My 3 month old HATES the car seat...

[WickerHearts]

That's about it really, I have a 3 month old DD and she has always heated the car seat. From the moment she's sat in it she starts crying and will cry the whole time she is awake in it
Silly question I'm sure, as I'm hoping she'll grow out of it, but has anyone else got/had this problem? Is there any magical solutions?
Xx

Ours hated it from the start, ended up being diagnosed with reflux. We've found that a dummy helps a little. Other than that we avoid car journeys if there's a public transport alternative! Sorry I can't be more help but wanted you to know it isn't just you

Ds was like this. We planned journeys for naptime and prayed he didn't wake up

Ive had 2 car haters. No magic solution but there are some things to try. Some of these worked for one or both of mine:

1. Dummy (this was a game changer for both my kids)
2. Swap to a group 0/1 erf seat as some don't like the little infant carriers.
3. Singing/talking
4. Time trips around naps
5. Dont Time trips when baby is tired (I know this is in direct conflict with point 4 but DD screamed more when she was tired).
6. Snacks when they are old enough.
7. Then airbags off and put baby on front passenger seat.

I think that's about all the things we tried. As I said the magic combination will vary from child to child to its a bit of trial and error and nothing completed ended the misery but it did help. DS was never really happy until we turned him forward facing at 2yo. DD is nearly 10months old and is normally ok unless she is overtired.

I just came and on to say reflux but spotted jäger beat me to it

I use the bigger group car seat with insert and the tablet on Netflix tied to the head rest. A few people have mentioned about not being good for DS because it's screen time but it's that or we end up crashing or he chokes on his own saliva so screen time it is. It doesn't always work.

Take the new born insert bit out, mirror attached to headrest so you can see them, toys attached to the handle.

DS2 hated his till we swapped to forward facing at about 10 months.

Long journeys timed with naps. Had to put up with a lot of screaming. Very distracting, was caught speeding as I wasn't paying enough attention to see speed limit sign. Shook me up as it could have ended a lot worse.

My DS is 4 months and exactly the same. He has his dummy then I have to pull over constantly to put it back in as he spits it out. The last week he seems to have got better and so I'm hoping it's a phase he will grow out of.

Blazed I've had 2 speeding tickets since he was born! Both rushing to get home and missed 30 signs.

We used to take DS1 out in the car to get him to sleep, worked every time. With DS2 we avoid the car seat as much as we can. He screamed the whole way home from the hospital and has cried on almost every journey since. He's 18 months now and still cries most of the time.
We avoid long journeys as much as possible, we've never done so much in our local area! We try to time longer journeys around nap time but this doesn't always work. For the last long journey we did he slept one hour and cried he other two.
He has snacks and toys but the only thing that really works is the iPad playing nursery rhyme videos. Not ideal but he gets in such a state otherwise. He's still rf and I'm trying to keep him that way for as long as possible but I'm thinking of turning him ff at 2 to see if it makes a difference.

Thank you for your replies ladies, glad to know my little one isn't the only car seat hating baby out there!
Yes the dummy helps, though when she spits it out she's worse than if she hasn't got it. Traffic is a no go when she's awake, I add miles on to each journey sometimes just to go the long way and to keep moving.
Hopefully this is something she'll grow out of. I am still using the car as I normally would, in the hope that eventually just get used to it...no luck yet!! Lol xx

In our case changing the car seat(by accident) helped. The car was stolen with the car seat in it! Borrowed a cheap old (but roomy) temporary one from friends, baby was happy in it! Returned to the posh plush more modern one, baby started hating being in the car 😶. Bought the same as the old friend's one, baby was happy again! Never would have thought to blame the carseat!

My first hated the car.

I walked everywhere!

Saying that, he improved a lot once he was forward facing (not that I advocate switching them too soon, it's just to let you know there is hope of an improvement!).

Both dc now travel brilliantly. Never travel sick, quite happy on the car on long journeys.

Has this with both mine in the early months.
What helped in end was:

• taking new born wedge out of the bottom when baby big enough
• putting page of high contrast pictures that I had drawn on back seat to look at

-singing

• taking out for short trips round the block in evening when husband got home so they got used to it when we weren't going anywhere and could stop easily, and with another adult in the car. We love close to town so mostly walked so I think they were put used to being in car much.

I remember pulling over to cuddle and comfort so many times on any short journey. And then one day just noticing they don't cry anymore at around 3 months.