My Baby hates the pram and the car - any clues on how to make it enjoyable

[victoriagregan]

My baby just doesnt like the car or the pram and I really find it difficult to be stuck indoors all the time due to it just being too stressful and would be grateful of any advice you can offer.

[yaya]

How old is ur LO? My DS was liek this too and to be pefectly honest the only thing that helped was letting him get used to it!! Its tough I know and I had many car journeys with a screaming baby, I just turned the music up loud and it tended to distract him! If you're staying indoors then she won'tbe used to it and thaats prob why she gets so upset. Does she take a paci? Will this not calm her when ur out? Going out in the stroller, I would make sure she is clean, fed, etc and take her out every day so she can get used to it

HTH

[victoriagregan]

she is four months old. she doesnt have a paci. thanks 

[yaya]

Hugs sweetie, it sucks but i'll bet it gets better very soon, seriously be brave and take her out more int he car and stroller, she'll egt used to it and soon LOVE it!

[rinajack]

The car we had enormous trouble with - the screaming was not drowned by loud music, she screamed til she made herself sick, she was a driving hazard.  We live remotely and to go anywhere is a couple of hours.  At first, we had to use a mild sedative to calm her down - certainly not a first course of action.  We only did this with the consultation of our doctor, and we ended up only having to do it twice.  Just enough to show her that screaming in the car was not needed.  We also at that dr consult ruled out other issues, like motion sickness.

Can you give your lo something to do in the car?  something to chew on?  DVD? (we have one of these now, it really really helps us, but we didn't get it til she was about 10mo).  Umm...it could even have got to the point where it is habit (ours had).  If you can find a way for your lo to be calm for a couple short trips, you may be able to break the habit - would your lo be calm if you sat in the back for a couple trips, with someone else driving?  even having a bottle in the car?

In the stroller -same kind of suggestions, except here I used to pick lo up and calm her, then put her back again.  Eventually the time in the stroller got longer and longer.  To this day, I always have the sling in the tray underneath just in case.  also - keep moving.  My lo still hates to be still in the stroller, because ten she wants out.  Lots of toys in the stroller also, snacks anything (hard to do snacks at this age).  We also used a dummy and her lovie ALWAYS goes with us in the car and the stroller.

[Lizziebeth]

We put up one of those baby mirrors on the back seat so that we could see DD (in her rear-facing seat) whilst driving.

She used to HATE the car.  But once she could see me in the mirror and see herself in it, she seemed to love it.  She still spends hours staring at herself in that mirror, transfixed. 

HTH

[rinajack]

What a great idea - that is about the only thing I didn't try, a mirror! 

[yaya]

Hey that is a great idea, U should ask someone to STICKY it, there are so many posts on this I'm sure people would love to hear your tip!

[nona]

omg, we have the same problem! the car seat is ok now for short trips but i can't find a mirror that will allow my lo to see my face. he has a little baby einstein one w/ lights and music. i also give him a little toy to play with which helps a little. if it is close to nap time he may fall asleep if we're lucky.

the stroller drives me nuts. who ever heard of a baby who doesn't like the stroller?my mom didn't believe me until she witnessed the craziness. he is too heavy for us to use the baby bjorn anymore but it is always the back up. i think practice makes perfect. i tried taking him out in the stroller twice this week and the third time (in a row) he finally tolerated it around the block.

[victoriagregan]

thanks for all the tips. so pleased i'm not the only one!

[rinajack]

When they get too heavy for the Baby bjorn, try a sling.  Then you can put baby on your hip, like you would carrying around the house, and the sling takes the weight your hip doesn't.  Also stops baby from throwing themselves back. 

DD is almost 12 months, and I can carry her in teh sling for a couple of hours if I need to - even with my ever growing tummy (which is big already, like 5 mo preg).

[nona]

i'm not very good w/ the sling. i definitely need some hands on training. i want to use one! i have a really cute one too. my 4 mo is already 18 lbs and likes to be carried when we're out so the sling would be perfect.

i also have a kelty kids kangeroo that a friend lent to me but i have no idea how to use it.

thanks!

[rinajack]

This is the one I have, and I carry my DD on my hip, so my hip takes most of the weight, the rest of the weight is in my shoulder via teh sling, and I can have my arms completely free.  I don't have any problems with feeling weight in my back, or ALL  in my shoulders like I did with the bjorn.

Baby Sling

[allegra]

At 2 months, my son hated his car seat so much that we stopped going out due to the non-stop crying. I did a google search one night with the topic "baby hates his car seat" or some such thing, and found out about the Car Seat Gallery car seat gallery. The crying never came back after I put it in the car and now we travel with it on planes, etc. He is 4.5 months old now.

[jumblebox]

This has been DS's carseat "friend" since he was about 4-5mo:
http://www.leapfrog.com/Primary/Infant/PRD_laleap/LearnAlong153+Leap.jsp?bmUID=1173850274427

He's REALLY easy to trigger - something we really liked, since lots of similar toys are just too hard for LOs. Sings the alphabet song and giggles at the end. Has off/low/high settings. DS is about to turn 1yo, and we're thinking of getting him Lily (the girl version, who sings numbers), since he likes Leap so much.

Besides Leap, we always give him a couple other toys as well... something to chew on (plastic keys or such), something that rattles...

Maybe you could try setting up the pram in the house, so he can learn to have fun in it? That's about the age we put one of our "extra" strollers (pram) in our living room... sort of as a seat for him, so he could sit up and play with toys, instead of always being horizontal or reclined. We just used rolled up blankets to prop him a bit, and he'd sit & play for ages! I was even able to go to the laundromat and keep him in his stroller the whole 2+ hours.

Just an idea... I know there are some babies who just don't like car seats or strollers. Whenever we come across an issue like this, we try to take a look at it from DS's perspective, to figure out what about it he may not like, or what we can do to make it more enjoyable for him (w/o just bending over backwards!).