Son Sleeps in Carseat

Does he have reflux? Most babies with reflux are more comfortable in an elevated position. My son did the same thing until about 6 or 7 months and then he just grew out of it.

my youngest was the same way. Laying flat startled him, and then he had trouble going back to sleep. We started putting pillows under the ends of the carseat in the crib, and on the sides,to keep it from tipping and laying him farther and farther back every couple nights to get him used to laying flatter. Do you have a swaddler blanket that wraps around newborns and velcros to keep it from unwrapping? (Wal mart or Target) When we started laying him down in the crib, we'd wrap it around his arms to keep him from feeling like he was falling, and startling. as he got used to it, we started loosening it, and took an arm out at a time. After a couple weeks he was able to be layed in the crib in his sleeper sac and has done great ever since.

Not laying flat is classic reflux, it is very painful for babies & they have no way to tell you about it, usually caused by a protein intolerance, if he is on milk based formula, try soy but be advised that 90% of kids who don't tolerate milk won't tolerate soy, it takes 10-15 days for the GI tract to reaclimate to the change if he is still fussy or develops a fine exzema rash on body the soy is a nogo. The other options for milk free are NeoCate & Elecare (spendy too). 2 of my kids ended up that route firt 1 is still allergic to milk & soy, 2nd still off milk but could take the soy after a couple of months of neocate.

They make reflux meds as well, zantac is popular but get the effertabs the liquid will more than likely make him gag if not puke. Prevacid solutabs are another but have to be given on an empty tummy 30min b/f feeding...which at that age is almost impossible.

Good luck.

I agree with others -- don't worry about it. My son and daughter both slept in their car seats for a long time. We even put their car seats in their cribs so at least they would get used to being in the crib. Then, my daughter wouldn't sleep anywhere but her swing for a loooong time. I was freaking out, then my mom said "How many 5 year olds do you see sleeping in swings? She'll get over it." And she did. Mention it to your dr. but I bet it'll just get better with time!

Maybe he has acid reflux?

My daughter did the same thing, only her carseat or her baby hammock. Does he spit up alot? I had her checked for reflux because I was talking to one of my friends and her son had reflux and wouldnt lay flat. You can prop the end of the crib up with a wedge or a pillow.

My kids all slept in thier car seats or bouncy seat when they were little. I think its because with the blankets and being all tucked in they feel safer and more snug than the openess of the crib. I would try a few things when he his in his car seat... can you tip it back ( against a wall or something, but to where it isn't going to tip over) and if he is level head and chest does he cry? If he does that I would say it could be acid reflux comeing up. I would bring it up to his dr and see what they say. Even now sometimes my 7mo will not sleep in her crib but put her in the swing (even with out it going) she will go right out. I say what ever it takes so you both get the sleep you need!

when my kid was sick with a cold he would only sleep in the car seat or a swing because it elevated him and helped him to breath. We put the car seat in the crib for a week and this helped out. Also I rolled some towels and placed them under the mattress under the crib to elevate it at an angle. This did not work out so well becuase my kid kept slidding down to the bottom. Good Luck!

Can you get yourself a good babysling? If you get him to sleep while wearing him in it, you can then lay down with him while he's still in it and then slip yourself out of the sling. I.e. let him sleep in the sling on your bed or on a futon on the floor (so he doesn't roll off and get hurt, of course). Don't forget to run a humidifier or whatever in the room where he sleeps for nap/bedtime for white noise.

Our son did the same thing. He had reflux so this was more comfortable for him. Maybe have yours checked for that also. They have something to give to them for that.

You can buy a special triangle pillow to put under the mattress which puts it at an incline to see if this helps. This may sound like a stupid question but...do you think he just feels more swaddled in the carseat and swing?

Hello K.,
You might want to check into acid reflux. That may be why he doesn't want to lay flat and only sleep sitting up. My son had acid reflux and he was on Ranididine for a year and a half. It helped for him. Just an idea. Good Luck!
L.

K.,
I didn't read the other posters, so I hope I'm not repeating any. Maybe you son has some type of reflux that he can't lay flat. My niece has that and had to have her bassinet elevated so she wasn't flat.
If no medical reasoning... maybe he just prefers it like that. My daughter slept so different from my son. My son was a side sleeper. My daughter didn't like laying down the first few months and we put her car seat in the pack'n play. I figure sleep is better that being up all night. Sleep is sleep... and she grew out of it. She became a tummy sleeper (which worried me). Now she is just all over - lol.
I say check to see if there is a medical reason first. If not "this too shall pass"... don't worry - it's sleep.

Good luck,
~SR

Sounds like he may have a little upset tummy. Laying flat probably just aggrivates it. At some point your dr may put them on some kind of med to help settle his tummy. Until then, it's NO BIG DEAL is he only sleeps in his carseat or swing. My niece and her little brother only slept in their swing until they got too big and grew out of them!

Don't worry about it; it's still sleep! (In that regard, I disagree with other postings saying that it's a problem.) BUT, you don't want the swing moving. As soon as he's asleep, turn the swing off. Motion inhibits deep sleep, so you don't want that.
Definitely talk to your ped. about it at your baby's next check-up. In the meantime, be happy that he's sleeping at all. When he doesn't want to sleep in the carseat, you can worry about it then. You might want to put his carseat in his crib, to get him used to the surroundings at least.
Good luck, E.

Our son slept better in a car seat too because when he was a few months old he caught a cold and being more upright helped him sleep. But as he got a little older he would move around more in his sleep and fuss in the carseat but wouldn't sleep in the crib well. When we mentioned it to our pediatrician, he said putting him in the carseat was fine while he was sick, but that now that we continued doing it, we may have trained him to only sleep in the carseat. That made sense to us so we started putting him in the crib with the end propped up a little. It wasn't easy at first, but he did eventually learn how to sleep in the crib. It was also shortly after we started putting him the crib that he chose a silky stuffed animal and a nuk as him comfort items so that helped too. Good luck with it!

We have had this problem with our 2 from time to time. We ahve put a small pillow under one side of the crib mattress to elevate on side when they have a cold or ear infection. It could help but I would talk with the pediatrician more about it. Do you swaddle at bed time- it could be that they need that more confined feeling.

I would highly suggest that you bring him to a chiropractor. I finally brought my littlw guy to my chiropractor when he was about 4 months old and they helped me figure out why he was uncomfortable. (He had an issue with breastfeeding.) I know that my chiropractor has post-graduate certification in pediatrics and he is really good! I think they do free evaluations for kids, so let me know if you want the information. They have a clinic in St. Louis Park and Shorewood. Good luck!

Hi K.,
My son was the same way. Babies with a lot of gas or reflux often have a difficult time lying flat. Meds help and so does putting them on an incline when they sleep. Pollywog.com has excellent products that help children who have these issues. Check with your pediatrician to see if it might be reflux. Good luck!

It sounds to me like he could be having some acid reflux when he lays flat- that would also explain the fussiness. I would see a doctor and mention that as a possible explanation.

You should get him checked for acid reflux. It probably literally hurts him to lay down. That is what my son has! good luck!

My youngest slept in her carseat for her first 4 months because of an ear infection when she was 6 weeks old. Being upright helped alleviate the pain in her ears. After that, she was just used to it, and it let me sleep (I had a 14 month old and 5 year old at the time) so I welcomed whatever sleep I could get. :P We moved her to the crib during nap time and let her sleep in the carseat by our bed during the night, and weened her off of it gradually night after night.

Throughout the years, other things that have kept my kids up were acid reflux (my older daughter had it badly when she started solids and we've had to cut down on our pasta - the tomato based sauces were the issue) and a lower back issue with my son (who's now 8) and two trips to the chiropractor took care of that.

I'd suggest talking to your pediatrician about the recurring issue. The first thing I think of is possible ear issues with fluid build-up, or possibly an allergy/sensitivity to certain foods (whether milk-based formula or something you may be eating when nursing). My experience is all over the place with each of my kids, and I apologize for not being able to help nail down a symptom, but it's a jumping off point. I hope you can find something that pin-points it for you so you can all start getting a good nights rest. :)

use a sling, or try cosleeping, or a bedside sleeper if you are comfortable with cosleeping - i highly recommend it! :D

www.askdrsears.com is a GREAT place to go for sleep help. i could go into it but i wont. i always blab on and on. mostly, kids are not programmed to sleep well... its basically survival, if they wake often, the risk of sids and etc goes down. so theres a positive to it! :D

you can try a sling during the day so you can have your hands free... the most comfortable one ive ever used is the moby wrap - its spendy, but i hardly felt like i was holding anything - it was so comfortable. :D

good luck!

Have you tried to really elevate his crib mattress? My daughter would only sleep in her swing for the frist 4 months of her life and then we moved her to her crib and elevated her mattress with a few pillows, it really worked and then I would gradually take out the pillows so there was not a huge difference, and even now she has one pillow under her bedding for a little support. Dont worry about pushing it though, he will transition when he is ready. I know a lot of moms that have had babies in swings and carseats for up to 6 months. Goodluck

Hi K.,

I'm not going to say what you are doing is wrong, but there will come a time that he won't sleep in his car seat either, so you will have to go thru the transition of getting him to sleep in his crib sometime. I'm suggesting the transition might be easier now than later. I know parents don't like to let their children cry, but I don't know anyway around it to break habits. It will probably only take a few days, and before you know it he will be going to sleep, and you will wonder why you didn't do this sooner. You might try elevating one end of his crib some...maybe this will help the transition some, and I know you aren't suppose to put pillows in with infants, but if you keep an eye on him maybe you could put a small pillow next to him...maybe he just likes the closeness part of the carseat and the swing??? Just some ideas...good luck.

C.

It sounds like he might have acid reflux. Both my kids did and they were on medication for it. It helped. The reflux made it uncomfortable to lay down flat.

My daughter did the same thing. She would sleep in the carseat in the crib not buckled in. When she started sliding down as she wiggled, we changed to the swing. Her Dr. said if it gets us some sleep then not to worry. When she was 6 months and over her colic-like fussiness I used the let her cry technique for the crib. We went through 2 nights of crying and it worked. We had to do the letting her cry again when I decided to put her in the crib awake to put herself to sleep. Again after 2 nights of crying it worked again. She is a wonderful sleeper now at 16 months! Also,I see you have an older child... when we did the letting her cry, we sent our older child to his grandma and grandpas to stay for a few days so he didn't worry and we could focus on her sleep issues. Good luck!

This is what i did. My son had an issue like that he went to sleep around 8pm so what i did was buckled him in and put it inside his crib. Do this for 1 or 2 nights with him staying in the carseat. If you dont feel comfortable doing that, try setting him in his carseat near his crib in his room, then on the 3rd day keep him in the carseat and after he falls asleep carefully try to lay him in his crib, it might not work the first time then just put him back in the carseat and wait a little longer the next time. With my son after the 3rd or 4th night he slept all night in his crib. The reason they like the carseats though is because they feel snuggled, mabey try to snuggle him till he falls asleep and lay him on his side with his back close to the side of the crib, he might feel more snuggled.

Hi K.-
My 5-yr-old was a fussy, colicky baby. One reason your baby could be fussy and not want to lay flat is that he is gassy and it hurts to try to put the legs down. What I always did was lay mine on his back and did the "wheels on the bus" song to try and help move the gas around. Being colicky, this helped some but he was still fussy. However, with my 10-mos-old it worked like a charm! Hope this helps--
J.

My son was the same way, you could not set him down flat he would just scream and scream. Turned out he is lactose intolerant and had GERD.

For GERD, you can sleep him in a semi-upright position, using a pillow- see ARPillow.com, or do what you've been doing with the swing (he will outgrow the swing through, so if you can get the pillow to work it'll be better for you in the long run. There are also medications, my son was on Zantac for a while. And I am on it now, as is my mother. It would appear this is partly hereditary.

For LI, try eliminating all sources of dairy from your baby's diet for 2 weeks. You'll know by then if it is making a difference. If he is breastfed, cut all dairy from your diet for 2 weeks; if formula fed, ask a doctor for a formula not based on cows milk.

I wish I had done this sooner- we suffered for 18 months because I trusted those who said "A baby can't be Lactose intolerant". Well let me tell you: they can.

Also for LI later on down the road, see these pages of Steve Carper's website:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stevecarper/guid...

and

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stevecarper/perc...

K.,
Don't feel bad about letting him sleep in the carseat or the swing for now. He's a little guy yet, so that's okay. Just make sure to buckle him in, as the unbuckled straps can pose a strangulation hazard. Honestly, you've gotta just do whatever works. Eventually, he'll outgrow the need for the close comfort of the carseat and the rocking motion of the swing. For now, don't fret (or feel guilty) over doing what works.

I would take him to a chiropractor. They can help with all kinds of things. It really isn't best for him to lay in a curve all the time. It can be rough on his pelvis. The pelvis isn't designed to have all the body weight on it in that position. Chiropractic helped my little one out quite a bit. I recommend Spinal Corrective Center in Cedar Rapids.

A.

The stores also sell things that elevate the baby while in the crib to sleep. Does he like being on his tummy during the day while awake? does he do ok? You may whnt to talk to your doctor and ask if he can sleep on he tummy. My son would not sleep laying down on his back so thats what my doc. suggested. Hope this helps.

A.

My son had really bad gastro problems and we ended up putting a folded blanket under one side of his crib to elevate it just enough so he didn't have heartburn. We also got mylicon drops before bed to try and settle things down. (Gastro never diagnoised by dr, just our huntch).

neither of my boys ever slept laying flat for a while. one slept in his activity chair for 2 months and my other son slept in a boppy that had a strap to buckle him in for 4 months. He had reflux and had to take medicine. they slept like that mainly because we didn't have money to buy them a crib until they were four months old but once we got one they transitioned easily.

I have gone throught this with my youngest son. He would cry in his crib and the first second I would lift him out of the crib and put him in his car seat he would quit crying and lay his head down towards the side of the seat and sigh with relief and fall asleep. He was 7 months old and the phase went on until about 9 1/2 months when I slowly broke him from it as I had to reintroduce the crib. Sleeping in a car seat causes no harm. I was just glad he would go to sleep so I could sleep.

You need to get to the root of your son's fussiness. We know now that very few babies are colicky for absolutely no reason. Your son (and your entire family) doesn't have to suffer.

If this were my baby, the first thing I would do is go out and buy Hyland's Colic Tablets and/or Gripe Water. These aren't "solutions" to the problem, but they are natural remedies and will get you through until you solve the problem.

I would then take him to a chiropractor. Many colicky babies benefit from chiropractic care. The fact that he won't lie flat is telling--something could be off with his neck, spine, or hips.

At the same time, I would be looking at food intolerances or allergies. You don't mention if he is breastfed, formula fed, or both, or if he is on any solids.... If he is on formula, you could try soy formula or even the "gentle" formula (I forgot what it's called right now). If you are breastfeeding, you could try an elimination diet for 2 weeks--let me know if you want more info.

Acid reflux is another possibility. They make slings that go inside baby's cribs. Your baby might like to sleep inside one of those.

Even if you get to the root of his fussiness and you have a happy baby, he still may not like transitioning to a crib, but you have to do it. Breaking bad habits is never easy. (Another option, of course, is co-sleeping, but this is a lifestyle choice and both parents have to be on board for this to be beneficial to the entire family.)

Good luck!

My son did not like to lay flat either you should have him checked for reflux, my son was put on meds and was able to sleep better. Good luck

Have you spoken with your pediatrician? How about gastric reflux and meds for that?

Try propping one end of the crib mattress up just a bit, that might help if it is just an issue of laying flat. Definatly bring the issue up to your doc. My last two have had reflux that requires(ed) medication, that could be the issue. But, if the fussy issue is reflux, laying them flat after eating isn't good anyway. As long as your son is getting sleep, and you are two, does it really matter where he sleeps?