Help! Behaviour in car seat

[mum2oneloudbaby]

dd 7 mths old. has pretty much hated car seat from day 1 but we thought she had got used to the idea because we have had about 3 weeks of calm on car journeys. but she was just teasing .

she screams none stop until we either get to where we are going or she falls asleep.

she has loads of room in the seat, i only ever put her in it if she is clean and doesn't need feeding.

i change the toys regularly to try to distract her. we have sat in the back with her which just makes it worse.

i would have thought by now she would have figured out that when in the car she sits in her seat and that this will not change.

anybody got any ideas why, anybody got any tips on what we can do. i am at the end of my tether.

knocked the wing mirror of dh's car yesterday - this is not good

[Kerri28]

my dd very similar. i turn up the music (and bass) very loud

does the trick, i think

[mum2oneloudbaby]

either it does the trick or drowns them out

will give it a try. maybe she just wants to hear the radio!

[onwardandupward]

Try walking or using the bus? Sorry if that comes across as facetious - we are not a car owning family, and it has been my experience that children much prefer car seats once they are a) big enough to look outside and b) old enough to get the idea that when you go in a car you generally go somewhere exciting. But as I say, we don't own a car, so we've never had to work out a day-to-day solution

At that age, I can't imagine having managed a car journey without having been doing the old whip-the-breast-out-and-contort-self-madly-to-soothe-child game. (and no, I have never done that while behind the wheel!!!)

[Ecmo]

my dd hated the car too. She would scream from the moment you put her in it to the moment you took her out. she was a really easy baby apart from that.
I'm sorry I can't remember exactly what age she grew out of it but not till she was over a year old. I used to empty the glove box in an attempt to keep her quiet on long journeys. Play some music or turn up the radio!

[violetsmile]

My ds is exactly the same. He's always been very high needs and needed a lot of movement and stimulation.

I think he just doesn't 'get' the concept of going in the car to actually go somewhere.

All he sees is that he's being restricted into a chair and he has to sit still for no reason as far as he knows.

I'm afraid we try and time long journeys around his naps, which mean the days out have to be planned maticullously!

Short journeys we manage to give ds a snack of some sort to pacify him.

If it's any longer and ds isn't ready for a nap then I have to resort to bottle feeding him in the back while dh drives.

I'm sure it'll get easier when they can understand more and look lout the windows and the world is a bit less abstract.

Also, giving ds a plastic peg to hold and chonp on often keeps him amused for 5-10 mins if we are just popping out for a few minutes!

I also think that music helps, if nothing else it tends to occupy me and stop me from stressing out too much.

We also found that it made it worse if we sat in the back (unless feeding) and even if we kept turning around to talk to him,

it just made him more aware of the fact that he was strapped n and couldn't get to us!

It will pass (I hope!!!!!!)

[violetsmile]

Sorry, should have said, h is 11 months now and now just sort of whinges and grizzles mostly instead of full blown screaming so there has been a slight improvement!

[mum2oneloudbaby]

reading this i think i may have to just invest in some earplugs for the shortish journeys.

like you violetsmile we plan long journeys around nap times it's a bit like a military operation.

onward and upward i do walk for the short journeys (can't afford the diesel in current climes) but unfortunately live in a small town and public transport virtually none existent only 2 buses a day.