Will Cry in Car Nonstotp

Acid reflux was my first thought when I started reading your post. My daughter was/is the same way. For some kids, the car seat can make their acid reflux better and for others can aggravate it. Sounds like your little guy is in pain. :( I have never found anything to help my daughter (she is now over two). She now gets to the point where she will throw up in the car. It makes it so hard to get around. I would talk with your ped for suggestions. Hope it gets better soon.

My almost 5 month old son was the same way until about 4 months, now, he rarely cries in the car! Maybe he'll outgrow it like mine! Good luck.

DS1 hated the car! Would cry until he threw up. Reflux wasn't the problem, he just couldn't calm down once he was worked up. Toys didn;t work, singing didn;t work, he refused bottles & pacifiers. Only 2 things worked:
1.) me riding in the backseat, leaning voer his seat & nursing him until he fell alseep. This was very uncomfortable, not very safe &, of course, only possible if I wasn't driving.
2.) Taking the bucket part of the car seat, holding it by the handle & SWINGING it vigourously until DS fell asleep. THen we would cautiously snap it into the car.

I basically didn't drive anywahere by myself for a year. We found lots of other ways to get around (public trans, walking, trains, etc). Saved alot of money on gas-lol. It did get better when we turned his seat around...but didn't really stop until he was pretty verbal. Seemed like the ability to converse with us took the place of his need to be held, etc.

DS2 doesn't like the car either, but less passionately. He will sometimes take a pacifier & the motion of the car seems to be soothing to him. We are sooooo relieved.

I second the thought that reflux could be a culprit -- my dd had it, and the angle on the carseat just really aggravated it. She would cry until she puked if I couldn't calm her down (or at least get to the backseat or stop the car). And then she was unresponsive to me for hours, sometimes an entire day (no eye contact, no smiling, seemed exhausted). So letting her go wasn't an option for me.

A couple things that worked for me:

1) Strapping her in the carrier and swinging it around until she fell to sleep or got really calm, then attaching it to the base. I used to have to do this multiple times while driving as well. I'd pull over, take it off the base, and swing swing swing. This is what I did if I didn't have the option of #2 below.

2) Nursing her while she was in the seat. It was the only thing that worked for us for a good long while.

3) Singing. Sometimes I'd sing to her the entire trip. She didn't like CDs or music, she liked to hear my voice singing a familiar song. So, sometimes I'd sing her silly (or not silly) songs that I'd made up. I'd sing them to her when we weren't in the car, looking straight at her and smiling, and then those same songs could sometimes calm her down while driving.

Eventually she grew out of it, but traveling was difficult for a while! Best of luck.

My daughter was the same way. It was awful...She eventually outgrew it...How about trying music?? I had a couple of Einstein cds, as well as a few barney...Im sure there is more age appropriate out there. Good luck..

try a soothing children's cd - my son whines when I turn his music off sometimes

Sounds like both of my kids. The only thing I found that helped at all was letting them choose (by sitting in store models) a convertible carseat and putting them in that instead of using the infant seat. They both still cried, but less than in their infant seats so I think maybe the convertible seat was slightly more comfortable? It gets WAY better when they turn one and can face forward, but that's months away for you (I'm counting down the days with my son).

It also helps to time car trips around nap time, if at all possible.