Just being a toddler?

[Anonymous]

For about a month now, Alex has screamed bloody murder almost every time that we try to put her into her car seat. I don’t think that it’s the type of seat because she does it with everyone and we have three different types of seats. Dh has mentioned several times that maybe she wants to be turned around (because usually part of the drill is her turning around in the seat, standing up and trying to climb over the top of the seat).

Has anyone had a similar situation? Did you turn your child around and find that it improved or did the problem continue?

I’ve really been trying to keep her rear facing as long as possible. She’s 17 months old, but only weighs about 21 pounds. She’s usually fine once you get her strapped in, but it can take 10 minutes of fighting to get her in and I’m really worried that she’ll get hurt in the process. I remember Kaelyn going through a stage like this, but I don’t remember it being this extreme and I can’t remember how long it lasted.

Any ideas? Would you turn her around?

[hellbennt]

I’d make up a song or a game even to try & make getting into the seat something ‘fun’ or ‘different’

Maybe even start singing the song as you’re heading to the car, etc, and get Kaelyn involved, singing, clapping, getting excited/silly to distract and make a fun routine of it…then when she hears the song, she’ll know what to expect, etc..

that’s what I would do and then after THAT I’d be exasperated, LOL!!!

[Anonymous]

Could you try turning one of the seats forward and see if it’s the miracle answer?? If you STILL have the same stressful dilemma every time you get in the car, you might as well keep her rear facing. Does that make sense? Sarah hates the car regardless…at least for longer periods of time (i.e. farther than 1 block! ) I hoped that forward facing would be our answer but it really wasn’t. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Foward facing did help a bit with us at the beginning.. But that didnt last long! He cries EVERY time I go to put him in the seat.. unless I give him his blanky and paci or a snack!! Its getting out of control…;)

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t turn her…and depending on the carseat she may not meet the minimum weight limit to even turn forward facing. Many don’t allow forward facing until 22lbs now.

Most kids do go through a phase like this…for me, it’s just something I tough out. I’m the mom and I’m in charge…not them. It’s a safety issue, not something that can be negotiated like whether they have milk or water with dinner.

If my DD wasn’t so stinkin’ tall I’d like to still have her rear-facing…but she just turned 3 and DH was starting to get antsy about turning her forward so I finally caved when she got too tall to RF in all but one of her carseats. She’s 28lbs.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help ladies. Since no one found turning the seat around to be the magic solution, I guess we’ll just leave her like she is. Honestly, my biggest concern is that she’s going to hurt in the struggle to get her into the seat. I’ve actually had people stop and stare as I try to wrestle her into her seat in the grocery store parking lot.

[Anonymous]

Well Kim, not to make it a more difficult subject, but turning the seat around was the answer for us. I too wanted to wait, but he was so frustrated, and I really wonder if he didn’t get a little carsick riding backwards. I think also seeing his sister turned the other way wasn’t helping. Ben’s about 25 lbs. though, so I wasn’t too worried about turning him, as I would have had to at 30 lbs. with his seat anyway. He is MUCH happier in the car, and it’s not so stressful for me to drive them around anymore. I really did worry that I was going to wreck before because I was constantly turning around trying to comfort him.

[Anonymous]

Turning around helped both of my boys as far as not screaming the whole car ride. However Justice is doing what your talking about and he is facing forward. He fights me to the death. It drives me nuts and I have no idea what the struggle is about all of a sudden, but I think I’m gong to do what Laura said. It’s worth a try. Hmmm coming up with words though might be a challenge.

[hellbennt]

(we’re) going in the car

C-A-R

(we’re) going in the car

C-A-R

(we’re) going in the car

C-A-R

we’re going in the car

car,

yes we are!

[Anonymous]

I havn’t read all the replys but Shane flips out too when we try and put him in the seat.. but I have come to realize that as long as he has his blanky and paci with him he settles right down and “shutsup” 😉 . If we don’t bring his special blanky and paci he is a MANIAC! And it is a terrible trip. SOO does She have a special object you can bring along?

[Anonymous]

So, it’s been a little over a month since I initially posted this and things have improved slightly. We had one absolutely horrible weekend when she fought, kicked and bit dh and I every time we tried to put her in the seat. So we decided to turn one of the seats around. It did help a little bit. She still has times when she fights getting into the seat, but they aren’t as bad as they were before. I still feel pretty guilty about it, but as Naomi mentioned, there were times when I thought that I was going to get into an accident because Alex was screaming bloody murder. About half of the time Kaelyn would try to comfort her (which was very cute). But the other half of the time, Kaelyn would join her in screaming — usually along the lines of, “she’s doing it again, make her stop, make her stop, make her stop, my ears are exploding”.

We just drove to MA (about an 11 hour trip) and it was still pretty rough, but definitely better than it would have been.

Lauren, she has her “night-night” bear, but that didn’t help. However, she just got a toy for Christmas that has been a big help, so we’ve been taking it with us everywhere we go. It’s one of those “fur-real” pets – it’s a dog that barks, then sighs with contentment when you stroke its back and then snores when you leave it alone for a while. She loves the silly thing.

Thanks for everyone’s replies!

[Author]

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