My 4 month old has been screaming whenever I put him in his carseat for 2 months now. I keep hearing "he'll grow out of it."..but it's been 2 months! I'm open to any and all suggestions. We've tried giving him a special toy for the car, rolling the windows down, singing and making animal noises, playing different radio stations, sitting next to him (interchanging mommy and daddy), waiting until he is asleep, feeding him and properly burping him before we leave (he has acid reflux), putting a mirror where he can see it, etc, Please help!
Thank you all for your recommendations. We read over each one! We're trying something new....playing a CD/tape of children's music with little kids voices. He's still screaming, but he quieted down for a few minutes on our last trip.
Is he still in his infant carrier? If so, maybe it's time to move him to a convertible seat. It could be he's just not comfortable anymore. Have you checked the cover to make sure nothing is sticking him?
I am curious what carseat you are using. When my daughter was first born I had her in one of those take and carry ones from graco, where it clicked in to the car and the stoller and it was a carrier too. She didn't care for it much, then I went to the Britax roundabout and she LOVED it. It wasn't as convienent for me, but better for her. Now we are in Britax marathons and she loves them too.
Britax's are expensive, but you can find themon ebay, craigs list and consignment. If I were doing it all again I would start with a marathon rather than going to roundabout first, because even though it is more expensive it lasts longer (weight wise) One of our cars had this instead of the roundabout and it still is working perfectly.
Definitely worth the cost.
My daughter did that she just did not like not being able to see Mom. She also did not like riding in cars. We would give her a binky to soothe he and pull over if we had to so she could see us. Being able to see her brother helped but manly we used the binky. When she was able to be forward facing it was a little easier although we still had to use a binky. Now at 19 months she still needs a binky in the car but only on longer drives.
My son went through the same thing we eventually changed his carseat to a bigger one but one that fitted his weight. That seemed to help. He still doesn't like his car seat (19mos) but he tolerates it now.
Good luck,
D.
Our daughter did the same exact thing. The first thing that helped was that we found something at Wal-Mart that is sort of like a body cushion that wrap around the baby while in the carseat. Imagine the infant head-rest for infant carriers, but instead of just a head rest it goes all the way around the baby. The second thing we did was put her on Zantac for her acid reflux. The combination of these two things worked like a miracle!
My son got better around 13months. When the carseat was faced forward. It was pretty rough prior to that.
Our grand-daughter was the same way, for a LONG time and her parents go alot.. she did grow out of it, but it is so stressful on the parents in the mean time. Have you tried bringing the car seat in the house and sitting him in it for short periods of time. I used my carseat when my son was a baby to keep him propped up due to reflux. The car seat is good for that right after feedings. That's the only thing I can think of, I know it's stressful hearing your baby scream, not to mention you can't see him to know that he is really ok. Hope it gets better soon.
