Dealing with crying in the carseat

[lillymonster]

My almost 8 month old has started crying the carseat for about a month now. I don't know what to do. At this point, it's either motion sickness or reflux or something to do with movement, (I think) but I don't know what. I have taken the car seat and sat her in it buckled inside the house, been in a parking lot or at stop lights and she is fine. She still cries if I am in the back with her, we also bought another car seat, tested in different car (an suv and a smaller car), tried toys, no toys, window down, window up, switched sides. Her crying starts about 5 minutes into the ride. We have tinted windows, I tried using a towel to block the window in case it was sun or motion. My older daughter has thrown up in the car even forward facing, so I know she has motion sickness and I know turning DD#2 around probably won't make a difference (even though DH wants to turn her around now - but I put my foot down on that) I tried MotionEaze and Hyland motion tables (which worked for me, btw - so I am thinking it's reflux now??) Reflux - she has, it's silent because I could see her spit up and then swallow it, but she shows no other signs of intolerances. DD 1 had reflux and had soy issues and now has lactose intolerance, but I could see bad poos, rashes, etc on her. If it's food issues causing the reflux I would have no idea where to begin.

Anyway, I can't limit driving for 2 reasons, older sister is starting preschool 3 days a week in a week, and I have ongoing health issues that I have to drive 30 minutes to go to a doctor every week. I can't leave her at home because sometimes it takes 30 minutes, sometimes 3 hours, depending on how busy they are. She has never had a bottle, not sure I can pump anything at this point, so I don't know if getting a babysitter is an option. She is not big on food yet, so likes it but doesn't eat enough that she could put off nursing.

I just don't know what else to try or even how to deal with it. If I let her cry just to get home, then my 4 year old starts crying because she is so upset (she is very sensitive to other people's emotions). She has been in a convertible car seat since she was 3 months old - a Britax, then we bought the graco myride65.

If anyone can give me tips on dealing with it, helping my 4 year old deal with it and anything I could try I might have missed, please let me know...I am all ears. It's been suggested to me many times to give her benedryl, which is not something I want to do, since we live about 15-20 minutes away from everything, I'd be giving it to her every day.

[nstewart]

Ugh, so tough!  

My DS also HATES the car.  He often throws up as well.  He's old enough now that I can give him Gravol, but I try to limit doing so if at all possible.  I do limit driving as much as possible and walk or ride the bike with him whenever I can instead of driving.  I try to do errands when DH is home and I can sneak away.  Buuuuttt, I still need to drive with him sometimes.  The ONLY things I can think of are to look into acupressure bands and also the static strips for cars.  We do have a static strip on our vehicle and I do think that it's helped.  It was only like $10 at Canadian Tire and took DH about 10 minutes to install.  It is worth a try!

Good luck.

[Erin77]

Any chance of distraction lessening the issue? Have you tried playing music she likes and loudly singing along? My son used to get upset in the car seat but he loves music and it would sometimes help.

[lillymonster]

It hasn't worked that I have tried, so that is why I think it's something physical bothering her. I am going to look through more cds tonight and see if a white noise one might help.

Originally Posted by Erin77 

Any chance of distraction lessening the issue? Have you tried playing music she likes and loudly singing along? My son used to get upset in the car seat but he loves music and it would sometimes help.

[lillymonster]

I have been looking for sea bands for kids, but haven't been been able to find them. I have never heard of a static strip, what is that?

Originally Posted by nstewart 

Ugh, so tough!  

My DS also HATES the car.  He often throws up as well.  He's old enough now that I can give him Gravol, but I try to limit doing so if at all possible.  I do limit driving as much as possible and walk or ride the bike with him whenever I can instead of driving.  I try to do errands when DH is home and I can sneak away.  Buuuuttt, I still need to drive with him sometimes.  The ONLY things I can think of are to look into acupressure bands and also the static strips for cars.  We do have a static strip on our vehicle and I do think that it's helped.  It was only like $10 at Canadian Tire and took DH about 10 minutes to install.  It is worth a try!

Good luck.

[nstewart]

Originally Posted by lillymonster 

I have been looking for sea bands for kids, but haven't been been able to find them. I have never heard of a static strip, what is that?

 I'll be honest, I don't understand the science behind the strip in terms of stopping motion sickness.  The idea is that the strap grounds the car as you drive thereby eliminating the static electricity/static charge in the car. There is a metal strip in the strap that is attached to the frame of the vehicle that drags along the road, thereby discharting the static electricity moment by moment as you drive. That part I understand.  I don't know how it impacts motion sickness, but for the $10 thought it couldn't hurt!  I've heard of many other people using them for this purpose and was at a loss as to what else to try.

If you google the term you can find lots for sale online (including amazon) but as I said we picked ours up at Canadian Tire.  Somewhere with an automotive section would carry them, but somewhere like Home Depot likely would not.