Long car journey with baby

[ARodeoQueen]

I have a 3 month old and a 5 year old. At the end of the month we are going on holiday about 3ish hours away. Problem is baby does not travel well in the car! She can get very upset and scream which is obviously distressing for everyone. Does anyone have any top tips? When my son was little I used to sit in the back with him but obviously that is not an option. I have tried to squeeze myself into the middle but I don't fit! We have a mirror and I plan to give my son toys/dummy to keep her amuse. We will try and time the journey around naps etc but I am worried about it. Does anyone have any other pearls of wisdom? We are also going to purchase a roof box as the stuff to bring is unreal so any recommendations would be great too. Thank you!

Do you have any sources to back this up?

Obviously it’s never ideal to have a child in the front as the rear seats are safer in most types of crashes but they are legally allowed to be in any passenger seat in the vehicle as long as they are in an appropriate and correctly fitted and I can’t find anything to specifically advise waiting until 12?

And I feel on the balance of weighing risks it’s much safer to have a correctly restrained child in the front seat than it os to have a screaming infant distracting the driver for a four hour drive

We did a lot of long journeys with our little one and we basically made the travel day part of the holiday - we stopped somewhere tired them out with a good wake window and feed, travelled until the end of the next nap and repeated. National trust were great for this so you could have a walk around and show them the flowers etc. (as she's only 4 months!). Also...this was a godsend when she hated the car seat: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1Nz2pYdVTiSQ5yKfeoffsp?si=PHsU_lWcRlS-qSrKSrYe5w&pi=sKfxCbzvQ8yf7 A nursery rhymes playlist that was just an instant soother for her with us singing along! If the link doesn't work search for Nursery Rhymes UK and it's one of the first to pop up.

Three hours isn't long, I thought you were going to say twenty hours!

Could you travel at night? Dress your little ones in pyjamas, plus socks. A fluffy blanket over them, they may sleep all the way.