Vacation car ride h#ll

So we did a day trip to the beach yesterday, and Braeden HATED the car ride, he gets a little antsy after about 20 min. local rides, but i hadn't thought much about it until we went to the beach and were in the car for 2 hours. Everything was ok until the second hour approached and all h#ll broke loose. He was whiny and cried, wouldn't take his ninny(pacifier), didnt' want the sippy cup, he just kept throwing things back at us. And to boot my DH has the patience of a fly and he started to loose it about 10 minutes into the tantrum!!!! I even got portable DVD players thinking that may help, it didn't!! They are big into TV anyway, i was just hoping i guess something would distract them. So now that i vented, are there any suggestions for how to make this better, we have 2 more long trips this summer, one is to VA(4 hours), the other is the beach(2hours)! :blink:

 

some may disagree but a little benadryl makes mine sleep for about two hours. We use it when we fly on long trips.

Laurie

 

don't know if your kids still nap in the am at all but I always try to time my leaving with their nap time. we just installed a dvd player in our car as well. i would say you could also try to not put the dvd on right away. let them just enjoy looking out the window and when they start to get antsy, THEN put on the dvd. it might buy you some more time of them not freakin out. GL hope it works out for you.

 

So sorry to hear that you had a rough trip. It can be frustrating when you're contained in the car and they're unhappy. When my girls were six months old we drove from NJ to GA to visit my uncle. My biggest suggestion is frequent stopping. The trip will take you longer overall but it will go much smoother. Just the fresh air, a snack and chance to stretch out might be all that he needs. Also, bring a rotation of toys with you. When he starts to get too cranky bring out a new toy - maybe one that he hasn't seen in a while.

 

Mine are pretty much good on rides, but I would make trips during normal nap times. I'm assuming they are still rear-facing because of their age, is it possible to sit with them in the back seat?

 

My boys have traveling tantrums as well, they get highly ticked off at us if they are in their carseats for a long time. I find frequent stops help us out alot.

 

Our boys regularly take 2 hr trips to go back home to see family. We go at naptime or bedtime. Benadryl is sometimes used, but we usually do not need it.

Last summer when they were 11 months we all went to the beach. A normally 10hr drive turned into 14hrs --- all in one day --- due to two major accidents and beach traffic. Talk about the car ride from h***. It was horrific. We braced for the worst on the way home, but they were fine, and we only got them out once in the 10hr trip home. It was like they realized that was the way it was and they didn't resist. Also, we figured out that frequent stopping actually made them MORE agitated, as they were mad when we'd put them right back in the car.

 

oh man does that stink!!! we had the same problem just before the boys' first birthday. it took us 13 hours to evacuate for Rita and after the first nap, the boys were awful!!!! Poor guys

 

For long trips (6+ hours, we usually leave in the early morning hours 4ish). When they were younger and we did 2+hour trips, we tried to time it around their usual nap times, which always worked out for us.