Help - baby in car

[Merrygoround8]

Posting for any ideas/support!

My baby hates the car. Ever since she was 5 weeks old, every journey she screams until she can barely breathe. I honestly cannot face it but I have to do journeys for my other kids. The rest of the time I stay home or only go where I can walk and it’s really affecting my feeling of freedom now.

Has anyone had this? I am out of ideas. It is not the car seat, she’s happy to be in it as a buggy attachment.

We have tried the below, nothing makes a difference beyond about 3 mins.

• different car seats
• different cars
• toys / music / distraction / YouTube baby sensory!
• sitting next to her
• being in the front (airbag off!)
• mirrors
• windows open / shut
• Being fully fed / not fully fed in case queasy
• just woken up / middle of wake window / sleepy

Perhaps the strangest part is that she is not a sensitive or highly strung baby. She is otherwsie very chirpy and relaxed!

Has anyone had this / did they grow out of it? She’s 4 months old so a way off being able to forward face, if that would even help.

Desperately hoping there is a magic solution I have missed or some reassurance this will pass soon…..

Could it be reflux?

Absolute sympathy, my 4 month old is the same. I've resorted to the picture of me in the back, but it hasn't made much difference!
Have tried the same as you (car seats, me in the back, singing, etc etc).
My next things to try are 1. Removing the mirror as apparently 'reducing stimulation' might help?! 2. Car sickness bands/travel bands 3. A muslin that smells like me
Things that made a bit of difference - time of day (better in the morning, fed, clean nappy, about to have a nap), car seat - changed from infant carriers (tried two) to joie stages which is higher up and doesn't have a hood (didn't solve problem but has made morning trips more tolerable). The happy song by imogen heap (worked at the beginning but no longer). None have solved the problem but have made slight improvements.
Mostly I just walk a lot and have called in favours for getting my older child to activities etc as the baby is a disaster in the car after school.

I would be surprised….. no other symptoms of this whatsoever, or any discomfort during the day even! Happy before/during/after feeds! It’s so strange.

Thank you!
Sounds very similar…. Afternoons worse here too. I can just about get 7mins out of her with just mild moaning in the morning before it kicks off. Yesterday afternoon I hadn’t made it out my driveway before it got bad, I had to pull over halfway through a 7 min journey to let her catch her breath. It’s awful as it feels like it spoils the day for everyone. My older kids get in the car and I can’t chat to them or ask about their day, and as soon as we get home I have to immediately calm the baby down (which is taking longer and longer now) rather than give them any attention at all!

Same. Mine hated the car. We gradually got to a limit of twenty minutes, anything longer and she would cry. This went on for what seemed like an age.
Tried everything. I’d forgotten this but I would sit in the back, squashed between two car seats, trying to keep the smaller one entertained. Gradually it got better, but she must have been 12 months or so by then.

I wondered about reflux at the time, but there were no other signs of it.

Something like this helps https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreams-Soother-Remote-Melodies-Newborns/dp/B07DM86Z43/ref=asc_df_B07DM86Z43?mcid=b16d87c513363f0181c3ad35b47da854&th=1&psc=1&hvocijid=4312268560117157750-B07DM86Z43-&hvexpln=74&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696285193871&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4312268560117157750&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9041122&hvtargid=pla-2281435177898&psc=1&gad_source=1