When my first baby was born she hated the car. That is until I figured out that I had her strapped in too tightly and then she was the easiest traveller on the planet. She would just drift off happily in the car. Hated traffic. But I think that's pretty normal. Although I joked that she'd picked up my husband's hatred of traffic. Luckily we live on the Central Coast so there's not a whole lot of traffic to be had. So it came as something of a shock to me when my second baby hated the car. Actually the car hatred didn't start until she was about 8 weeks old. So I was lulled into a false sense of security with the whole thing.
And then all of a sudden I had a baby who would scream from the time she hopped into the car until the time the car stopped. And that was 45 minutes to preschool with my three year old, three days a week and then back again. I'm glad that it didn't seem to bother the three year old but it was very stressful for me. Going out became an activity of military precision. I had to pick just the right time, I had to feed the baby just before I put her in the car and then start the car as soon as possible after getting the baby into her capsule. I had to hope that we didn't get too much traffic on the way. But mostly I just hoped against hope that I wouldn't have a screaming baby on my hands for the full 45 minutes. Sometimes I did, sometimes I didn't. But it's fair to say I tried everything.
I tried giving her the dummy, not giving her the dummy, putting her in sleepy, putting her in wide awake, playing music, not playing music, a variety of toys (once she was old enough to hold on to them), a mirror so she could see herself, heating up the car before I put her in and even getting her to have some sleeps at home unswaddled so she could get used to it.
Only three things seemed to make any great impact. A toy cube with crinkly faric bits, handles, things to chew on and a mirror. She loved that cube, so I worshipped the thing. And I never brought it into the house so that it was something novel for her when she was in the car. An endless supply of dummies. And babywearing. Not in the car, obviously. But I would put her in the Hug-a-Bub wrap about half an hour before we had to leave. Sometimes she would sleep, sometimes she wouldn't but it would put her in a happy disposition and she was much more likely to happily sit in the car for the full journey.
All it took was a few months of babywearing before our car trips and then she started to tolerate the car a whole lot better. And now she doesn't even really need a dummy, she just plays with her cube and chats to herself or her sister. She still hates the traffic though. Some things just run in the family.
