8 Month Old Still Screaming in the Car

My daughter did this for a long long time, she is 14 months old now and she still screams in the car seat once in a while. This is what I did that worked, I had in the front seat a lot of toys that I know she liked and when she started screaming I would start passing them to her. ( do it when you have a red light so I don't get too distracted). I also keep doing this until I get to my destination. This is very hard to do though and it gets frustrating sometimes but it is the only thing that actually worked and still does.
I would also try to get one of those hanging music things that you put on the sides of the car seat, so she can see it while you drive, those have music and it might distracted for a good 15 minutes. I would also suddenly point to the window and I would say: Look at that! A bird! (or whatever " a truck" "a car") and even though there's nothing there she would stop for a few minutes to wonder what I was saying, and I would do the sound, " look the train" choo choo choo!. But everything I have done has always worked for only a period of 15 minutes max. so you have to be improvising all the time. I also look a little crazy when I drive because of this but what can you do?

Oh my goodness!

We can totally relate. Our dd just turned one and she FINALLY stopped screaming in her car seat. We tried EVERYTHING...movies, music, sitting next to siblings, away from siblings, water in a sippy, snacks..etc. We literally tried everything. We thought she would stop all this nonsense when she got to face forward...nope! It was sooooo frustrating....

Within the last week she FINALLY stopped screaming. All of a sudden she just sits there quietly sucking her thumb, totally content - next to her sisters - sometimes with a snack, other times without, watching a movie or listening to music. Complete opposite of what she used to do. I have NO IDEA what the 'trick' was - it was literally a night and day difference with her. All of our kids were like this in the car, although she was definitely the longest lasting and loudest. Hang in there - there will be day when she is more content in the car. It just stinks trying to get to that day! lol We have since traded in car trouble with nap time troubles....NOT GOOD! ha

Good luck - it will be interesting to see if anyone else has some tips that might help out :) We all need help when it comes to little ones right?!?

My answer may freak a few people out...but it worked for us.

I would play classical music in the car, and whenever the baby screamed...I would turn it up louder and louder. Whenever my son would quiet a little I would quiet the music. I believe he began to believe that he controlled the music because he began to realize the volume was adapting whatever decible he hit...He started thinking it was a game, and would belt out a quick yell, and I would blare the radio for a second and then turn it down. It worked...It took a couple weeks but he started soothing himself and we had no problems after that. It was a game and he liked it.

Maybe she is experiencing motion sickness? Or claustrophobia? I know it sounds crazy, but I have read of very small children having these issues. I would talk to your ped and rule out anything medical. Good luck, I know it must be driving you batty!

Just start counting down until forward facing time. That made such a difference with our kids. They hated looking at the back of a seat and were quite vocal about it! Once they could easily see mommy and/or daddy and travel in the right direction, they were much happier campers. Those rear-facing days made for some really horrible car trips. I completely understand what you mean about being so anxious you worry about car accidents.

My daughter was just like this. It was so frustrating & nerve racking. I just stopped trying to sing to calm her b/c it didn't help. At 6 months we went on an 8 hr. driving vacation. She was great up until the last 90 minutes of the drive when she cried very hard...even though Grandma was there entertaining her. Given this, however, she did get much better after that drive. I would recommend taking a road trip...she'll learn that screaming doesn't help & she may just get used to it.....though I know that's not too practical in the winter. Just think "this too shall pass." My daughter is 2 now, great in the car & a lot of her infant issues have gone away and she's a great, smart girl. I hate to say it, but if your soothing doesn't help, just try to ignore it...sounds horrible, but if there is nothing you can do, then there is nothing you can do.

just wanted to add a few things that I didn't see from the others....we had the same problem but it cleared up completely when she was big enough to face from and get out of the pumpkin seat but prior to that....with tips i got from other moms on the site...I pulled away the cover of the car seat and added some padding, just a folded receiving blanket, it filled the gap of what little padding there was and gave her some back support. Also, radio static helped a lot. It has to be fairly loud & I of course worried about her hearing but as soon as possible I would back it down & eventually move all sound to the front speakers so I could listen to my choosing and it was still background noise to her. My DH couldn't stand that so I bought a travel white noise machine that I could tuck into her car seat. We still use it for travel to slide under the pack-n-play in hotel rooms..it helps us ALL sleep! Good luck!

Would a light inside of the car help.. Maybe she cannot focus enough to see what and who is in the car with her..

Hi, does she for sure not suffer from ear infections? My kids were all prone to them... two of them from birth on... and the backwards car ride seemed to throw off their equilibrium. Good luck.

My daughter did this too. I thought "man, arent babies supposed to LIKE riding in the car" My first two did. But my little girl screamed everytime we got in the car. And like you, we had to go out every day. Unfortunatley, in my experience, nothing helped. That is until she got to turn around in the car seat and that was about 18 months. Sorry I can't really give you any solid advice on what to do, except that know in time it will get better and you are not alone!
Love, A.
Edit - I must say after reading SJ M's response I had never put the two together, but my daughter did suffer from horrible ear infections until she got tubes, and since turning around helped, that may have been the reason! Thanks for the insight SJ M!

my daughter would do this and id have to get on the phone to talk to soeone because i just wanted to drive off a cliff( thankfully we dont have any cliffs in IL!) she eventually grew out of it. now she is still rear facing ( at 3) and is fone in the car. Id make sure that you have it adjusted properly so she isnt too tight or hot. make sure coat is off etc. change her toys frequently and realize there is nothing you can do about it. Do you have a mirror where she can see you and you her? that helped with my daughter.

my daughter did that (now 8 next month) i just flat out started ignoring her...if you're giving her attention, she'll continue. if son is old enough, let him sit up front and you two have the ride of your lives together, eventually the screaming will stop because she's not getting the attention she is after

What worked best for me was kids' music---nursery ryhmes, folk tunes, whatever, with kids singing. Right now you could use a tape or CD of kids singing Christmas songs. The kids' voices are the key, and sing along with them! It's fun, and I've never seen a kid who didn't stop fussing to hear the kids sing.

My kids all went through this phase. The louder the music in the car, the less likely they were to cry, we played a lot of Dead Kennedys for one child, another liked the Grateful Dead, each had their own preference. The best solution was for an older child to sit next to them and distract them and hand them lots of toys and/or sing (again, loudly) to the baby. And they all HATED dark cars, so we often left the interior light on when we drove at night.
Unfortunately there were times when nothing worked, and we just had to wait for them to grow out of it.

I can so relate! My son is 14m now and he was the exact same way. Although frankly he still hates the car seat. It made me crazy and so that I didn't want to ever go anywhere with him. Similar to what someone else said - I would have the front seat full of toys and just keep passing them back. I sang a lot of really bad songs, and many times just had to let him scream. My son got really hot during the winter months in that rear facing carseat because I dressed him warm and the carseat he was in was very warm to begin with. It is possible that she is too warm?