Car seat meltdown

[ThankfulMama]

I tried searching for past threads because I'm sure this has been posted before.

DD regularly has meltdowns when I put her in her car seat. She arches her back stands in the seat and then twists around to face forward (her seat is RF and she is 13mos). I've tried all sorts of special toys that we keep only in the car, and other neat things to no avail. I need help. I don't know how to handle this most effectively. If I hold her to calm her down (sometimes it escalates to breath holding, purple faced screaming etc.) she will calm until I try once again to sit her in the seat. I have made the angle of the seat more upright to see if that helps (no) and it happens in both seats we have (different models).

Should I just persevere and keep buckling her through the screaming fits to the best of my ability or what? I need help please!

[wembles]

My son used to protest when we would put him in the carseat, too. We found that letting him "drive" for a few minutes first (i.e., put him in the drivers seat and let him play with the steering wheel, wipers, radio, etc.) has almost completely eliminated the protesting. That may be specific to him, but thought I'd throw it out there for something to try! Good luck!

[just_lily]

This seems to be a very common thing around a year old. It gets better.

I used to give DD a minute or two to stand up and play around, then told her it was time to get buckled in. If she protested I continued anyways while keeping up a running monologue about how important it was to keep her safe and everyone puts their seatbelts on, blah blah blah. Once I got her buckled I would give her a toy or a drink or something and she calmed right down.


ETA: And I should point out that once I told her that it was time to get buckled in I followed through right away. I found that trying to comfort her halfway through would just prolong the experience and cause her to fuss even more the next time. If she did the back arch scream thing I would just gently hold her in position in order to get her buckled.

It's like taking a band aid off - better to do it fast and get it over with.

[elmh23]

Have you tried letting her climb in her seat by herself? That helped a little bit with my oldest. With my second, we let him climb in and then I'd give him a book of trains (he LOVES trains) and belted him quickly. And when those didn't work, I'd just use my weight and size (never hurting them) and get them buckled quick.

[healthy momma]

I'll second most of what has been said. I'm a go with the flow type and we rarely "HAD" to be somewhere at a specific time. After one back arching, screaming fit, I brought along a book, sat in the front passenger seat (keys safely stowed in my pocket) and let DS explore the car. He was happy and so was I (I rarely go to read). Every so often I would say, "Anytime you want to __________ (listen to music, go home for a snack, go to the playground, etc.) I'll help you into your seat and we can go." Eventually, he'd indicate he was ready and we'd be on our way. The first week we spent about 10 to 15 minutes doing this every car ride. Then it was about 5 minutes for a few more days until soon he had pretty much explored enough and he did it only on rare occasions.

[vrclay]

I made up a silly song about being in your safe/magic seat. it worked. The other thing that helped was to put it in the living room for him to just sit and "hang-out" in. I stumbled upon this when we got a seat for travel and he immediatly loved it. I'd sing the song when he got in it to create a positive association.

Good luck, I know it stinks.

[ThankfulMama]

Thanks for all of the responses and suggestions. I will give some of these ideas a try to see if that helps.