I have a 2 1/2 month old son who does not like riding in the car. We have tried sitting in the backseat with him and even purchased him a light up singing toy that snaps around the backseat headrest to entertain him. These things seem to work for 5-10 minutes but then he gets upset again. My husband and I enjoy going places but don't like taking him because of his "car ride blues". Any advice on how to make him enjoy car rides more?
Thank you all so much for the wonderful advice! I am glad to hear others have had the same problem...especially because most people talk about how car rides are so soothing to babies. I have been trying the "window cracked" advice and it seems to work even better than someone sitting in the backseat with him. Thanks again!
J.,
I had this problem with both of my kids...my theory is they get car sick riding backwards. Anyway, they usually outgrow it by the time they are 5-6 months.
Good luck!
Honestly, just keep trying. He just doesn't like riding in the car, so nothing is going to help. My daughter does this in restaurants. My husband and i take her once a week to dinner with us and she is just now starting to calm down at 11 months. Your son will eventually realize that this is something he has to do, and he'll stop. I know it's hard to enjoy the outing with screams coming from the backseat, keep comforting him when your in the car. He'll stop eventually. Good luck.
my 1st born (who is now 3) HATED the car until he was over 1, especially at night.He would scream like a banshee, no matter what! Thnigs really didn't get better for us until he could speak. Our saving grave was a CD that sang songs with his name in it. He was around 3 or 4 months when we got it and it worked fairly well until he was about 2. I suggest trying different kinds of music until you find her fave, hold her hand (hard to drive this way, but do-able, noisy jingly toys that she can pull on, like a chime. ...or do as we did and try your hardest to stay out of the car :-) good luck!
My second daughter was the same way. She did grow out of it by about 6 months, but the thing that helped her was cracking the window near her so that it made the most wind noise, for some reason this worked for her. Good Luck
S. Gallo
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Both of my kids liked and still like to listen to kid music. We found one CD that my daughter loved when she was a baby and every time we would play it she would calm right down. Now at the age of 3 1/2 she still loves to listen to Wiggles in the car and asks for it as soon as we get in.
Hello J.,
my son is 15 months and we just came back from vacation. We went from Fl. to N.J (18 hour drive with no stops except for gas and food and to walk our dog)and a friend of mines told me about an item called The go anywhere table and foot rest so we purchased it from one step ahead (onestepahead.com) it is a table with a two holes for cups or cranyons and snacks and it has a foot rest so that they sit comfortable and we put his toys on it and he played well we gave him books, puzzles and even his snacks.we also played some children ride along songs and played a video on a portable DVD played that we got for cheap from walmart. we were very surprised the ride went so good. maybe you could let him pick out some special toys to bring for the ride.
hope this helps, good luck
kimmy
you are so not alone. i got sick of people saying "but babies love carrides" as if mine were from another planet. my baby girl HATED the carseat. the minute you put her in it, she would start screaming and balling down the place. we bought her a toy that made noise, but has a remote control that looks like a garage door opener, so that i could play it for her when she got fussy. i think it's by fisher price. the window thing only worked for a little while for us, and then she'd start up. make sure that he is burped before you put him in, this turned out to help us some. we would give her a bottle in hopes that she would fall asleep, but she was a bad burper. it seemed that when she would cry in the seat, we'd pull over to see if she needed to burp and the minute we pick her up, she would! granted we only did this 4x. she hated the stop and go and would do a little bit better on the highway, sometimes.
try putting him in the car seat and driving around for 5 or 10 minutes, everyday, even if it's around the block, and on long rides just sit back there w/ him. my baby started getting used to it once she started daycare...10 minutes away. she woulld start fussing in the beginning, but after a while she got used to it. she has no choice, really. we also bought her links and a colorful rattle, anything to try and keep her distracted and entertained. the links were our sanity saver. now we've started to not sit w/ her on the longer rides, and she's been ok. she's 5mos now, and has been better in the car since about a month and a half ago. good luck!!
if it's in your budget purchase a portable dvd player. you can get them at walmart. a couple of baby einstein videos. it worked wonders for me. i have 22 month old now but i can still remember have to stop 3 times for 15 minute ride because he would be crying so bad he would choke on his own saliva. once i got that dvd player it made a big difference.
