10 week old HATES car seat

[JerseyD]

I've run out of ideas to help my 10 week old boy in the car seat. He screams his head off and going anywhere has become so stressful now. Has anyone got any ideas? Are there other babies like this?

I have bought various distractions - mirror/frog thing from mother care

We have been to a cranial osteopath once last week, he said his birth might have made car seat position uncomfortable (he won't sleep on his back either). But whatever he did hasn't worked so far

I try singing and talking to him

I haven't bought a dummy yet- might this work?

I don't know any other baby who doesn't like it. We've booked a holiday to the Lake District when he will be 5 months, but it's a long drive from Norfolk, I don't know if I can manage it

[thisisyesterday]

i'm afraid mine was like it until he went forward facing at 10 months.
not what you want to hear I know!

might be worth giving the osteopath another go though, you usuallyn eed a few reatments to see a real difference,

[PrettyCandles]

All of mine loathed their carseat at about this age, and nothing I did seemed to make any difference. Ds1 and dd at least would fall asleep once we started driving (ds1 when we switched the engine on!), but ds2 hadn't read the manual and would keep howling for ages until he finally fell asleep. Usually just before we arrived at our destination.

At least by 5m they had all grown out of this, perhaps because they were starting to interact with their environment and could take an interest in toys etc. There's a chart you can get which fixes to the seatback in front of the baby, and you can change the images on it. My dcs seemed to like it very much. Much more so than toys fixed to the handle, which always seemed to swing too close to their eyes.

[mollymawk]

Sorry to hear this. I've had two like this. Lik thisisyesterday's DC,mine were really only happy when they went forward facing.

Until then I avoided driving if at all possible but if I had to then tried not to be on my own so that I could be a passenger next to the baby and keep them entertained by talking, singing etc. A dummy might help but they are hopeless at keeping them in themselves at this age so you would need someone next to the baby to give the dummy back when it falls out.

Not much else to advise really - maybe plan for a really looooong journey broken several times and planned around when the baby could be asleep.

It will pass though - maybe even before 5 mths, which is a long time away in baby termes.

[JerseyD]

Wow, 10 months, I did wonder whether this might be the case, I guess I just have to hope that I might get lucky and he will adjust to it a bit earlier

[Haribosmummy]

I'm afraid DS was basically like this until he went forward facing(I moved him at around 8 months because he just HATED his rear facing car seat)

For me, the mirror (so I could see him and vice versa) made a big difference, as did someone sitting in the back on the car with him.

But, quite often, the only thing to do was to pull off the road, stop the car and take him out of the car seat to console him.

I took the train a lot!!!

[digitalgirl]

Ds was like this and was also the same in his buggy. Grew out of it by about 4 or 5 months. I did come across a mum who was 'training' her dd to sit in the car seat. She was putting her in it at home for increasing amounts of time starting with 10 minutes, the next day 15 minutes. Once they'd built up to 30mins they put it in the car and did increasingly longer journeys. Don't know if it worked. Seemed like a lot of effort but I suppose if you're going to be driving them around a lot then it could save on the stress of hearing them cry. I just ended up sitting in the back with ds whenever we drove anywhere, didn't stop him crying but at least he could see me. I'm lucky that I rarely had to drive him anywhere myself.

[hmc]

Don't waste your money on a cranial osteopath. This is a common enough developmental stage. You just have to ride this one out. When he's older he'll doubtless scream blue murder when you try and wash his hair etc.

Pre-verbal, tiny children are hard work.

[Tangle]

Going for the "is it plugged in" style question , have you gone to a good car seat retailer and checked that the seat fits your DS? DD went through a phase like this when she'd got too big for the new-born insert and her ears were getting squashed. Another time we hadn't moved the straps after a growth spurt... Then by 7 months her shoulders were just too wide to fit.

Probably something you've checked 1001 times already, but I remember forgetting the most obvious things when DD was little and I wasn't getting much sleep. Hope he calms down soon.

[JerseyD]

Thank you for all the advice, it's good to know he's not the only one!

I'm going to take the head rest out today and we are really cutting down on car journeys now. Sitting in the back seems to help on some journeys but not all.

It is pretty stressful listening to full pelt screaming. I didn't worry quite as much when I thought he didn't like it. The cranial osteopath said he was probably in pain or discomfort, which really worried me. I only left him to cry once and he lasted 45mins (which was when we got home) after that he was just red and stared into space for the next few hours - felt quite guilty

Public transport maybe the answer!

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

Could you try a lay flat seat - Jane maybe?? Possible borrow one and see how you get on????

[tryingtobemarypoppins]

cgi.ebay.co.uk/Safest-Baby-Car-Seat-Jane-Matrix-Cup-Lie-Flat-Graphite_W0QQitemZ150359470301QQcmdZVie wItemQQptZUKBabyCarSeatsEH?hash=item23021f70dd&trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12%7C66%3A2%7C 39%3A1%7C72%3A1688%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Hope that helps

[thegingerwhinger]

Dd was similar when she was around that age. It was awful, and she would often vomit during screaming fits which made everything so much worse.

I put her in the front passenger seat in the end (airbag off) and that seemed to make her a bit happier. I was happier being able to see her and see that she wasn't being sick or chocking on sick, and she seemed to like seeing me and being able to interact with me.

Worth a try?

[wellbalanced]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/parenting/778289-Baby-HATES-the-car-I-think-ive-tried-everything

I posted similar a while back but mine was more car not seat, I now have a fab friend who acts as my chauffer! Which helps, along with classial music and baby einstein dvds! I too saw crainal osteopath. He is abit better now when i have to drive and im hoping with age it will disappear as i want to keep him rear facing as long as poss.
Hope your little one grows out of it soon its awful xx

[fledtoscotland]

just out of interest, what car seat are you using? i have heard negative comments about the silver cross infant carrier and babies not finding it comfortable.

we had a Jane Strata that has an option to be able to alter the slope the baby is sitting in the seat. about 160 degrees so nearly flat for a newborn and then sitting up a bit more as they get older. its got loads of padding and DS2 loved it so much he was asleep in it before the car was even out of the drive.

[JerseyD]

I was using the Maxi Cosi and I tried a Gracco one too as it looked a bit more spacey. I have just bought a Jane Matrix Cup as suggested by tryingtobemarypoppins and it has definitely helped. Car journeys still aren't perfect, but he seems to drift off to sleep a bit more and has only once got in a proper state since last week (which is pretty good for us). I'm really glad I bought it - thank you for the suggestion.

5 months seems to be the time when it improves, so it is in sight!

I hope yours gets better too wellbalanced x

[missmelly]

my DD hated the carseat at that age too. She grew out of it I think around 3 or 4 months, once she was aware of her surroundings. We took her away in a VW camper for a week at 5 months and had no problems at all, she just slept while we drove. We had to pull over and get her out after 2 or so hours though. She's now almost 7 months and likes the carseat as it means we're off somewhere interesting.

[sophybear]

Persist. They have to get used to the car and thats that! My daughter was awful on long journeys until 9 months when we got a front facing car seat.

Persist is my general advice for most things with babies. They have to learn/get used what ever it is.

x