He HATES the car

[*Ali*]

My DS absolutley HATES the car, he never falls asleep in there and wil generally just scream when we are driving, eventually he will stop crying but I feel so guily driving along listenin to him cry, but it is pointless stopping and settling him because the minute we take off he will just start up again.
We are going away for easter and it is a 5 hour drive and I was hoping that some of you might have some tips to help make it not such a stressful trip with a crying baby for 5 hours.

[Arimeh]

God I know where you are coming from. Mine is 14 months now and not much has changed except his scream is louder than when he was a newborn
We just play music to try to drown him out, give him lots of toys, shove food into his mouth, give him dummy - basically anything to keep him occupied and stop crying!!!!!!!
Oh, and if it gets too bad - wind the windows down and turn up the music - seems to block out the scream more if it is flying around the car and out the windows instead of bouncing around the interior of the car straight into your eardrums!!!!
Sorry, not much assistance, but I do know where you are coming from.

[Amity]

My Alex was the same. Absolutely HATED the car. Even with dummies, feeding during driving, everything... nothing worked. Had to just let him scream.... awful feeling.

I ended up turning him around at 5months (he wasn't really big enough though and looking back at it I probably shouldn't have) and he LOVED the car. Seems like he just hated being backwards!

I just avoided the car for the first five months unless unavoidable... so don't really have any tips... unless one of you sits in the back and shoves the dummy in his mouth thousands of times...

Or can you fly?

HTH.

[Bathsheba]

My babies didn't exactly hate the car but they get very toey about being in it because we don't use it that much, generally only on the weekends and only briefly because i don't drive... but last weekend we had to do a trip that was about 2 hours. It was hard but what I find that helps is to sit back there with them instead of at the front. Then at least you can stroke their forehead etc and make eye contact that shows that you care.

[Dragonbub]

Hugs to you! I know how stressful it can be with a crying bub in the car, and it makes you feel so trapped at home cos you can't go anywhere.

I did the same as Divvy, I put Caden around when he was 7 kilos instead of 8 as recommended. I figured if it didn't work, I could always put it back again, and lets face it... it is better to avoid an accident by not stressing than it is to have the accident and baby be facing the correct way He LOVED it from then on! I also put a mirror on the back of the seat and he just giggles at it and laughs.

I have taken him on a 5 hour round trip, 2.5 hours there and then back. I stopped at the normal feeding times and then he pretty much slept in the car. I had to stop on the way home and give him a feed (on the side of the road LOL) but we got there eventually. Maybe have your partner in the back or take it in turns amusing him whilst you are driving.

Also, you could get some nursery rhyme CDs and sing along to them with him.

Good luck hun!

[~Trish~]

My first DS used to scream in the car too, I know how stressful it is! The only thing that worked was if I sat in the back next to him while DH drove. I could hold his dummy in and make "shhh" noises until he went to sleep or just distract him and talk to him during wake time.

Best of luck

[FluffyLaRue]

Oh you poor thing! My DD used to scream her wee little lungs out on car trips, be they long or short, she could scream all the way to and from an event, even after having a nice break from the car in between. Gah- awful stuff. We tried stopping to settle her but it was an exercise in futility.

They grow out of it I have no other wisdom to offer...

[Matryoshka]

Same here... i just stopped making trips unless absolutely essential because i couldn't cope, i would end up crying too because there was nothing i could do.

I would say your best bet is to sit in the back with him so he can see your face and hold his hand...

In our case in hinesight i know it wasn't so much the car or the seat but that it was a period of time where he wasn't held by me and not being able to see me made it worse. Things only got relieved when we turned his seat around, and even now he is not good on car trips over say 20 min, i just have to pack a stash of food and toys.