Hates the car seat?

SunShower06 · November 2012

Does anyone have any tips for a baby that seems to hate her car seat? My daughter is 10 weeks, and seems to hate her car seat anymore. We've tried adjusting the straps, giving her a toy, leaving right after she's eaten, leaving when she's awake, and leaving when she's tired. We've got sunshades on the windows, so I don't think that's the problem (besides, she has just as much of a problem at night). Sometimes she'll fall asleep for a while, but for the most part she fusses and it escalates into screaming bloody murder. We've tried turning up static on the radio and playing some Rockabye Baby CDs, but both seem to be losing their effectiveness. I'm really getting kind of worried about this because we have to take a long car trip around Christmas (15 hours, but we'll most likely break it up over two days). It's not going to be good for her or for us to get so worked up on the trip.

danieliza1127 · November 2012

My LO hated his car seat until I took out the newborn head thing. I've read a lot of posts here where people say the same. If you have that in the carseat, try taking it out and seeing if that helps.

juliane2004 · November 2012

Can you buy a convertible carseat? They start at 5 lbs and last till 65 or 100 lbs (depending on the one you get). My DD2 likes that one better, I think it's less squishy.

But, it's a seat that stays in the vehicle, unlike the infant seat that gets carried around.

mandapie · November 2012

Ugh mine hates the carseat too! I never thought to remove the head thing though. I bought one that was puffier than the one that came with the seat to it held his head better so mabe he just doesn't like it anymore... I thought it was actually b/c he was in such a bent position (if that makes any sense). He likes the bouncer and the swing, but the baby seat he's more bent at the waist it looks like. For your car ride can you sit in the back with her? I know my DH used to like to do that for DS1 when he was cranky in the car and it always seemed to help.

opaque1997 · November 2012

First off - pp anything that didn't come with your carseat should not be used between baby, straps and carseat back... it voids your warrenty and isn't tested and thus could be unsafe.

also - caution - some seats you shouldn't remove the head insert before a certain weight - check your manual.

I have a convertible - a Combi Coccoro rated from 3 pounds+ - my little girl still hates the car. Two things we have found to work - 1) swaddle - in order to be safe you must use a thin swaddle (they say anything thinner then a fleece is fine as long as you don't have the child bundled up in a fleece already (think a light weight coat) - I use the summer infant swaddle me - it takes some work to get it on right. 2) I recently bought a fleece at old navy - that is likely a little thicker then it should be for safety - but thats another issue - its a bit snug on her - and that too works (like the swaddle) I think because its tight.

Now obviously - if your little guy doesn't like to be swaddled at home that won't work. I hear it gets better - I too am looking at a 5 hour car ride - and will be sitting in the back and deploying the swaddle when necessary.

SunShower06 · December 2012

Thank you all for the suggestions. The manual doesn't say anything about a minimum weight for removing the head restraint, so we'll start there. We do already have a convertible car seat, so we may switching to that if the head restraint thing and a couple of other suggestions I got don't work. Otherwise, I guess the non-driver will be riding in the backseat with her.

Hates the car seat?

Re: Hates the car seat?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards