crys in the car seat

just wondering if any of you wonderful parents have any tips for my little oscar who becomes very distressed when i put him in his car seat. i have to stop frequently to soothe him and obviously keep car trips to a minimum but with two older children driving is a must for sports, school etc. as you all know i have oscar with me 24/7 and have him in his sling most of the day and co-sleep with him at night so this separation in the car is dreadful for him. i try and constantly talk to him telling him i am just in front of him and that he just can't see me but i am near but at times he just get distressed even with his brothers next to him. neither of my other two had this distress in the car, they loved it and feel asleep during trips.

any suggests would be greatly appreciated.

love beckles

How about putting something that smells of you in there with him?Like a shirt or something, just lay it over him.May not work but thats what I did with Gemma in her cot.

Beckles which way round is Oscar facing ?

Alexander used to cry in the car until i turned his seat round and now he is happy.

Hope you are able to find something that works.

I don't know how do-able this is, but is it possible for you to get a photo of yourself (you'd probably need a fairly big photo) that you could stick to the backseat of the car (or perhaps stick to the inside of the window or have dangling from the thingo above the window), so that he can see it whilst he is still in the rear-facing position? That way he's getting to 'see' you, just in photo form?!?!

beckles

i had the exact same problem with lani - i can distinctly remember (like it was yesterday) driving to my ob's for our 6 wk follow up visit with lani screaming and ds holding his hands over his ears most of the way.

i found lani's problem was the brightness/sunlight coming into the car. i just brought some of those window sox thingy's from super cheap auto to put over the back windows and it really did the trick for me. i also moved ds booster seat next to lani and when she got upset he used to hold her hand and talk to her (or give her a dummy if necessary) but i really feel now that it was the sunshine and light hurting her eyes.

good luck - i know it is sooooooo frustrating trying to concentrate on driving whilst having to listen to them cry

At about this time I was pulling my hair out with Jenna crying in the car. We drove everywhere with one of us permanently in the back. It was shocking, and I couldn't wait for her to hit 8kg, and I could turn the seat around.

Now - she has grown out of it. She is a dream to get into the seat generally, and hardly cries at all, and sleeps really well in it. I wont be turning the seat around for a couple more kg I think. They are heaps safer rear facing, and I think it may be worth it to work through the nasty month or two.

We have a little lamaze thing that hangs off her stabilising straps, and has things hanging off it. We pull that up to her hands when she is cracking it. Maybe you could do that with a picture of you, and attach some things to it that he can suck? Crinkly things are great.

HTH,
Fi

thank you so much for your suggestions. i have put toys there and have bought the sun shade thingy which has actually helped i think. he is still rear facing as he is only 5.5 kg so he is a while of turning around - unfortunately. i have started sleeping with a teddy with him and we are putting that with him everywhere he goes so we are hoping he will smell us on it as well.

i really appreciated all you helpful comments girls

thanks beckles

Amy cries sometimes because she hates being strapped in. We normally give her a dummy and it is the only time we need one now. Once we are moving she normally falls asleep because we have a 4WD diesel.

My DD2 use to cry all the time in the car seat until I was finally able to turn it around. Basically if I was driving I would pull over give her a comfort BF and put her back in. I put toys in with her and tried a number of things but I think she honestly just wanted to see me. When my DH would drive I would sit in the back with her. I use to carry my DD around ALL the time and co-sleep with her too. Sometimes in the car she would cry and fall asleep, other times she'd cry so much that I had no choice but to pull-over and calm her down. I would play relaxing music and try to talk to her, sometimes it would work and other times nothing I did worked and well I just always pulled over to calm her down. I mean now looking back it didn't seem like such a big deal, it was only for a short time, but I think it did prevent me from going out as much but i think once she was 6 months or less I turned the car seat around which really helped.