Baby hates the car - any advice?

[Loozle]

I really hope that someone can help me with this, it's a huge problem. Since my dd was born (3 months ago) she has hated the car with a passion. This wouldn't be too bad but we are in the car a lot doing school and preschool runs. It's not viable to walk it as it would take at least an hour and a half/2 hours to walk it. It takes 20-30 minutes to drive it.

I think the main problem with it is that she has to be in her car seat and not attached to me. She is very much a mummy's girl, which is fine, we baby wear instead of using a pushchair as she's not a fan of that either. I hold her as much as she needs to be held and do not like to leave her to cry.

I feel like I've tried everything to help her and am now out of ideas. I'll list what I've tried and if anybody can think of anything else that I could try I would really appreciate it, especially if you've had experience of this before!

I've tried:

2 car seats - both infant seats, would a combination seat be better perhaps?
With and without the head support in the seat.
With and without a blanket around her to pad the seat out a bit.
She will not take a dummy, as soon as she realises that it's not a breast she pushes it out of her mouth!
We have a mirror up so that I can see her and to help her see more.
With and without toys for her to see.
No music, quiet music, loud music.
Pulling over when possible and taking her out, nursing her then putting her back in, she's ok until she goes back in.
Talking to her, singing to her.
White noise helps her go to sleep in the car, without it she I'll just scream instead of going to sleep. The white noise only helps if she's tired though, otherwise it does nothing.

I feel so awful for her because she gets so distraught and she is not usually left to cry so it must be traumatic for her. I just do not know what to do for the best, I just want my girl to be happy, and also I'm concerned that I'm getting distracted while I'm driving and it's not safe.

 

[Fizzyfefe]

This must be so hard for you! And you've tried so much already. The only thing I can think is to cover her with something that smells like you, like a shirt or blanket. I hope someone else can offer you more advice.

 

[_jellybean_]

I wish I had some great advice, but all I can say, from my experience, is that it should get better.

Before I had my lg, I thought all babies loved driving in the car, b/c it's relaxing. WELL, my daughter HATED it, and SCREAMED bloody murder every single time she was in the car! It was horrible, and dh and I hated taking the kids anywhere. It did get better though.

 

[dom85]

Where does she sit in the car? If you can turn your passenger airbag off could you have her in the front with you so she knows you're close?

Do the infant seats have hoods on them? Maybe if you can take the hood off or have it down she might like that better?

I feel for you though, must be really hard. My LO screamed most of the way to and from school this morning and it was so stressful.

 

[Linnypops]

Dd did the same - I think it's just the case for some babies. We never found the 'cause' but she got better and better and now she'll sit in the car happily for a few hours.

 

[Literati_Love]

I think it's just a phase. They do get better. The only thing that helped for us at that age was planning errands and trips for when she would be drowsy and fall sleep. Not sure if yours will do that. If it were during her awake time she would scream bloody murder the whole time. I forget when she grew out of it but probably by 4ish months. Of course, she still doesn't actually like being in the car. She tolerates it some days pretty well but other times she fusses the entire time because she wants to be out crawling around. But the fussing is much more tolerable than the screaming she used to do. So hopefully your LO will grow out of it soon!

Oh - and dd STILL screams if it is dark outside because I think she gets really bored. So yep I guess you can't always avoid it.

 

[Izzie74]

I know you said you tried music, but Was there any particular music or radio station you listened to when pregnant? If I out a specific cd on in the car, it seems to help.

 

[Loozle]

Thank you for your comments everyone.
I haven't tried anything of mine with her, like a top I've worn but I'll certainly try it, thanks for the idea!
She's in the back behind the front passenger seat. I don't think I can turn the airbags off in the front but I'll check.
I've tried her with the hood up and the hood down, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
She is calmed by Ed Sheeran's album (I clearly over played that when I was pregnant ) but it doesn't work in the car, only at home.
Sounds like it is just something that she will grow out of though, which is what I figured. It's awful to hear as its full on screaming like she's being tortured or something..

 

[SarahBear]

My first didn't like the car. It just got better with age.

 

[SurpriseBub]

My brother's baby had terrible reflux and howled in the car before they figured out she had it/got medication. According to him, reflux babies often hate the car as it jiggles them to bring up more milk. I'm not saying she has reflux, but just what came to mind in case she has other symptoms of it