‘I just discovered how to make my baby stop crying in the car’

If you’ve driven regularly in a car with a baby, you’ve driven with a screaming baby.

At the risk of generalising, babies hate driving.

They hate sitting backwards, they hate not being able to see their mom or dad, and they let you know by screaming so loudly and persistently, it puts you at risk of getting into a car accident.

Ask me how I know.

If your baby is a magical baby who loves car rides, or who sleeps easily, no one wants to hear from you. 

Just kidding, well done and please share your magic. 

My kids have grown out of the car riding issue now, but I wish I’d known then what mom Jacquie Ciccone recently discovered: a hack to guarantee her baby would be happy in the back of the car.

The magic? A photo of Jacquie.

“When your baby hates the car but loves your face,” Jacquie captioned the viral TikTok that’s had nearly 12 million views and over 2 million likes.

Mom’s hack to make baby stop crying in car

The video starts by showing Jacquie’s adorable baby, strapped into its rear-facing car seat. The baby isn’t looking so happy. White noise is playing loudly in the background.

The camera pans to the seat back across from the baby.

Pinned to the fabric is an A4 colour print-out of Jacquie’s smiling face.

Then camera returns to the baby who is now smiling ear-to-ear so big its eyes are almost closed. It’s gurgling happily.

Followers were obsessed with the hack, saying it was the only way to deal with a “Velcro baby”, a child who is clingy to mom.

“Genius. I have a Velcro baby, sooooo I will be doing this,” one person said.

“You’re standing right there but she’s still giggling at the picture. BEYOND adorable,” said another person.

Others regretted not knowing about the hack sooner.

“Where were all these genius ideas when mine was screaming his face off in the car?” said one person.

“I wish I would have thought of this,” said another. “So many screaming car rides.”A nanny joined the comments, saying she used a similar trick on the kids she looked after.

“I’m a nanny and I take baby to their family picture wall to see mama when he’s upset,” she said. “It works for tummy time too.”

One knowing mom understood what Jacquie had been going through.

“The white noise, the picture, girl I KNOW you’re struggling on those car rides,” she said.