeys.
But when the mother of three complained to the manufacturers, she says they told her she had a ‘clever child who had worked it out’, and to tell her daughter ‘not to do it’.
Mrs Fordham, 29, says she is at her wits’ end about Everly’s safety, and worries that other children could be at risk. She added: ‘It’s got to the point where she’ll do it ten-plus times in a journey. I can’t get to the end of the drive without her doing it.
‘We can’t travel with her in the back of the car unless there’s someone in the back with her. And now with the other children back in school it’s not feasible. I’m heavily pregnant as well, so we just can’t travel like that with my daughter in danger. A crash can happen at any time.’
Everly started escaping from the car seat, bought from Mothercare in Taunton on January 14 this year, at just 18 months old.
Mrs Fordham and husband Martin, 42, a farrier, complained to Mothercare and Joie after Everly fell out of her seat while the family were travelling home from a day out in July.
A Joie spokesman said: ‘We sympathise with Mel. As many parents know, once a child has learnt to unbuckle their car seat it can be difficult to deter them.
‘Under UK law, all car seat manufacturers must set the strength of their restraints within strict parameters... to make sure emergency services can release a child quickly from their car seat in the event of an accident.
‘We’ve been in touch with Mel to organise collection of her car seat to test the buckle.’
A Mothercare spokesman said: ‘Mothercare is in direct contact with the customer to help resolve the issue.’