From: clg@cray.com (Coni Gehler)
Subject: Re: Baby Cries in Carseat
Organization: Cray Research, Inc.
Date: 25 Aug 92 16:49:06 CDT

In article <1992Aug25.192546.5029@porthos.cc.bellcore.com> jackie8@dasher.uucp (Jackie Brady) writes:
>In article <1684E6B4C.CREECH@LSTC2VM.stortek.com> CREECH@LSTC2VM.stortek.com (Teresa Creech) writes:
>>I have a friend with a 6 week old baby boy.  She called in tears last night.
>>Seems that Charles HATES to ride in the car in his carseat.  He cried all the
>>way home from the hospital ( 1 1/2 hours) when he was discharged.  He has
>>cried during almost every car ride he has taken since then (including a trip
>>from Kentucky to Flordia :^( ).
>> [stuff deleted]
>>Since the trip to Flordia (when he spent many hours snuggled in Moms lap
>				^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>because they couldn't stand the screaming), he has been more clingy and
>>wants to be held, but he doesn't scream uncontrolably anywhere but in the
>>car.
>> 
>I would like to get the opinion from misc.kid.parents out there
>on this one.  I apologize that I'm following up to this article
>w/out offering any suggestions, but seeing this post made me want
>to ask this.
>
>I know I'm going to get tons of "*you're* not a parent so you can't
>possibly know what it's like to deal with a constantly crying baby...etc"
>responses, but here goes anyway...  When I read of/see parents who hold
>their babies in their laps (for *whatever* reason) it really gets to
>me.
> .
> .
> .
>
>I am honestly interested in the opinions of all you misc.kidders out
>there on this.  Am I alone in this.  My SIL took care of her twins by
>herself and had the same problem with my nephew -- constantly crying
>choking, etc.  Her solution was pulling over and going back to him
>until he was better. I'm not saying this is the best idea, but this
>is what she did in the same situation.
>

Okay, you asked.  I'm a first-time-mom of a 5-month-old, so maybe my opinion
doesn't count either, but here it is anyway:

It is unsafe for a baby who is not in a carseat to be in a moving car.  I
would never take this chance with my child or with any other child.  Just
my opinion, but I do feel very strongly about it.

In answer to the original poster:  We had this problem on a few occasions with
Sam when he was younger, and almost always because he was tired--sometimes when
he got hungry.  I confess that I tend toward "spoiling" him, but
one of us would always ride next to him in the car.  (If my husband and I were
both along, one of us would sit in back with Sam.  If only one of us was along,
we put Sam's carseat in the frontseat--although I know this isn't quite as safe
as center of the backseat.)  We found that distraction
worked quite well--distracting the baby, that is.  A small, bright-colored
rattle shaken gently within his field of vision, along with me singing (okay,
anyone would shut up as long as it would get me to stop singing!) usually
stopped the crying and Sam would go to sleep.  If this didn't work, we would
stop the car, and either feed Sam (if he was hungry), or walk him until he
calmed down and, usually, fell asleep.  Then we would put him back in his
carseat, and we'd be on our way with a much calmer (usually sleeping) baby.
Of course, every baby is different, but your friend could try the distraction
method.

You can tell your friend that, in our case at least, the baby outgrew this
phase.  Now he'll just calmly fall asleep in the car when he's tired, and
get a bit cranky when he's hungry.

One other thing to consider:  When Sam was much younger, I sometimes overdressed
him for car trips.  (Heck, I probably still do, but now he's much more
tolerant.)  Being too hot also made him cry.  In these cases, soon after I
took off his outer layer of clothing, or unfastened it, he stopped crying.

Question for netland:  How much less safe is it to put the rear-facing
infant seat in the front seat instead of the center of the back seat?

Coni, Sam's mom

Newsgroups: misc.kids