Baby car seat woes Post Reply

[Nirthernbird16]

Hi

I was wondering whether anyone has real issues with their little one in their car seat? Our daughter used to be absolutely fine in the car seat until about 2 months, you would need to wake her up to feed her. Ever since 2 months in May she HATES it.

She literally cries the whole time, sometimes she will cry until she falls asleep but before she would sleep for a couple of hours, now it is an hour at most and then will just continue to cry. We thought it might be due to the hot weather and tried the lambs wool inserts you can get, have the air con on fully and have a window open. We thought it was possibly boredom so bought toys that hang on the seat. We thought she hated being left alone so one of us sits in the back with her but nothing seems to help. She literally works herself into an absolute state.

Is it just a phase, has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Sarah

[Lollybird]

My second daughter is the same, we drove to my parents and she cried for 3 of the 3.5 hour journey. It was awful. Nothing has seemed to help, when I googled it for advice it seemed that people said they eventually grow out of it. You're not alone, let's hope it's one of their many 'phases'.

[Oeuf]

Hello - we had the same problem with our second. Ultimately, I discovered that the problem was silent reflux, which peaks between 1-4 months. Apparently the deep well in the infant car seats can aggravate the reflux, hence the non-stop screaming. Since diagnosis, a combination of reflux meds and putting a rolled-up blanket in the well of the seat have helped enormously and we no longer get the screaming, although he does not sleep particularly well in the car but at least he is not quite so vocal about it anymore!

[eibskee]

We had exactly this from Day 1. We were using a maxicosi infant seat. He would scream blue murder from the second we put him in, until we got him out. We went to the USA when he was 12 weeks old and we could stand it no longer, I couldn't drive with him so distressed. We went to a baby carseat supply shop and spoke to the sales assistant. We tried him in various other infant "bucket" type seats and he screamed, then we tried him in the Britax Marathon (still baby but more upright/less bucket scoop) and he sat there smiling and happy. We bought it and never looked back! We put him in and out a few times in the shop and he screamed instantly in the Maxicosi, happy and smiley in the Britax - the shop assistant said he'd never seen anything like it! Good luck! Not sure if the Marathon is available in the UK but perhaps they have similar/call it something different - worth a try.

[motherbear]

Hi. Gosh, I had the same. At around the same age, my son began to scream frighteningly and would only stop when he cried himself to sleep. This could be an hour and was just awful. I was so stressed driving, running red lights to get there, feeling so wound up etc.

I did try everything and took lots of advice but I fear it was just a phase he just grew out of. I think it was partly confinement and partly not being able to see. The change came when he was a bit bigger (not until he was one I am afraid) and could actually see out the window a bit and enjoyed the mirror.....

some suggestions:

I set up a mirror so I could see him and he could see me. I found this reassuring to see he was not actually strangled or in danger as it sounded like he could be. Eventually he enjoyed seeing me and also playing with his image and moving his fingers, blowing raspberries into the mirror, etc

music...I had a sleepytime CD but sometimes it was just an added noise to stress me out!

Singing and telling stories worked for very short journeys as it kept him amused....ten minutes max!!

The main thing is that it does pass......and saved me a fortune in car costs as I could hardly ever use it as it was just so horrible for him. At around 1 he just began to love it, and still does....

[emfletch]

My daughter was awful until we moved her into a forward facing seat. Luckily she is 95th percentile so we could do that fairly early. We ended up just not going many places in the car for a few months, but I know it can be unavoidable. She's generally good in the car now.

[Nirthernbird16]

Wow, thanks for all the replies everyone, glad to hear I'm not the only one. We have a maxicosi so maybe we should look at other ones, although I suspect that it is something to do with it being rear facing as she absolutely hated being in a carrycot style pushchair after about 8 weeks and also prefers to be in a sling when shopping rather than in the pushchair!

I hope it is a phase! Thanks for the suggestion of the mirror Motherbear,I got this too to try to ease my concerns. I don't think she's worked out she can see me in it yet but hopefully she will soon!