Baby hates being in the car...

[mevans]

Originally Posted by monica-m Please never put anything that did not come with your car seat in between your baby's body and the seat.

Yep, that's what I was thinking, thanks!

Originally Posted by MDever Is your LO refluxy at all? Our LO had MAJOR trouble with her bucket seat, just the way it was shaped put to much pressure on her tummy I am a SUPER attached Mama and if you are too your LO is used to Mama's comfy body not a seat all alone in the back of the car. If this is the case I promise in will get easier. Cushions are big no nos and I doubt that is the issue anyway. Babies sleep in cribs and pack and plays all of the time and they are designed to be very firm.

Reflux: not diagnosed, but I'm thinking maybe some silent reflux issues going on.
And yep, she's on me pretty much 24h/day. As soon as I open the door to get her out of the car, she calms down. DD1 and DS are in the back with her, and DS talks to her...but she really just wants to be held. I joke that I wish we were back in the days where we didn't know about car seat safety and I could just hold her while we ride in the car.

Originally Posted by jjordan Definitely do NOT put anything between your baby and the seat, or between your baby and the harness straps. How set are you on using the portability aspect of the infant seat? If you are okay with leaving the car seat in the car all the time, then I'd go ahead and try out some convertible seats. It could be that the baby will like one of those more. Watch that the straps on the seat are at or below the baby's shoulder level, otherwise the seat is too big for you baby. (Even seats that are rated down to 5# might be too big, surprisingly.) Good luck!

Portability is not important to me...the car seat hasn't left the car since we installed it. I carry her or wear her, I do not carry that heavy chunky thing around with her in it. lol (No offense to anyone that does. ) We are actually just borrowing this bucket seat until LO is big enough to fit in our convertibles.

Originally Posted by steenerson7 My LO hated her carseat also!! We hardly went anywhere for her first year cause she would cry the whole time I am all for extended rear facing but with my DD at just over a year we turned her around and the car was a much happier place

Aww. Yeah, I'm definitely big on ERF'ing and EH'ing...I hope I'm able to do the same with this baby, but I've already had that thought too and told my DH that I hope I'm able to ERF her, happily!

Originally Posted by Caz My DD also hated the car for the first 4-5 months. We had a 45 min commute (each way) to work/daycare and she literally screamed the whole way I tried different seats, music, having DS sit right next to her and talk to her... nothing helped, and unfortunately, going to work wasn't optional! BUT, she did outgrow it! Hang in there, I know how stressful it is to hear them crying in the car

I know it's SUCH a bummer!! I feel SO bad for her. I always feel like I'm not tending to her needs, or that she feels that way...but it's kinda impossible. If I keep stopping, we'll never get to our destination. Our parents live 3 hours away...I've already told them it'll be a while before we get to come visit; no way are we going to listen to her scream for 3 hours there and back.



Thanks everyone...I hope she starts to deal with car rides better soon. I'm anxious for her to grow into the convertible seat, and hopefully that'll help!

[Servant4Christ]

I forgot: we also had a swing frame that our infant seat fit into for home.... we used this to get ds used to being in his carseat. He didn't like it, but it helped get him used to it. I would sit him in this for a few minutes each day at home (other than this, he was on me 24/7) and start the swing or vibration function while I walked around the room picking up/cleaning stuff. He'd cry for a few minutes but after he stopped crying, I would praise him then go pick him up as reward for good behavior. He caught on pretty quick and it also helped him start practicing to track with his eyes because he would watch me move around the room while I talked to him. He learned that mommy always comes back to get him when he's in the carseat and I never actually leave him, at all. In the car, I would sing to him (usually the ABCs) or just have a conversation with him so he could hear my voice the whole time.

[Dory]

My son HATED being in his infant seat. At 2 months we bought a Boulevard and that helped a little. Putting him outboard helped a LOT more. Being more upright and having something to look at made him much more manageable in the car.

[Crew&West]

my yds HATED the car!!! It lasted until he was around 6mo if I remember right. We actually found that moving him to a convertible seat worked better! I also found a static station on the radio and turned it up and he'd fall asleep listening to that.

[cmarsh31]

My DS hated the car... until he was about 2.5 and could verbalize what was going on. Poor peanut was/is carsick. He doesn't puke, so we never knew it. He gets headaches & migraines anytime we're in the car for more than 15ish minutes. I avoided ALL car trips if possible. He screamed basically for the first year of his life (way back when we f***** at a year and was only merely miserable after he was turned around. Now we rely on snacks, tylenol, and dramamine for longer drives.

[greek4]

All three of my kids went through a phase of screaming in the car. With DS1 he started doing it at about 6 weeks and continued until about 12 weeks. Either he grew out of it or the fact that we moved him to a RF convertible did the trick. I did my best to soothe him while driving and completely stressed out about it. With DS2 he started in with the screaming about 6 weeks and it only lasted until about 9 weeks. With him I knew I couldn't do anything to stop the crying and we had to be in the car. DD started in with it earlier than the boys at about 4 weeks and kept it up on and off until just recently (she is 4 months).