Does anyone else have a toddler who hates the car?

DS is 3 and if we have to be in the car for longer than 15 minutes he is a NIGHTMARE. He will whine, scream, thrown, bang his feet one the back of the seats. We have tried putting on the DVD player, giving him toys (he ends up throwing them and hitting either one of us or the front dash), giving snacks or drinks, talking to him, pointing things out but then he gets up set because he misses them, books, v-tech computer and nothing works. Leaving NJ and going to NY he isn't as bad as coming home. Last night thought it was whining and crying for 2 hours straight. Everytime you gave him what he wanted he started with something new. He really only acts like this when the 4 of us are in the car. I know it's not because we are giving DD attention because she doesn't make a peep.
I have no idea what it is. He was never really a fan of the car but once we moved to NJ and the car rides to see family started to take an hour or more he started up again.

Re: Does anyone else have a toddler who hates the car?

wow ....that is tough! has he always hated it, even as an infant? DD was in the car nonstop from infant-hood to now-so i always wonder if that helped. he most likely doesn't like being confined and strapped in. thats the only thing i can think of. is he a high energy kid? those kids hate being strapped in so i can understand that. you have tried everything it seems to me! i know this sounds impossible but can you try totally ignoring the screaming and crying? not giving the attention sometimes can help over time. it won't work right away but eventually it could. he has no choice and neither do you-you HAVE to travel by car! good luck, sorry it is so hard!

Re: Does anyone else have a toddler who hates the car?

Do you think maybe he is uncomfortable? Or maybe a little carsick?

Re: Does anyone else have a toddler who hates the car?

Even as an infant he wasn't great in the car. If DH and I were together I sometimes ended up going in tbe back if he got so upset or we were sitting in traffic. It got better when we turned his carseat around when he was 1 and was ok until probably 20 months. Now forget it. He has never thrown up in the car and he doesn't tell me that he doesn't feel good. After a while we do end up ignoring him because their isn't anything you can do. I do think part of the problem is that he is always on the go and doesn't really sit still at home so he probably doesn't like to be confined.
Yesterday these are all the things that were bothering him and is what we heard looped over and over:

The sun is in my eyes (it was in his lap and he had his eyes closed)
I want my car (but he threw them all over the back seat so we couldn't get them)
Not this song (DH changed a song and he freaks out)
I wanna go home
I can't see my home (in the middle of times square)
I can't see the building
I need a tissue
I need a wipe
I have a boogy
I'm hungry
I want french fries (gave them to him and he threw them in his seat so we took them back)
I want to juice
I want my computer
I need medicine (he has cough and I didn't have anything with me)
I need my jacket
I need my shoe on
I want to go in the big tunnel (lincoln tunnel)
I don't want to go on the bridge
I want to go on that bridge
I can' see the tunnel door
I want caboose
I want thomas

Now this is just what I can remember and after a while we just tuned him out.

We dread the trips to NY, especially when we have a party that is in the evening because we know what the car rides are like. We have my nieces communion next month and I actually mentioned to DH that maybe I should go alone with DD because of this. The funny thing is, I started taking him out at 10 days old to the stores and I went out almost everyday if not every other day so he was always in the car. If I was alone he just cried and eventually stopped.