Sleeping in the car seat

We travel to stay at my in laws house every other month, we have recently started doing this, the drive there is 1hr and 30 minutes. We usually plan the journey so he has been fed and should fall asleep and I usually sit at the back and watch him. Honestly the last couple journeys have been horrendous, I dont even want to leave the house with him anymore. He will just cry until he is about to be sick but will refuse to fall asleep. What makes it worse is comments from people saying how it's weird and usually other babies love the car and fall asleep. He used to fall asleep in the car without a fuss but recently he has been so upset and refuses until we have to stop the car and take him out. We have tried white noise, dummy, bottle, soothing toys etc but nothing works and it makes me feel so bad 😭

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Oh this is a shame. Is there something that has changed/ making him uncomfortable in the car seat? This must be so stressful. Maybe see the GP or an osteopath just to check there is nothing physical. I hope this gets better for you all

You’re not alone, I hope the car seat is comfortable. He isn’t wearing too many layers or so…

@Trudy not much has changed he has just been struggling with milk intake since starting solids. He is usually OK in the car seat for 20 minutes until he gets sleepy then he just cries so much. I will raise it with the health visitor/GP.

@Raccoon-Cant See Waves He is ok usually in the car seat until he gets sleepy and just refuses to sleep and cries until he is about to be sick. He only has normal clothing on, I don't put on any thick coats etc in the car and the car seat inserts have been removed. It's hard when I get comments from others saying it's my fault because he is rocked/fed to sleep.

Have you tried a “shhh” noise? My little one was screaming for 15 minutes in the car last weekend as she was so tired, I tried that as I remembered it worked on our white noise machine and she fell fast asleep in seconds. On the way home I put it on straight away and she was out like a light with no fuss. Sometimes you just have to play around with different sounds. It’s not your fault for feeding or rocking to sleep. Ignore those people.

I hope you get it sorted. It must be stressful feeling you can’t travel. Definitely worth speaking to GP and ruling out any physical issues. Good luck x

My son hated car journeys until he was forward facing! He's 11 now mind and perfectly fine lol. It does sound like this is really stressful for you though, and it's not like 1.5hrs is a short drive either! I'd probably ask they come to you instead if that's possible?

You’re doing great 👍, nothing fault there please. Fed to sleep is bloody natural, if an adult can do with a hug when sad… they’re only babies. Sometimes some other factor probably bothers them. Sorry 😔 I wish I could help you, both my kids are similar in terms of car seat calmness. Once my boy didn’t enjoy ride n did cry, had to stop at services…

My toddler started doing this and that’s when I realised she was getting too big for her infant carrier. She was screaming all of a sudden so must have been uncomfortable for her. She was fine when we moved up a car seaf

We had this with my middle child because she was used to falling asleep in my arms so it was nothing to do with the car/seat it was all naps, is this the same with you? I had to feber /chair method sleep train to help her self soothe to sleep. This helped her nap in the car and fall asleep independently in general x

Mine refuses to sleep in the car too. When he went through a phase of being upset it turned out I needed to move where the straps came out higher, could be seat needs adjusting? Also the happy song- didn’t put him to sleep but generally kept him Happy. Recon I went about 50 minutes without just on repeat back in the day 😅

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