Baby screams during every car journey!

[ShelbyPa1991]

My nearly 18 week old screams blue murder every car journey unless she is asleep. She screams to the point of holding her breath. We upgraded her car seat thinking it was that, apparently it isn’t. If someone sits in the back with her to distract her she is fine but I absolutely cannot have someone there all the time.
does anyone have any advice?

It’s gotten so bad that it makes me want to cry whenever it happens and I don’t want to be that mum that doesn’t go anywhere ever!

My DS was like this. Screaming, shuddering, sweating, hyperventilating. For every minute of every journey. We once drove from Norfolk to Ireland. The ferry was a very welcome reprieve.

Lots of people couldn't believe it was that bad and would suggest snacks and mirrors and songs and sitting with him and using a soothing voice and so on and nothing helped. MIL repeatedly suggested we just needed to sing to him and reassure him. DH let her drive DS home so she could just sing to him and reassure him. She was in tears by the end of the journey and refused to drive him again.

He was one for whom turning him front facing was the magic bullet. We found out once verbal that he gets car sick. He was a sicky baby anyway and the screaming made him sick but we simply didn't realise. He's 14 now and has to sit in the front and have regular breaks.

Sorry to say but DD(7) screamed like this until at least 9-10 months old. It wasn't travel sickness because she never had any issues later on. I think she was just bored from not being able to see anything rear-facing. It disappeared immediately after front facing and being able to look out the window. She also screamed a lot in the pram lying flat but totally fine in a buggy where she could see what was going on.

I was also questioning my parenting having not seen this suggestion until your post! It worked wonders for us and was the only way I could safely drive. My DS doesn’t need a tablet now and is perfectly content in the car but it saved us for a period of time!

Our DD was like this, we borrowed a different infant car seat from a friend to see if it made any difference and it completely solved the problem. No more tears and red face screaming.

What car seat are you currently using?

Both of mine were like this. Screaming unless they were asleep.

There was nothing to explain it. Neither of them are car sick and both now like going in the car. They probably grew out of it around 1ish.

@Alfabettyjettywe’ve upgraded her seat to the next one in the cybex line

My dd was like this until she got a bit bigger. I think she was just a small baby and has always hated having her movement restricted. I sang constantly too her in the car but the only thing that worked was getting older.

And just to add, we didn’t forward face early as we had the luxury of not really needing to use the car all that much. But it was definitely a sensory thing. It’s kinda no surprise really when you think about them being fixed in one position, travelling backwards, staring constantly at a black seat and not being able to see their parents. I’m certain if we had FF them earlier they would have stopped screaming. DC1 responded well to a phone playing mr tumble by about 9 or 10 months, but nothing stopped DC2 crying I’m afraid.

If someone next to her in the back soothes her then just put her in the front and turn the airbag off.

It was car sickness here too. Absolutely nothing could stop the screaming. My MiL refused to drive him after one journey! She had never known a baby scream like that for so long and not fall asleep after 5 mins from exhaustion. But no, he could keep it up for hours!

Got much better once he could FF, which we did asap, but he is still sick occasionally on very windy roads.

My DS was like this, it was awful as I had to travel a lot every weekend to visit family. I also spent some journeys in tears myself at his distress. I’ve often wondered why so many things are deemed as acceptable with babies, but if you leave them to cry at night then you’re made to feel guilty of leaving them with terrible trauma.

My first child was like this, it made life very difficult and meant I couldn’t drive far on my own with her. Dh would usually drive whilst I sat in the back trying to calm her down. I can’t remember how long it lasted, I am guessing she grew out of it once she could play with toys to distract herself. My 2nd dd was the opposite and would sleep as soon as we put her in the car.