HELP! 3mth old hates his car seat

[preciousstone]

My 3mth old was fine in his car seat until about a month ago. He just hates it and screams up a lung anytime we put him in. We've tried everything we can think of - rearview mirror w/ music, sitting with him, talking him thru it, white noise. Is there anything else I can try. He cries like he's in pain and won't settle until he's out. If he falls asleep he wakes up crying. Every once in a while he sits quietly thru a drive but it's so random I can't tell if we did smthg right, what it could be.

Has anyone dealt with this. Is it too soon to transfer him to an upright convertible car seat rear-facing.

tia.

[Alisse]

Oh mama i remember those days. My son is 6months now and it can still be a bit of a challenge to keep him from crying in his seat. But in the earlier days he use to cry so hard that i'd start crying myself after a while. We had a big improvement after we had transferred him into a convertible seat. At around 3months of age he was looking a little squished in his infant car seat, (he was ~18lbs). The convertible seat we switched him to was a lot roomier so i think he noticed it a bit less that he was confined to it. After the switch our previous attempts to sooth him while in the seat were much more effective, (eg. singing with hand motions, trying to schedule rides around nap-times, etc), and we also found that as he got better at grasping things and putting it into his mouth it became easier to distract him with toys. So maybe it's a combination of the seat and age that has resulted in easier car rides.

[miami mommy]

My DS *hated* his infant bucket seat. It was so hard to go anywhere with him, I made my DH drive us and I would sit in back and entertain him or say shhh if he was crying. The one time I had to drive him w/o DH, DS cried so hard that I cried, too. It was torture.

At 4 mos, we needed to go on a 4-5 hr road trip, so I bought a Britax Marathon (which is a convertible). We left on our road trip at 11 pm in hopes that he would be so tired that he would sleep in the car. And he did! He slept almost the whole way! That was our first victory. It's been a month now and I've found that as long as he's fed and not overtired, he does just fine. The seat gets him up higher and now he just stares out the window. He's in a stage where he needs lots of stimulation, so he really enjoys looking out the window. Also, I think he hated the bucket position and the convertibles have a more comfy sitting position.

[bandgeek]

You can definitely switch to a convertible at any age. How upright you can put it depends on how his head control is. You won't be able to go very upright, but probably a little more than he is now and sometimes that makes all the difference.

My DS was a screamer too, until we switched to a convertible at 3 months.

Make sure you get one that he fits well in. Some seats are still a little big for many 3 month olds.

[cristeen]

We skipped the infant seat entirely, so you can definitely use a convertible now.

But, since it just started recently, you might want to try a visit to the chiropractor.