My husband and I let my son visit family for a few days, and now he is afraid of his booster seat. He screams, cries, and holds on to the car door. I can't leave the house because he makes it difficult to buckle him in. I don't want to risk being safe just to go places.
I think that a relative accidentally pinched him when they were buckling him in. I don't know what to do. I've tried bribing him. I've also tried letting him buckle himself in.
Yesterday was the worst. People were staring at us. I'm pretty sure they thought I was beating him. My mom was on the phone at the time and she thought that we were being attacked. He freaks out when we get close to the car.
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I have no knowledge on the topic but maybe it would help to pull the booster seat out of the car and talk about it inside the house. It might seem like a less stressful situation.
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Can you have him help you practice buckling in a favorite stuffed animal? Or practice with the seat, say in your living room rather than the car? And if he got pinched, perhaps institute some way to help assure him it can't possibly happen again, like a blanket over his lap, or placing his hands on his head while you do the buckle? I'm sorry I don't have any better ideas to offer.
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oh poor sweetie! i think the ideas mentioned above are good ones, particularly demonstrating it on a stuffed animal and "giving" the stuffed animal a treat or something.
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Great ideas above!
It might be good to start a positive association with the booster. Maybe a treat every time he goes in the booster seat?
You could also try swapping booster seats with a friend, so that the make and model is different! Might lessen the severity of his aversion... good luck!!
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I have no advice but this is happening to me too! DS screams bloody murder and twists his little body around in protest when i try to put him in the car seat. I have no idea why! He is a big guy and we drive suv's so it has been very challenging!
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I really like the in the house option. In a similar situation I packed basically a junk food picnic and we ate it in the car in the driveway. We put on fun music, I let her open all the windows etc- but in this case she was the kid I nannied for and she was worried about going in my car period. Having it be a fun place might help. Perhaps you could do a lot stress car picnic and not even mention the booster and as you wrap up you could suggest leaving a fun snack and music in the car so that later you can come back out and go for a ride to the park and have those fun things waiting.
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Aww, that is so tough. Hopefully it is a phase and will get better with time. How verbal is he? Can you talk to him about it when you are not trying to leave?
Hugs. I hate car seat wrangling and this sounds particularly hard. -
I bumped my son's head on the edge of the changing table a few weeks ago. He is kind of wild all the time during diapers, but I noticed he was really freaking out more lately. I started making a big show of holding his head when I laid him down and saying "I have your head, you will not bonk." And it helped.
Could you try loosening the buckles a lot so you can buckle it and show him they are far away and will not pinch him?
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Thanks everyone! I will try those ideas.
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I just wanted to thank everyone for the advice. My son is doing fine. He actually likes his booster seat now.
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@FancyGem: Great news!!
My daughter got carsick on a recent road trip, and now it's her turn to dread getting in the car! Let us know which tips worked for you, if you can!!
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@mrbee: Sorry to hear that.
We put the car seat in the living room and took turns acting like we were going to sit in it. We also buckled his stuffed animals in it. Eventually, he tried buckling his animals in. A few days later he sat in it. We used his old car seat during that time.
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