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@DillonLion: we do this a lot more when we are out of the house. I distract her at home with books, toys, walk, cleaning, etc!

we try not to do a reward system with DD. She is totally happy with claps, cheers, hugs and kisses. We usually distract her by asking her something super random, like today she did not want to put on pants, so I laid the pants out and asked her what color one of the spots is, she said black, then I proceeded to talk to her about animals that had spots and magically the pants were put on her.

Reward? No, never.

Distract? Yup. I purposely plan car rides for snack times because eating keeps her from yelling.

@DillonLion: thanks for clarifying!

I know it's not easy to get inside the mind of a toddler, so there's not often an easy way to know why she is screaming in the car, but I'd try to determine the root cause, and address that. Is she screaming because she's tired, is it because she's feeling car sick, boredom, etc and then solve for that. I've never had to deal with a kid screaming in the car, so I don't have any quick wins for you in that department.

Some of it could also just be personality, if your kid is anything like mine, once he decides he doesn't like soemething, you can't bribe him!

@DillonLion: If she's hungry and that's why she's screaming, then you're just feeding her. So I don't see that as a reward or bribe. Now, in my stubborn child's case .... there are times when she FLAT OUT refuses to GET INTO the car seat. I've succumbed to bribing her with candy to sit in blasted car seat. good, no. effective, yes. I know it's a bad habit but sometimes ... i JUST need to get her in the car seat. So ... if you're talking about bribing her to do something with candy, crackers ... then yes. I don't think it's recommended. But I do it. But don't be like me. Haha!

Distraction, yes. Reward, no. Even if I'm trying to distract without food, I pack a lot of things in my bag: stickers, small toys, her lovey (lately), chapstick, hair ties, anything safe and small. She loves high fives, singing/dancing along, and cheers with cups, so those work sometimes too.
For rewards, lots of praise, clapping, kisses, hugs, high fives.

I do have to resort to snacks sometimes as a distraction (but I guess it's like a reward too?) when I need her to sit in her stroller. Like, I will give her something to hold/eat before/while I'm strapping her in, so she doesn't quite realize and protest as much going into the stroller.