How do you entertain your toddler in the car?

[skatty]

Leorah is 12 months and since she became mobile car journeys have become worst and worst unless we time them for naps. We bring toys and snacks and she just throws them when she is bored of them (very quickly!) She is very spirited and hates to be confined and the journeys are just so stressful. If we attatch a toys to the seat she gets angry with them and starts kicking and screaming. We play CDs of nursey rhymes too. That's it, we are out of ideas! Please help!

[em_here]

This is going to sound quite bad, but I know you can get DVD players that attach to car seats, would she be mesmerised by a cartoon DVD?

[skatty]

LOL Emma Lou, after another disastrous journey me and DH think we'll have to succumb, she loves TV but luckily an animal programme will do. It's just so stressful to have her screaming like a maniac

[em_here]

If it works go with it, its not like she is glued to the telly 24/7, and with a spirited child (I have a 9 month old one and its tough work), I understand.  Abbi has to be constantly entertained in the car

[JennŠ]

Dad bought my niece a portable DVD player for her second birthday as they often did long car drives.  Being an equal opportunity Papa, he got one for Mouse this year.  Wonderful for when we had a 5 hr drive this summer.  Otherwise it's strapped to a kitchen chair for Elmo and such. 

[skatty]

We are definitely going to look into it, our family all live at least an hour away and we also want to start getting out and about a bit, I have lived in Denmark 3 years now and have hardly been anywhere! Now I will have to think about dvds too, is Elmo good? She loves the puppets on Baby Einstein.

[JennŠ]

Charlotte has an addiction to all Sesame Street stuff.  Also Muppets, Maisy, Max and Ruby, and lately, Franklin.  And for some reason, Finding Nemo.  I swear, she does more than watch videos all day!!!!!   

[irish3680]

Ella is almost 14 months and LOVES her blankie. She is also very spirited. The only time she gets it outside of her bed is on long car rides. We just got back from a camping trip this morning that was 1.5 - 2 hours away. It works great! She was content pretty much the whole time cuddling up to her blankie, playing peek-a-boo by herself with it, playing with the outer silk border, and just sitting with it.

[Lu_C]

This sounds harsh, but I've never personally entertained him - my theory behind this is he has to entertain himself by looking out the window or singing (I do sing with him and talk to him). But when I'm driving he needs to know my attention is on the road and not on him; I want him to know this for when he's older and it seemed to make sense to start that from the beginning.
I did used to have a soft mobile from the handle above his seat when he was very little which he enjoyed
xxx

[Karin3]

I definitely can empathize with your frustration.  Mimi has never liked the car.  I still have nightmares about a 3 hr road trip where we were stuck in traffic and she screamed the entire time.  She does much better as long as we keep moving.  We travel about 3 hrs one way 1-2 times a month to see my stepdaughter so we do fairly frequent road trips.

We sing lots of songs.  Wheels on the bus, patty cake, ABCs...  If worse comes to worse we end up doing our own version of American Idol in the car. LOL  She's really into books as well so usually she can look at her books for awhile.  I just bought this toy from One Step Ahead: http://www.onestepahead.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=6677&parentCategoryId=85184&categoryId=85218&subCategoryId=86217  We're moving in December and will be doing a lot of traveling for the holidays in between locations so I'm saving this one for then.  I've also found magnadoodles to be good.  Mimi will draw on that thing for quite awhile.  We also have a DVD player but I usually use that as a last resort tool.  I also buy cheap little toys (Dollar General, etc..) and save them for road trips so it's new and lasts a little longer.  When she was around 12 months, I put different textured pieces of cloth (sample sizes) knotted together in a Kleenex box and she liked to pull each one out. 

That's all I can think of right now but good luck!

HTH

[Lu_C]

WOW Karin, those are some great ideas! I wasn't really thinking when I put up my utterly useless post. We're in the car for such short trips that I rarely have to even think about a screaming toddler in the back. SOrry for my flippancy!

We sing a lot as well though - he likes Row Row Your Boat because he loves to make a funny squeak noise at the end of it and If You're Happy and You Know It because he does a funny little wiggle when I'm singing and he does the right moves for it.
I also get him to point at things out of the window or ask if he can see something (a very early form of I Spy I guess!) which he quite likes.

It may be that I never have really entertained him that he is quite happy to just look out the window or babble to himself. When I've given him toys he'll often throw them away anyway - and I NEVER pick them up (cuz I'm driving and the Germans on the roads are not to be messed with!!) so he goes back to gazing out the window!! EIther that or I'm just incredibly lucky!

Good luck with your move with Mimi and your loooong trips. Hope you're happy in your new place, Lucy

[Karin3]

Lucy - It's OK.  I figured you must have meant for relatively short journeys.  Dh usually drives for our long trips so I can rotate the toys.  If we're just around town, she's good with her lovey and the radio playing.  There's no way at this point that I would do a long trip with just me driving. 

[skatty]

Thanks for all your great suggestions but we now realise a lot of the screaming is because she has inherited my travel sickness gene, poor thing has been sick in the car twice this week and fussy behaviour always precedes and then she goes white and quiet and is then sick EVERYWHERE!! Any tips for travel sickness for a young toddler?

[Lu_C]

Oh poor little thing! Luckily none of us have ever suffered. From storied DH told, it may be worth putting plastic over the seats so at least when she is sick you don't have too much clean up to do and the smell won't make her sick again.
http://www.drgreene.org/body.cfm?xyzpdqabc=0&id=21&action=detail&ref=1145
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_motion-sickness_68444.pc?Ad=com.bc.common.AdInfo%407ac05ee7#section3

You can get travel sickness bracelets for adults, I wonder if there is anything similar for babies. May be worth asking your pharmacy/Dr/ drug store. Some people swear that sitting in the front is better than in the back - if you can turn off your airbag or you don't have one it may be worth moving her into the front for longer journeys.

Sorry to not be much help! I hope you find something that helps

[skatty]

Thank you so much Lucy, those links were brilliant 

Oh dear it looks like our distraction methods of toys and books make it worst  I think I know what to look out for now and we are going to make sure we take breaks on long journeys. I still get car sick myself quite often (I couldn't go in the car or bus 5 mins when pregnant and had to take sick bags!!) and I remember just how bad it was when I was little so I feel so sorry for her