Kids and Travel Sickness

jockettuk

my daughter is 10 and is one of those that might or might not be sick every journey is different .. my other half is also a very sickly person at the smell of sick so if one is so is the other lol.. i find no matter what we do or give her and we have tried everything.. we just never know if this journery will be the one .. we have nappy sacks in the back and if she feels sick she uses one of those.. it masks the smell and stops it going all over the car and also is easy to dispose of in a bin.. i do find however that if she is in a booster seat or in the front seat she will have a better journey..

toozie_2

I know this sounds really daft, but it worked!!

My friends third child was sick as a pig after leaving the house and travelling 2 or 3 miles. She used to give her a 2 pence piece in each hand, and she rubbed the money between her first finger and thunb for the whole journey. When she was doing this she was never sick! Do you think it may be a way of taking the mind off what they think will happen on the journey? This was about 15 years ago, before personnal CD players etc. Obviously a cheap form of medicine!! Keep your 2p's in the ash tray!!

macchicken

Car sickness is actually your brain being really clever!
Car sickness made worse if you read or cant see out a window the reason is your ears tell your brain that you are moving but your eyes tell your brian that your not. Your brain thinks your have been poisioned and makes you sick!
Ginger is great for neausea...but no kid in their right mind is gonna chomp on ginger, try ginger tables or ginger snap biscuits.
Try explaining this to you kid the placebo affect is amazing!
Happy traveling

Savvy_Sue

If you search on the Travel board, possibly the archive bits, we had an extensive discussion last year about travel sickness, although most of it's been covered here IIRC! Sticking plasters behind the ears and acupressure bands both work for me and mine, but the plasters are better because the acupressure bands can get uncomfortable. The ice cream tub sounds a very good idea! I didn't find children sleeping in the car advisable after my youngest slept, woke up and threw up almost instantaneously as we drew up outside the holiday cottage. Two bits of good news: it was someone else's car, and they were able to take the seat out to clean it properly!

I used to travel with bits of soft sheet over the kids' laps to catch anything which didn't go into the carrier bag. And the youngest was 10 before we were able to leave home without a spare set of clothes for everyone.

The other two things which can work are sticking the end of your tongue through the hole in a polo, or sucking a refresher (the round fizzy soluble sweets like Love Hearts). In both cases you have a competition to see who can make theirs last the longest.

Christopher Green of Toddler Taming fame recommends that you avoid milk and milkshakes before and during long journies: lemonade or coke are better, not because they make you any less likely to throw up, but they don't smell as vile if you do ... Although I preferred mine to have squash or water.

My kids couldn't go in the front because I still get sick in the back!

toozie_2

My kids couldn't go in the front because I still get sick in the back!


oh boy, I do soooo agree with you Savvy. I've just been on a course, where we had to travel 4 miles in a 7 seater taxi to a venue. None of us had met before, and when I ended up in the very back of the MPV I thought I could cope, without making a fuss to sit in the front. Only just..had to rush to the toilet as soon as we got there...sweat pouring off me!!!

spankymonkey_2

heheee! im the same too, i cant read while i travel either....

jellyhead

last time we went to alton towers i was sick before we even got there and didn't go on any rides lol!

moving into the front made a big difference for me, i used to sit in the back with my son. not reading helps too. antihistamine is anti-travel-sickness if you want to use drugs, you can buy it in liquid form if your child doesn't swallow tablets. i've found that sucking sweets or drinking sugary fizz helps, so does eating biscuits. i've no idea why but if i eat i'm less likely to be sick. frequent breaks help even if it's just a 2 minute walk every half hour. we've also started listening to stories in the car instead of music. harry potter, lemony snicket, war of the worlds and hitch hikers guide are favourites with us all, not sure if a young child would listen to them though.

misterh

It's hard to get children to focus on the horizon and sometimes it's not practicable to put them in the front of the car.
My daughter started getting car-sick (sometimes spectacularly) when she was a toddler. Sea-bands did work, although not 100%. Not psychological as she was too young to understand what she was feeling. Remember to adjust for childrens shorter arms - we measured two fingers from the wrist instead of three.
On longer journeys we used homeopathic tablets as well. They were good as they didn't produce the drowsiness of other drugs.
Good luck!

Str4berr3

I totally agree with the mints. Mints are a must but also at least 2 large towels to wrapped around her neck like a overgrown bib and a black bin bag to dispose ithe towels till u get home. My daughter is 4 and a half, Its been two years ago since she started becoming car sick, i always wondered if it was because she came out of the buggy completley that time. Y'know the rythm of a buggy makes, when u push them around?
Oh! and the nappy sacks are good to hold vomits in!

lynneinjapan

A couple of my friends swear bythe acupresure bands too, though I've never tried them myself. Never heard the one about sticking plasters behind the ears before!