1 year old dislikes travelling in the car in the dark...any ideas???

[emjo27]

My 1 year old ds has started to get really worked up when we are travelling in the car in the dark.

The first time it happened was the day after his party, following a very busy week. We put it down to overtiredness and an upset tummy from eating too much party food. We had to stop 3 times on the journey (2.5hr journey to Wales) and after the final time he actually cried himself to sleep.

It has happened twice since, and it was only yesterday that we realised everytime it had been when it was dark outside. No real problems otherwise, unless he's been in the seat for a while and wants to get out!

Anybody any ideas of what we can do to help him? I tried being in the back with him and singing songs from ITNG which helped a little, but not much. All the usuall stuff that we've done when we had the problem when he was younger don't seem to work and we're panicking abit now that the clocks have gone back and we'll have to be picking him up 2 days a week in the car, in the dark.

Thanks in advance for any help x

A portable nightlight?

Battery powered nightlight? DS had one of these for his cot when he was tiny which he loved, and the tune wasn't too annoying, although the waterfall noise did make us need the loo a bit! If you could secure it to the back seat somehow so that it wouldn't come off (would be heavy if you did have an accident) or find a lighter one that might be a good option.

Does your car have those reading lights in the back, that can be turned on independantly, you can have those on without them being distractong to the driver, or a little torch, childrens torches tend to be less bright so he wont be able to blind you with it?

Thanks for your help.

We did try the light to see if that would help and took the sunvisors off the windows and it helped a little bit.

We do have "Scout" - a nightlight with lullabies which he has when he goes to bed or for a nap. Will perhaps have to try that in the car again to see if it helps. We did try that on the way to Wales, but I think we'd got past the point were anything was going to work!

Yes I think acting before it gets too critical is important too!

Just another thought - the temperature tends to drop rapidly in cars when it's dark. Have you had the heating on? And is the carseat one which gets left in the car (so it may have been quite cold when he got into it?) If so one of those blankets which has holes for the straps might be helpful - you could wrap him in it when you pick him up to put him in the car and then bundle him up all cosy in it. These: www.morrck.co.uk/baby-hoodies-1.html

My dd (just2) has started resisting long car rides usually done at night. We now put her to bed at 6.45, pack up the car, get her out of bed at 7.30pm and transfer her to the car seat. She wakes but is drowsy and will be back to sleep again within 10 mins.

Thanks everyone for your advice, and love those baby hoodies BertieBotts:)

We kept the car abit warmer last night, put him in the carseat in the house and gave him scout when we first got in the car and he was okay and went to sleep within about 5 minutes.

Yippee we thought...until he coughed and woke himself up half way home. Okay for a few minutes, but then started to get a little bit whingy. Had taken our ocean wonders night light musical projector thingy and so I switched that on and sat shining it on to the back seat (the things that we do as parent!)and that seemed to work.

So will have to look at more practical alternatives and hopefully once we get him into his next stage carseat things might be a little easier as well as he'll be able to see more xx