4 hour drive with 7 month old who hates the car...tips please!

[Cherry85]

hi we are driving from Scotland to the lake district next week and our 7 month old isn't very good in the car. On a 40 min drive I need to resort to giving him my phone to play with about 25 mins in to stop the screaming.

Any tips? I'm dreading the drive and have a tablet set up for him to watch as an absolute back up but dont want to get into the habit!

Will he sleep if you time it at nap time? Someone in the back to help entertain?

I always travelled at bedtime they’d go straight to sleep. Can you do that? Roads are often clearer and we’d have a faster journey too?

I often did a 4 hour drive with just my baby and dog and that worked for me.

Yep. I agree with the others. A sleeping child is the most easy to travel with. Leave late at night so they are very tired.

Yes, make it at bedtime!

We've just done several hours with a 7 month old and my top tips are have someone in the back with him to entertain him. Stop as many times as possible if he is awake and also set off as early as possible so he hopefully falls asleep. I'm not going to pretend it wasn't stressful but we got there in the end and we all survived.

We had this problem - in the end I took the train with DS and DH collects at the other end. Best decision ever!

We can't drive at night as need to arrive at 11am so will be leaving about 7 🙈. Will maybe wake him at 5am and have him up for a bit before we go so he sleeps for a while and will stop where we can.

My advice is to use the iPad if you need to, driving with a screaming baby is really stressful and probably dangerous.

Have a safe drive.

You can still drive at night and just waste a couple of hours before 11, depending on why you are travelling.

Put the baby to bed, at about 11.30 pack the car and put baby still in sleeping clothes into the car - best if you can do this without waking. Get to your destination early and have breakfast. Or have breakfast at the last service station on the motorway.

When it is nap time for the baby you all take a nap.

I've also come across people doing the train with a child and meeting dad at the end.

Does he transfer from/to car asleep? If so, absolutely try and rejig timings so you leave early morning/bedtime.

However, if like mine he won’t (she wakes instantly upon being touched while asleep) 100% use the iPad. We used it to travel to our holiday destination last week and it was so much easier. She hasn’t asked for it since, so it’s not formed a habit.

I agree with all the night drivers, I’ve just done 6 hours with a 14 month old who also hates the car. We left at 2 am. The roads are clear and it’s much less stress than daytime driving. If you arrive early, take baby a walk in pram.

Just use the tablet! I also had a car screamer and it's really unpleasant - for you and your baby. Just do whatever it takes to get there safely with the minimum amount of stress. You won't create a tech-junkie baby by showing him something on the tablet while you're driving.