16 month old really hates travelling in the car, any suggestions for more peaceful journeys?!

[waffles1]

This has been going on for months, moving ds to the bigger car seat at 11 months helped for a while but now it's back to being a nightmare. Any journey over 15 minutes long start with moaning and then eventually turns into full blown screaming and crying, it's the most distracting thing ever when you're trying to drive and has resulted in me now avoiding the car for any longer journeys. This is preventing us from visiting relatives and daytrips as i really can't bear to drive when he's like this for risk of having an accident :-(
DS wil only fall asleep if it's near naptime so that's a little solution but again that's after getting in a state, plus naptime is not always the best time to travel.
So far we've tried nursery rhymes which work for a little while, toys (these get chucked on the floor!!), snacks but really hate to use food to keep him happy!!
I think the problem is that he has always been such an active little boy that he just hates to feel restrained in any way.
Any other suggestions or is this just another phase??

My DD was pretty adverse to car journeys but we just stuck with it. I sit in the back with her, OH drives, and we sing, chat, read books and do some drawings. I found magazines really handy, they are a bit advanced for 16 months but you get stickers, some kind of toy, something to colour in and scribble on.
She's now 2.7 and is ok with it. They're never going to love it but I feel they just need to learn that there are somethings they are going to have to put up with.

DS was like this. We moved his seat into the front, i drew a steering wheel onto a plastic plate and he really got into 'driving' in the front. Plus he could see more which seemed to keeps his interest for longer. It actually works better as I get all the back seat and it's easier to pass snacks etc forward to him than having to contort myself to pass it back to him iyswim.

Like Bunnys I sat in with DD for a while (she used to scream blue murder). I'd make sure I got in first so she wasn't put in on her own. Distraction is also good. If it's any consolation this was just a phase. She's old enough now (18 months) to know that the car seat means she's going somewhere exciting like the swings! Do you want to go to the swings? "CAR SEAT CAR SEAT CAR SEAT!!!!" she bloody loves it.

Glad I'm not the only one struggling with car seat headaches. DD is 20mo and all I hear is 'stuck' 'stuck' 'stuck'... screams and bashing things. She tries to pull off the straps and constantly wants to escape! Can't really add anything but going to try to making sure she has books etc to 'read' and we need to get the enthusiasm mustering going as like someone says that 'we're going X' generally does help. I know if I'm going on long journey my myself I do just make sure I keep a never ending supply of snacks and bits and bobs that can be passed backwards to her, but as others say, not ideal contortionist style moments. Sometimes I just find opening and closing windows can distract her or now she is just getting to age where she can 'spot' things so we do spend quite a lot of time looking for trucks, diggers and tractors.

Portable DVD player and lots of snacks work for 3yo DS. And travelling late morning so he'll sleep for an hour or so (although this means later bedtime so you choose your battles).

My 3yo niece can apparently be out of her car seat straps before they reach the end of their road.

Really tough one but it is just a phase and they should grow out of it hopefully soon!! Used to be a nightmare for us, but somehow now that DS is a bit older it suddenly isn't so bad anymore. His concentration span is longer so he is more interested in playing with toys and looking at books in the car. We chat about things we see (like buses, trucks, diggers), sing and get excited about where we're going. Like someone else we also moved the carseat into the front for a while though now he is back in the back. We also let him pick a toy or two to take with us in the car.

Fiat Multipla or Honda FR-V.

They have three seats in the front, so the kid is right next to you. It makes it easier to chat on, the kid can see more, and if they get bored you can tickle their feet :)

We got our DS one of these
steering wheel toy
from Halfords and he loved it. Has indicators, a horn, an ignition sound, and gear stick.... Now he just copies us driving (even gets the indicators right!!) and loves long journeys. Is dead handy as it hangs off the back of the seat in front so he can't chuck it away in a paddy and its always accessible. Worth every penny

we drove from NW England to Normandy with a just-turned-1-year-old, plus older children, many years ago.

They each had a box of Stuff - age-appropriate obv - but they all also had walkmans (it was that long ago ) & the baby loved listening to story tapes

If your DS is the only child in the car, can an adult sit in the back with him (as long as there are 2 of you there?) to swap toys & pick things up etc?

Thanks all for some fab ideas! Will try a few of them out :-)

Are we the only ones that bought a portable dvd player to stop the screaming? it works wonders for long journeys!!

Dd1 was like this. We got in car DVDs when she turned 3.... It changed our lives.

Dd2 was 12 months when we bought them and showing signs of following in dd1's footsteps but the DVDs even kept her interest.

We only use them for journeys of over about an hour (and I suspect that it helps that they aren't allowed to watch tv at home - so they now look forward to journeys)