10 month old screams for whole car journeys... help!

[mrswee]

Hi

our dd seems very unhappy in the car and its getting worse!

we have only had a car since she was about 7 months old but she has had plenty of car journeys both before that and a lot since then.

At first we thought it was just because she was in a back facing seat but in the last two weeks we have had her in her new forward facing seat.
She was very happy in that seat for the first couple of days but it seems to have lost it's novelty already!

It seems to be worse when someone is sitting in the back with her!

Yesterday she screamed pretty much a whole 2 hour journey, there and back, stopping for a min or so for a distraction and then off again. By the time we were nearly at our destination she was hysterical but it wasn't safe to stop.
As soon as I got her out, she stopped crying.

Today she screamed all the way to nursery and all the way home with my DH in the car by himself.
DH has only learnt to drive this year so finds it quite hard to deal with.

Any ideas? we really need to sort this asap and we are off on holiday next week that requires a 4.5 hour drive down south!

This is a difficult, but common phase in children of that age.
It could be due to the child being strapped into their seat when they just want to move around etc. For some it's the backward facing aspect, but your DD is now forward facing.
Have you tried music? My DD used to scream blue murder on long journeys, but she was often placated by her favourite music.
Another trick is to give the child toys, or a mirror so that they can entertain themselves with their own reflection.
Try various things and you're likely to find something that works.
You could also try to time the journey at nap time hoping that she'll sleep for a chunk of the time.
Don't worry. She will grow out of this phase.

Thanks for your reply Ruthchan

I think it is most probably due to her being strapped in and wanting to out and moving around. She is crawling and cruising at the moment so would normally be consantly on the move!

A mirror is a good idea! we have one that we used to use when she was rear facing, so we could see what she was up to, I will try and fix it to the back of my head rest.
We are also off to the toy shop tomorrow to see what we can get in the way of toys/books that can be hung within reach so she has toys to hand.

We planned our journeys yesterday around her naps but unfortunetly she got so worked up that she never did sleep, which probably made it all so much worse!

fingers crossed she will grow out of it... I had hoped it would happen earlier!

thanks again