Screeches from Starting Point to Destination

amother

Green

Thu, Oct 20 2016, 1:57 am

That's my 7 month old. He just screeches through the ride to the point where he has to stop to catch his breath. It's scary but I've learnt to tune out cuz I really can't do anything to help him.

In the past, I used to stop at the side of the roads to comfort him, nurse him to calm him down, etc. But I've since learnt that it won't really help and I can only try to calm myself while he's at it.

But why is he so unhappy? What can I do to help him? What can I do to prevent it? It makes our rides so miserable.

He doesn't take a bottle nor a paci.

Rutabaga

Thu, Oct 20 2016, 3:08 am

Definitely try a different car seat.

Have you tried singing or playing music?

Also try putting up a mirror like these: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Se.....72011

Do you have a window shade to keep the sun out of his eyes?

Do you give him toys or a comfort item? You can attach something to the car seat with these: https://www.amazon.com/Baby-Bu.....Strap

Can he safely eat Cheerios or Puffs yet? You can give him some in a snack cup like this: https://www.amazon.com/Nuby-2-.....;th=1

He may not take a bottle, but you can start him on a sippy cup and see if he's interested.

Ask your pediatrician for further advice. There may be medical issues we're not thinking of.

MyUsername

Thu, Oct 20 2016, 7:52 am

My daughter was like this - turns out she has motion sickness. At 7 months, there is nothing you can do for motion sickness though. Usually what helps us a tiny bit is to give the baby a little starchy solid food before the ride (rice cake, baby cookie, bread, etc), and absolutely no foods with fat (don't nurse right before, try about an hour before). You want the stomach to be not totally empty and not all full, so just a small amount of food (and remember that a 7 month old has a very small stomach). The starchy foods help neutralize stomach acid which reduces nausea slightly.

Also, I do second the idea of checking the car seat - our daughter for sure screamed more in my MIL's carseat than in ours, and in ours more than my parents' car seat. But, since the culprit was motion sickness, it didn't stop the screaming, it was just not as bad.

Also, if it is motion sickness, try to desensitize your baby to motion by taking him on swings and hammocks, and encouraging him to crawl if he's up to that. This helped our daughter a little.

You can also get his ears checked by an ENT - if the cause is fluid buildup, then they can help, I believe.

Lastly, if you can get the kid to look out the window, that helps too - make sure your windows aren't blocked - the inner ear and the eye have to coordinate in order to keep you from being busy, so seeing that you're moving is necessary to combat motion sickness.

In the meantime, you may just have to wait until he either outgrows it or is big enough to give medication (dramamine from age 2). Our solution was to travel as little as possible and just walk as much as we could. Not a perfect solution, but a lot less suffering for all of us.

mompower

Thu, Oct 20 2016, 8:51 am

I totally feel your pain.

My baby does the same. It started right from birth and she's almost a year now.
She never slept in the car seat, not even as a newborn!

It's definitely not motion sickness or anything medical because when I hold her or nurse her, she's as happy as can be.

We've tried 3 different car seats but it was no help at all.

Now that she's getting older, it's finally improving bh.

Sometimes I just seatbelt myself together with her in my seat. I know how unsafe it is, but when you're traveling for 2 hours you don't really have a choice. We travel very often and they are not pleasure trips at all...

She thinks the car is some sort of torture chamber or something. It's so insanely hard....

amother

Orange

Thu, Oct 20 2016, 9:13 am

I agree with the motion sickness. Been there done that.
DD does a bit better in a roomy minivan, with large individual seats since she front facing (even though she's in a car seat), and has direct access to see the road straight ahead. Being rear facing and only being able to look out the back window made things worse for her.
It's so hard! She developed certain fears of cars because of it Sad

She hates when we drive fast like on a highway.