As a parent, one thing that is on your mind a lot is the safety of your child. From the moment they are born, you begin child proofing your home, making sure it's a safe place for your child to live. Stair gates, table corner covers, fire guards, the list goes on. One of the most expensive safety items you buy for your baby is a car seat.
A car seat can range from £50-£300, but it's a small price to pay for your childs safety. We put our hope in the the fact that this seat will keep our baby/child protected in the awful event of a crash.
So what if you arrive home to find the expensive car seat that is protecting your child is actually not secured in to the car properly.
This has happened to us more than once or twice. One afternoon we were on a quick journey, and my daughters car seat was accidentally unclipped when the person in the middle was trying to free their own seatbelt. When we arrived home and I lifted her out of her seat and it fell forward as I moved her, my tummy did a flip, I couldn't believe we'd traveled all the way home and her seat wasn't secure.
My son uses a booster seat now, and due to some sensory issues he can sometimes takes the notion that he doesn't want the seat belt across his body, and he quite regularly unclips it during the journey. It can be a nightmare trying to keep it on.
That's why when I heard about the Beltlock, I couldn't wait to try it.
The Beltlock is a nifty little safety device that is designed to stop children accidentally releasing the seatbelt securing their car seat. Once this is fitted to the seatbelt receiver, it becomes impossible for the button to be pressed by little fingers, or any fingers for that matter. You need keys, or something similarly thin to remove it.
It's pretty easy to use, you just place it over the seatbelt receiver, then push the buckle in through the slot until it clicks in to place as normal, and that's it. Once it's on I can see any way that it could be removed accidentally, it's absolutely secure. Saying that, it's quite easy to remove if you know what you are doing, simply get your car keys and push them through the slot to push the button underneath and it will come away easily.
I think it's a great wee thing, such a simple idea, I don't know how it wasn't thought of earlier. It will save us from having to keep checking to make sure Neil doesn't remove his seatbelt every five minutes, and gives us great peace of mind on our car journeys. I'm going to have to order a second one for Caitlin's car seat too.
It's made by an Irish company called Project5 Creations Ltd and is available through beltlock.ie or amazon. They are priced at €12.50 with €4 delivery to the UK, and €2.50 delivery to Ireland. I've worked this out to be about £14, which I think is pretty reasonable.
Like I said earlier, what's the point in having an expensive car seat in the car if someones little fingers have unsecured it, so another £14 is reasonable to make sure your child is safe.
You can see my review, and fitting instructions on my YouTube video:
You can connect with Beltlock via their twitter, facebook or youtube.
Please note, I was sent a Beltlock to test and review. All opinions are my own.
I love reading all of your comments and getting to interact with all my readers so pop a comment in the section below and lets chit chat.
i really like the sound of it, but if your child is secured using the seatbelt (not a car seat) it might hinder someone getting your child out swiftly in the event of an accident?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about that. I suppose most people carry keys, you could take a sharpie and write on the belt lock 'insert key' or something, so anyone rescuing your child would know how to unlock it? Good point though.
DeleteThere's nothing more frustrating than having to refit a car seat after the buckle has been pressed accidentally but like Jaime I'm not sure about how safe it would be in an emergency? I suppose you'd be undoing the buckles of the car seat harness?
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up with #TriedTested
I suppose you may just have to use it with car seats that also have their own harness, then there would be no issue, most children in a booster seat using the cars seat belt should probably be old enough to understand they shouldn't undo their seat belt, except in some occasions like with my son. It's definitely something to think about!
DeleteIt's a clever idea - I know a lot of children who can undo their seatbelts. I think I would only be happy using it for seats where a child has their own harness - for the same reason the others mention. Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested
ReplyDeleteI think this is a really clever idea. I am forever barking at my children for undoing their seatbelts {when in a cab etc} but I really like this wee product. #Triedandtested
ReplyDeleteI would use it with no worries, in an emergency being described above quite often the seatbelts can get damaged jammed without anything like this in use. Emergency services carry devices to cut seat belts and I would rather they had to take a small amount of time to cut the belt than have a crash with the belt off and the child not secured to be honest.
ReplyDelete