OS travel sickness tips please!

building_with_lego · 28 May 2013 at 9:27PM

This may be in the wrong place so apologies, but I AM NOT asking for medical advice.

My children (and me to some extent) suffer travel sickness on the roads- car/coach/bus- and we've tried over the counter remedies with mixed success. Poor DD seems to be almost immune to the medicines so I'm looking into other methods of easing her nausea. I've ordered some wristbands and my mum always talks about sitting on brown paper:rotfl: so I thought I'd ask whether there are any other non-medical things we can try. I should say that we rarely travel by road, tending to walk or scoot

, but every now and then I need a reliable means of not having her barf everywhere

.

All ideas gratefully received.

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babyshoes · 28 May 2013 at 11:06PM

I've heard sitting where you can look at the horizon on the road can help - keep the eyes focused up and out if possible rather than down and inwards - something about the eyes and inner ears agreeing on the motion they are sensing. In a car this would be the front passenger seat, which may not be practical if your DD is young.

If the journey is planned, be careful about eating soon beforehand. A fairly empty stomach is probably best, otherwise stick to bland starchy foods with little or no fat - the type of things you'd eat when getting over a stomach bug.

I've found that minty things can help a little with nausea (I usually try peppermint tea for mild nausea before resorting to my medicine - sometimes it works, sometimes I still have to take the pills), so perhaps a strong mint to suck might help slightly.

I wonder if anxiety (relating to the travel sickness itself) might be making it worse? Perhaps reassurance and a very strong plastic bag (plus backups) might help?

If nothing else works, it is probably worth mentioning it to the doc next time you're there - it may be a genuine medical issue that they can fix, or at least give you some better medicine than the otc stuff.

Ches · 28 May 2013 at 11:41PM

Sipping a ginger drink helps. Ale, cordial, beer etc.

pigpen · 29 May 2013 at 12:07AM

My children are horrifically travel sick, I can't even go into town on the bus (15 minutes).. The only thing we found that works are the stugeron-15 tablets.. they work differently to most travel sickness pills by altering the pressure in the inner ear.

Eating or drinking anything but plain water makes my lot 10 times worse. Reading or consoles, anything the requires looking downwards to the lap makes it much worse. Travelling facing the rear of vehicles also makes it worse.

It is possible to get stuff from the GP too which works slightly better than the OTC rubbishy stuff.

Ms_Chocaholic · 29 May 2013 at 12:11AM

I am extremely seasick on boats etc and, when going on a trip that involved a long boat trip, I asked my GP for some travel sickness tablets and they worked a treat and I never felt ill at all. I didn't trust them at first so wore the wrist bands too ... just in case.

I see from your post you are trying to seek out non-medical ways of resolving this but thought I would post of my experience anyway.

ETA: The tablets were called Cinnarizine, the trade name of which I see is stugeron as mentioned by pigpen above.

Molly41 · 29 May 2013 at 4:03AM

An apple will sometimes settle my tummy but really I have found the best way is to take an anti sickness tablet.

arroli · 29 May 2013 at 7:21AM

travel sickness bands work for me!
Approx £6. in the larger Chemists on high street, 6 pairs for £1 in pound shops

building_with_lego · 29 May 2013 at 8:03AM

babyshoes wrote: »

I've heard sitting where you can look at the horizon on the road can help - keep the eyes focused up and out if possible rather than down and inwards - something about the eyes and inner ears agreeing on the motion they are sensing....

I've found that minty things can help a little with nausea ...so perhaps a strong mint to suck might help slightly.

I wonder if anxiety (relating to the travel sickness itself) might be making it worse? Perhaps reassurance and a very strong plastic bag (plus backups) might help?

If nothing else works, it is probably worth mentioning it to the doc next time you're there - it may be a genuine medical issue that they can fix, or at least give you some better medicine than the otc stuff.

I do encourage her to look into the distance for that very reason, it does help so long as she remembers! She's 9 so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that we could put her into the front. We use extra strong mints as travel sweets too as they do help. I think you're absolutely right about anxiety making her worse. We do have bags available on longer journeys, may make up a little pack for short ones too.

arroli wrote: »

travel sickness bands work for me!
Approx £6. in the larger Chemists on high street, 6 pairs for £1 in pound shops

I've not seen those in our poundshops but I got 2 pairs for under £4 on ebay, compared to the £8.15 that Boots wanted :eek:

pigpen wrote: »

My children are horrifically travel sick, I can't even go into town on the bus (15 minutes).. The only thing we found that works are the stugeron-15 tablets.. they work differently to most travel sickness pills by altering the pressure in the inner ear.

Eating or drinking anything but plain water makes my lot 10 times worse. Reading or consoles, anything the requires looking downwards to the lap makes it much worse. Travelling facing the rear of vehicles also makes it worse.

It is possible to get stuff from the GP too which works slightly better than the OTC rubbishy stuff.

Thanks pp this is very helpful; I hadn't realised that stugeron worked differently so will get some of that to try. We never do reading in cars and don't have consoles. I think we will mention it anyway at the doc's as we have a 4 hour journey planned in the summer.

Lot of useful information there, thanks all.

Spendless · 29 May 2013 at 12:02PM

My DD gets travel sick a lot as I did as a child. DD has been sick travelling 3 roads from our house, without even leaving our village she's that bad. Though I've never hit on anything that stops it, I find to reduce the chances, I limit what she eats before going, preferably nothing. If this isn't possible, due to timing of travel, make her have her biggest meal several hours before journey, eg if you are setting off after tea-time, have the bigger meal for lunch and little for tea. Keeping as cool as possible also helps, so windows/sun-roof open or air con on.

sonastin · 29 May 2013 at 12:27PM

I can get pretty bad motion sickness although I haven't found road travel anywhere near as bad since I learned to drive (even as a passenger - probably due to more awareness of what is outside the vehicle). Two things I note for me:
1) it is always worse if I am tired
2) I have no problem if I can sleep through it

If you have a long journey e.g. for going on holiday, any chance of planning it overnight so that she can sleep through it? Otherwise, perhaps a nap beforehand so she isn't so tired could help

Butterfly_Brain · 29 May 2013 at 1:24PM

Ginger biscuits or ginger ale sipped slowly and keep the windows open. Believe it or not a lot of travel sickness is actually anxiety attacks

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OS travel sickness tips please!

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