Dealing With Your Fussy Baby in the Car

Transcripts

Stephanie Tombrello: Hello, I am Stephanie Tombrello, Executive Director of SafetyBeltSafe U.

S.

A. Today we are here to talk about protecting our youngest travelers in the car and especially what to do when babies fuss. When a baby is first put in the safety seat, it's usually like out of the hospital. Babies are often swaddled and they've also been confined for nine months in a very close environment. So usually their trip in the car is the first time that they really are completely un-swaddled. Most children want to tell you about that and they will do it fussing. So it's not the safety seat itself, but it's the new experience of not being confined, which often gets the child to fuss.

Of course, you want to make sure that you've buckled the child in properly and that you have their backs right up against the safety seat back, so that they are not slumped and uncomfortable from that. After you have checked that everything is fine with the baby in terms of feeding, burping, comfort of other kinds in terms of clothing, then if the child is property buckled up, sometimes you just have to grin and bear it. Babies cry and we need to protect them as they can't understand that they need to be protected in the car.

As they get older there are some tricks you can do to make them feel a little more comfortable in the car. Sometimes babies like to look at a picture of mom or dad's face. That something that you can take to the back of the seat, so that the baby can look at your face and it's something that will hurt a child, never want to give babies things to play within the car or hold in the car that you wouldn't feel comfortable having thrown at them at thirty miles and hour, because anything can come loops in a crash or sudden stop. However, there are lots of soft toys and books and we suggest that even from an early age, you have certain things that are used in the car, not used in the house at all. They'll always have a comfort factor in the car and they will also be new.

So now we have talked about fussy babies and how you can help them in the car, next, we would like to talk about some of the ways to help babies with special needs.