I just about had a panic attack!

OMG!! I would be freaking also. Check to see if there are any recalls on the carseat that you have. For some reason, the buckle must not have stayed. Luckily the baby didn't get hurt!

WoW 4cuteboys I would have been panicking as well. I always used car seats that have the five point harnesses because I I figure if the fastener came apart at one point or another at least it was still fastened at another point. There was one time when some how my son had gotten out of his car seat. I couldn't figure out how until my daughter admitted that she had undone his car seat from her car seat. After that we kept the children separated.

My kids learned pretty young how to unbuckle their car seats. They didn't do it often and usually they didn't really mean it. They would just play with the buckles and sometimes they would just pop open. I also know sometimes if I was in a hurry, I didn't push down on the buckle hard enough for it to "lock" into place. I started double checking every time - it just made me feel better.

Oh my god that would freak me out!!! Ok, you know what, you probably just didn't get the buckle fastened all the way so he wriggled out. But I would play around with the car seat for a while to make sure. Keep buckling it up and then try to tug it open and see what happens. I would also get one of those little mirrors so that you could see him from now on:)

I would be panicing too! To know that you buckled the seat is showing that this carseat is unreliable. I would contact the mfg. and see if anyone else has had this problem. It wouldn't hurt to ask for a refund while you are at it. Tell them what happened. I'm sure they would rather give your money back than be possibly faced with a lawsuit in the future. This is a major defect and a child or children will he hurt or killed if this product isn't pulled from the market.

OMG. I want you to know that MY heart is racing just reading about it! Bless your heart, you must have been in a panic. Thank God there was no accident or anything. As previous posters have said, I'd play around with the buckles and see if they are okay. I like the idea of the mirror, where were all these wonderful things when my children were little?!

OMG!! I can only imagine how frightened you were!
Most local law enforcement will do a car seat inspection for free. You can call your local PD and ask if they do. Explain what happened and tell them you are afraid of using a defective seat. They may set up a session to check your s out. Won't hurt to ask!

I'm sorry to hear about your state of panic, 4cuteboys, and I certainly can see why. I do not have anything more to add that the other responders haven't said, but I do want you to know that I'm glad that all is well.

Wow. That is scary. I'm so glad to hear that he is okay. I would definitely get the car seat checked out if I was you. On our base, the fire department does it for free. I'm not sure if that's the case everywhere, but it wouldn't hurt to give them a call on your base.

It doesn't seem likely that your little one would have been able to get his own straps done. He's what? 7 or 8 months old? I can see your 2 year old being able to, but not the baby. My son just figured out how to unbuckle his carseat last week. He doesn't do it on purpose, just when he is playing with it.

You should try an experiment. Put the carseat in the house and strap him in it and go about your business like normal and see how long it takes him to get out of it. If he is still in it after 2 hours and maybe sleeping or until he gets agitated, then it may have been just human error, but if he gets out of it there is a defect in the seat and you need to contact the manufacturer. Good luck