NCDR: I thought cars were magic baby tranquilizers?

laxchick60

So my LO definitely has a melt down every.single.car ride... I have 10 min or less after I put her in her seat before it starts, but it invariably starts, whether I put her in while she's asleep or not. Anyone else have a baby like this? When did it start to get better?

kaeti_su

My baby hates the car/carseat. It really sucks because all of my/her medical appointments are half an hour away. Now that she can take a bottle, I'm going to start having family watch her when I have appointments and errands.

a.bartholomew

Well, not sure if this will make you feel better.  My DD went in stages.  She would be fine-then she would hate it-then she would be fine.  We are in a hating stage right now.  GL, I know it can be hard to get the strength up to leave the house when they are like that!

Nikki1007

Mine went in stages also. Right now we are in the hate stage and I am considering a DVD player for the back seat since shes old enough for that to entertain her. 

esipp000

We were in the hate stage for awhile but now he seems to be doing ok so fingers crossed it stays like this for awhile!

sweetpea18

Dd1 didn't mind it, but would fuss sometimes. She didn't mind it after we moved her from the infant seat to the convertable. With dd2, it's a crapshoot. Sometimes she's fine, sometimes she screams like we lit her on fire. If I know everything is fine, I turn up the radio so I don't have to hear the screaming. Mom of the year, right here!

StellarStina26

My DD likes the car ride 3 out of 4 times.  But, that 25% of the time is killer... I probably wouldn't go anywhere at all if she cried the whole time.  I think it is a stage thing because I would always have to make sure that when she was really young that she was already sleeping in the carseat in the house and then go for a ride.

They have that Graco swing that holds the carseat...it is helpful for us. 

MWoodside

Yeah my kid never liked the car & still doesn't.  It helped a little when we transitioned to the RF convertible seat.  Now she plays with soft toys so that helps a bit, too.  She rarely ever falls asleep in there though.

carina9

My LO also hated the carseat when she was newborn up until about a month and a half ago (she's about 6 1/2 mos now). One trick I used that worked most of the time to calm her down was to play radio static (between stations) pretty loudly through the back speakers. It works as kind of a white noise machine. It can be kind of mind-numbing for you, but it sure beats the screaming! Most of the time she would stop crying after about a minute and about half the time it would put her to sleep. Hope that helps!

laxchick60

Well, at least I'm not the only one! I'll hold out hope that it'll get better at some point. The day to day stuff is difficult enough but our families live in central/upstate NY and we have a couple events we have to go back for this summer. Not looking forward to it......

Carina, I'm totally trying that next time!

kdello

Mine hated it. Screamed hysterically 100% of the time in the car, even for hours at a time. It was awful. I started to get phobic about leaving the house because I knew she'd melt down. It took about 7 months and now she loves it. I know that's not much consolation. Good luck!

SGreen04

carina9:

My LO also hated the carseat when she was newborn up until about a month and a half ago (she's about 6 1/2 mos now). One trick I used that worked most of the time to calm her down was to play radio static (between stations) pretty loudly through the back speakers. It works as kind of a white noise machine. It can be kind of mind-numbing for you, but it sure beats the screaming! Most of the time she would stop crying after about a minute and about half the time it would put her to sleep. Hope that helps!

I'm going to try that. DD loves to listen to the shower and usually falls asleep in the bouncy while I shower so this might work for her... I hope!

SGreen04

My LO HATES the car too! She might give me about 5 minutes of quiet (maybe)and then she screams like someone is stabbing her the rest of the time. She's done this for over half an hour at a time. I try to leave when she is asleep, but she usually wakes up and then she's super mad. I've pulled over to nurse her, thinking it would calm her down or put her to sleep, but as soon as she's back in the carseat and we're back on the road, the screaming starts up again. I've tried talking/singing to her, turning up/down the radio, toys, hanging things for her to look at, a mirror, nothing works so far. It's making me not want to go anywhere. Ever.  =(

Sam78

DS hated the car until about 8 mo old, now he looks out the window and is good (once you get him in, that is, he still hates being put in the seat).

LadybugPicnic2011

Its not so much the car DD hates, but the car seat.  We tried her in both her infant seat and convertable, and she screams in both.  What helps put DD to sleep in our car is all the windows rolled down, while the car is going at least 30.  When the car stops though, she wakes up to scream.

laxchick60

I'm pretty sure it's the carseat for my LO too. She would be fine and dandy if I could hold her. I wonder what the experts would say about the "damage" we're doing to our child's trust in us when we don't have a choice but to let them cry because we can't pull over/be hermits/etc... Other than feeling terrible because I can't soothe her, that's the biggest thing I worry about!