My baby is 11 month old (sorry for those who read my previous posts that I keep on repeating his age). He doesn’t like the car seat at all, the most we have got him to sit in the car seat is about 15 minutes. Most of the time I have to sit in the back with him for us to drive long distance. I would like to take him to places by myself during weekdays while my husband is at work, but he just cry hysterically.
It is the same thing at the doctors, as soon as we walk in the examining room he knows right away and start to cry.
Just want to hear your experiences and how did you make the situation better or when did they start to come around.
My son use to hate car rides as soon as we changed him from the baby bucket to the big rear facing carseat. Problem is my parents live 30mins out of town. So we just had to keep bring him and he evenutal adjusted. Its hard to drive when your baby is screaming in the back, but play nice child friendly music, give him a few toys and take him for car rides. Start with 15mins and slowly work your way up. Talk to him while your driving and lots of praise. If I were you I’d stop sitting in the back with him when your with your husband because your kind of training him that if he cries enough he gets company in the back.
Doctors offices, not much you can do, as he gets older read books about going to the doctor (Franklin goes to the hospital help prepare my son for his tonsil and adneiod surgury when he was 2.5 almost 3.) I use to work at a dentist office and kids knew right as soon as they walked in the door they did not what to be there, even kids that had never been to the dentist before
Good Luck!
Thanks for the book recommendation, I love that !
We brought a play dr. kit so we can practice with Connor, he doesn’t seem to quite get the concept yet. I m getting the book at Amazon was we speak.
we really liked that one as franklin talks about how he is scared and the doctor talks him through it. My son still talks in an excited voice about how he had the sticker (monitors) on him to just like franklin.
Hi MySunshine,
Has Connor ALWAYS hated the carseat? I only ask because I remember when my little guy was younger I had a conversation with our doula and she said that sometimes if the chest strap or lower snap is too tight or in the wrong place it can cause a great amount of discomfort. She said that one of her kids would just scream and scream even as they walked out towards the car. He had associated being in the carseat with pain/discomfort. Finally, I don’t know what caused her to look at it more closely, but when she made some adjustments things dramatically improved. It may be as simple as moving the straps slightly.
Kizudo
My daughter also hated the car seat, and even though she’s over two years old, she still sometimes hate it on long drives.
She wasn’t on a routine when she was 7 months old, and after I started her on a routine and taught her to self-settle, she stopped screaming hysterical when going for short drives. She was screaming before, because she was falling asleep and was only used to go to sleep in my arms and on the breast. After the routine and self-settling, she started to like short drives 8) .
I hope you get to the root of your little one’s problem soon, as it is very difficult not to be able to go anywhere without your little one screaming. It’s very stressful and can be a dangerous way to drive as it is distracting!! :unsure:
The car seat straps are not tight… in fact they are very lose and sometimes they are barely even on :..( I know, very dangerous!)
Stellajo, My baby is also used to falling asleep in my arms or at the breast. This is probably what is going on that he doesn’t know how to self-sooth. How did you help your baby to self -settle? what was your routine? !~help
I used the routines suggested by Tizzie Hall’s book “Save Our Sleep” for babies from birth to two years, it really helped, each age has a different routine and it is all set out in this book. :yes: I really recommend it. (I’m not sure if we are allowed to make recommendations like this - if not - my apologies to the BrillKids Forum) I can give you the internet site too if you can’t find the book in a store (again - if I’m allowed to) http://www.saveoursleep.com.au/onlinestore/?cid=1797
It gives you routines with times for each age, ways to learn your baby to self-settle and also feeding recommendations, it is a handy book to have!!
Hope this helps!!! I had to go and buy the “Save Our Sleep Toddler” for my girl as I’ve regressed a bit with her sleeping habits
i try to keep certain toys and games that are just for the car
also we use the time to listen to French tapes and classical music
there are a lot of cool books on tape for kids that are a lot of fun
i just read about a book called carschooling which sounds great as we spend a lot of time in the car
Just purchased the book “save our sleep”. For anyone else that wants the book, ebay has the cheapest price as far as I know.
I will keep you guys updated!
I would recommend Ferber for self-soothing ‘training’… basically, you have to be careful regarding what behaviors you encourage, conciously or not. Every child is different but our little one has been sleeping through the night (8PM to 7AM) since he was 6 weeks old, and I am guessing that certain chronic problems (like the car seat) have some of the same roots as not sleeping through the night (once they are past a few weeks old). Sometimes, he wakes up at 6AM, but doesn’t cry, just kind of babbles to himself because he knows there won’t be anyone coming until 7AM (except if we sensed there was a real problem, of course). We took a plane for the first time recently, and people were like “oh, there was a baby here??” because he was so good. Not bragging (ok, a little), just letting you know that with a little tough love, things can improve dramatically.
i started to let my gal sit alone in the car seat(rear-facing) after the first month. i need to drive her to my parent’s place which is abt 30mins drive. Just have to let them get used to the motion and environment as early as possible. she has been enjoying her ride so far. btw, she’s turning 4 months next week.
Our daughter also cried when she was in the car seat, up until 16 months when she was forward facing and had a dvd player for educational videos. I couldn’t go anywhere and I felt like a hostage in my own home. Her doctor was 35 miles a way, so I had to figure something out. She would scream all the way there and back. She was not one of those babies who cry themselves to sleep. I finally had to start wearing earplugs because I just couldn’t focus on driving with all of that screaming, I also started taking trips every day. The first day was around the block, then a mile or two, then to the store, etc. etc. If we hadn’t been in the car for two days, I would make sure we went somewhere on the third day, just so she would know we still have to leave the house sometimes. She still cried, but eventually it lessened and she would stop after a few minutes. What we didn’t know at the time was that she had sensory processing issues, and she didn’t like the feeling of the straps on her chest. We just thought she was very particular about things.
As for the doctor thing, she would let the nurses weigh her and everything, but as soon as the doctor came in, forget it, hysteria. That eventually lessened too, by 2 years old, she liked going to the doctor and still does. We read books about going to the doctor and we bought a doctor’s kit and expanded on a LR “Doctor’s Office” that was on the site at the time. She learned all the instruments and would impress the doctors and nurses when she said “otoscope.” When she tells me she’s sick and has to go to the doctor, I have to be careful, because sometimes she just wants to go see the doctor because she likes it so much.
My Sunshine,
It is very important that you are sure thar your baby is comfortable. I had a problem 15 days ago because the car seat was washed and the straps where not fit correctly. He did not want to get in the seat or if he accept, it was without the straps. I had to go to the store and wit their expertise they help me fix the chair. Now he is using it again.
As waterdreamer case, we always play children music (Old Mc Donald is his favorite) while on the car.
You have to evaluate what may happen if he does not use the car seat.
Stellajo, funny you mention Tizzie Hall as I used her routine samples as well, when my daughter was 7 months, hardly sleeping throughout the day and still taking her night bottle at 11pm and waking way too early and I had to go back to work.
I followed the routine to the letter and the very first day, she slept through the night and increased her nap time. It was really amazing. She’s now almost 2 and doing great, sleeping around 12hr at night (never more) and her nap time is about 1h30 hour. If I ever have another one, he’ll be on the routine early on! :biggrin:
I know exactly how you feel hypatia, my next baby is going on that routine as soon as possible!! I’m not going through what I did with my first baby :nowink: !!
I can give you the internet site too if you can’t find the book in a store (again - if I’m allowed to) 