playful ways to stop carseat battles?

[peachespoe]

I just finished reading the great thread on playful parenting games to get our babes to cooperate. There were a few suggestions for getting into the carseat, but my dd is only 16 months old and many of them wouldn't work with her quite yet. I was wondering if anyone had some ideas of playful ways to help me get a 16 month old into the carseat without a struggle.

I have tired silly songs, interesting toys, and so forth, but nothing is really helping our situation. DD screams and arches her back when I try to put her in the seat. Once she is finally in and we are moving, she is fine, it's just the transition into the seat.

Thanks ahead of time!!

[Just1More]

Food? Dd always lets me put her in if I hand her a snack cup just before I start, or poke something in her mouth to distract her while I get her in.

Also, I've been known to "fold" mine into the carseat position when I picked them up to leave. 16mo is old enough to pick up on this trick after a few times, but it may buy you a couple of buckle-ups. Anyway, I "pre-sit" them as I'm holding them, then go the car (with the door already open.) Then, quick as I possibly can, I pop them in their seat, and put my hand high on their leg, firmly. It's impossible at that point for them to arch and get out because my hand is acting as a leg strap. I buckle the bottom and then the top, and then hand over the toys/food/or sing something. If they are particularly upset, I'll let them nurse a minute before I go get in.

ETA: I do it that way because it shortens the buckle-up business and makes it seem much less like physically assault to me. Shoving them in, and forcing them down while screaming and arching is no fun, which you know. So, by getting the job done super fast, and pre-empting at least the arching, I've saved on a lot of "forcing", which I hate doing.

[fbsurvivor]

I don't have any answers, but I'm in the same boat. My daughter is 17 months and still hates the car seat. We do give her an Elmo doll, but that mainly helps once she's buckled in.

[umsami]

Do you have more than one child? I know when DD and DS2 were having issues... we turned it into a game. Could Mommy get the seatbelt on them before big brother buckled his own seat belt? For some reason, even now that they're older... they still try and race and see who has their seatbelt on first. Poor Mom always loses.

Now, when DS1 was alone... it was a struggle. We used to do it with tickles and kisses... but that didn't always work. (Tickle the area you're going to buckle in.)

[mizznicole]

I used to say, "Sorry, son, blame the government." But now I say, "Show me how you can sit on your dupa!" That's working this week. It's amazing how strong they are...

[khaoskat]

My DD2 would do that all the time. We would offer her a toy or a sippy cup or a snack first. Sometimes it wouldn't work. So, we started tickling her, and that usually "broke" her stance. We would make sure we basically had the seat straps all together, but very loose, and once the stance was broke, would quickly pull the straps tight on the Britax. Then we would give the sippy/snack/toy.

Right now, the struggle is she wants to do it herself. And sometimes above, we would have her help us and that helped a lot with the fighting the seat. She got to help mommy/daddy to put her seat together. Now she wants to do it almost all the time. By the time she was 2 should could do all the buckles and straps and even pull them tight with almost no help.