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Original poster

Baby HATES the car - please help me

17 replies

morningpaper · 14/02/2006 13:14

Please help me, I am getting stressed!

My 4 month old HATES being in the car. After about 3 or 4 minutes she starts SCREAMING (pissed off/bored, not in pain or anything) and continues to scream all the time we are driving, until I get her out. She screams, is sick, retches, cries, gets very hot and sweaty (so I have to keep the car cool) and it is very stressful for us and our three-year-old daughter.

We are unable to visit people at weekends and are now cutting out all non-essential journeys of over about 10 minutes. It is really difficult.

Anyone else experienced this? Did it improve when they moved to a forward-facing car-seat?

OP posts:

Dinker · 14/02/2006 13:21

Just a thought. Could she be travel sick. May improve with forward facing

Kelly1978 · 14/02/2006 13:21

Are you sure she isn't travel sick? My dd was often like this, she suffered travel sickness from being a baby until she reached 5. It got worse when we went to forward facing.

geekgrrl · 14/02/2006 13:24

We had this too - it's horrible and tbh the options are limited. Mine all enjoyed one of those soft toy bars for the car seat handle at that age - lots of swatting and chewing to keep them busy for a bit.
Once they were 8 months or so I used pass them baby biscuit after baby biscuit, now that really works - but is obviously still some time off for you.

I don't think babies get travel-sick, their vestibular system matures later, otherwise they'd be feeling queasy being carried I guess.

Kelly1978 · 14/02/2006 13:33

try telling that to my dd, who was exorcist sick on any car journey over 5 miles from about 3 months!

geekgrrl · 14/02/2006 13:33

crikey, well I have been known to be wrong.

Kelly1978 · 14/02/2006 13:34

lol, I think she was rather exceptional. I couldn't even take her on buses until she was old enough for phenergan.

Original poster

morningpaper · 14/02/2006 13:35

She is like this in the pram too, so I suspect it is boredom and an innate lack of being soothed by movement (although she likes the sling).

My life is huge fun at the moment as you can imagine!

OP posts:

Bozza · 14/02/2006 13:36

I think the being sick is probably related to getting all hot and bothered and upset. DS was like this at 6 months. He had been fine prior to that but on a journey from Yorkshire to Cornwall he decided he would not sleep in his car seat! And the same the rest of the holiday - we literally had to park up and lay him down across the back seat so he would have a nap. We were sufficiently desperate to buy one of those forward/backward facing car seats so he was a bit more upright and that improved the situation slightly.

Original poster

morningpaper · 14/02/2006 13:36

Can you get anything other than bucket/rear-facing-seats for babies of 15lb?

OP posts:

Enid · 14/02/2006 13:38

try a differnt seat? borrow one if you can

you never know it might be uncomfortable

geekgrrl · 14/02/2006 13:43

they have to be rear facing at that age - the head is too heavy for the neck to support in case of a crash.
Does she have any toys on her car seat?

Bozza · 14/02/2006 13:44

Well we had a Graco seat that was part of the travel system and we then bought a forward/backward facing one but he still had to be backwards in it at that point. But he was a bit less laid back. DS was always a very "upright baby" - would never be cradled, always had to be held on the shoulder etc. It helped a little.

She will presumably be much too light/unable to sit to contemplate a forward facing one for quite a while yet. Could one of you sit in the back and entertain her? Does she never sleep?

Original poster

morningpaper · 14/02/2006 13:57

I have tried sitting-in-the-back, replacing dummy constantly, giving stream of toys, various music CDs, but she is just FURIOUS, nothing seems to help.

I thought that dd was in a forward-facing one from about 6 months (but I might be wrong, I can't really remember). Are none of them suitable then? Not even recliners?

She doesn't sleep much during the day anyway - not for longer than 20 minutes. I had to go up the motorway last week and had 1 solid hour of screaming with a bright red sweaty baby, it was REALLY bad.

OP posts:

Marne · 14/02/2006 14:20

DD was like this, shes 2 now and still is'nt keen on the car, i cant take her very far without her crying, i put her in a foward facing car seat at 5 months but she was big for her age, i think most of them say from 6 months, this helped a bit but she still gets fed up and she will never sleep in the car.

Bozza · 15/02/2006 11:09

Marne I am that you put her into a forward facing car seat at 5 months. They are really not supposed to go into them until they are 20lbs and can sit up unaided easily. Although both of mine were slightly under the weight when they went forwards for the reasons morningpaper states.

Original poster

morningpaper · 15/02/2006 15:24

I think I had my first in one from about 5 months

To be honest I am far more likely to crash with a screaming choking baby in the back than with q quiet one ... I think it was a calculated risk tbh.

OP posts:

Lakota · 15/02/2006 15:31

I'm afraid my DS still hates being in the car now he's in a front facing seat and gets just like yours, sweaty and pissed off. DH drives and I have to cram in the back - and I do get carsick - relentlessly keeping up a stream of chatter, toys and breadsticks for the full 5 hours it takes to get to my parents' house. I have every sympathy and little practical advice I'm afraid.

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