Three Ways to make Car rides entertaining for Babies

Some babies dont like being physically constrained in any way and Anika is one of them. Since birth she disliked her baby bath, so we moved her to the adult bath, with just 2 inches of water, a cloth underneath (to prevent slipping) and over her tummy (to keep her warm) and since she has loved baths. Play time has always been on floor and we have never used swings, bouncers, walkers etc. She is OK with going in her stroller as long as she can see and admire trees 🙂

Car seat has been the hardest battle and the most difficult to figure out. For the same reason, we had kept our outings to a minimum but that is not really feasible long term. I have tried heaps of things and the following 3 ways have worked well for her…Now Anika is ok to travel in car seats for an hour at a stretch and also sleeps in them. Life has become so much easier since! We now visit shops, supermarket, friends and also go for baby sensory classes. These ideas are only inspired by following my child and seeing what she was interested in. But, I thought maybe this would work for more babies, so I should share 🙂

• Silk scarf– Her MOST favorite toy of all time is this silk scarf. She loves the colors and the texture. We love that it stays in her lap (its soo long) and does not slip down even if she lets go of it. She loves chewing on it and playing peekaboo by herself.

• Pictures of babies- Babies love looking at other babies. My purpose of sticking these pictures (found on google images) was to aid her developing vision, concentration, acceptance of others and imbibe diversity at a young age. Well, she has loved looking at her ‘car friends’ and I highly recommend this.

• Toothbrush or spoon– Babies learn through imitation. And the things that fascinate my little one the most is holding a spoon (and eating) and bushing with a toothbrush (like she sees me doing everyday). Letting her practice grasping her 2 favorite objects in the car seat has made it much more entertaining for her to be in there. As a reminder, I would only give this to a baby if its safe for them. (i.e.: they dont hit their face accidentally anymore)

Other than above, if Anika gets unsettled and I am driving, I sing to her and that works too. It has been 5 months of repeated exposure to the car seat for brief periods and also an understanding that I am still around in the drivers seat, but the above has helped heaps to ease the transition of being ok in the car seat. Hope this was useful to someone 🙂