To not want to limit long car journeys with puking DS any advice?

[monkeynuts123]

DS has started being carsick, seems to be on journeys over 20 minutes or so. He throws up everywhere and without much warning being only 3. I have tried those joyride tablets for long journeys but they make him very sleepy, even on half the recommended dose. So I feel like avoiding long journeys, we make them if we have to but I avoid making unnecessary journeys. DH says I'm over-reacting, he says sit him with a bag and an old towel and if he pukes so what, we just carry on and get wherever we're going and have a fun day out. To me this is far from a fun day out, watching DS gradually green up and then having to clean all the puke off him and the car and carry clean clothes etc. Also of course it's not nice for DS! So, DH wants to carry on with days out at far away places and I feel like sticking closer to home, I don't want him to get a complex though and feel he can't travel. Does anyone have any suggestions? How about breaking journeys up into half hour chunks with little breaks for walking about in fresh air, would that work? I feel frustrated and like our life is grinding to a bloody halt!

I wa going to say check foods that might trigger it, my daughter is sick of she has milk so now she has water and toast before we leave and something more substantial when we get there.

I think you are both BU and NBU at the same time.

DH is the one who cleans it up and sits next to her singing for 3 hours! He doesn't mind puke, me on the other hand? I can't stand it. He is very calm about it all and matter of fact, she pukes, we clean up, we drive on. Me? I don't want to keep doing this.

I was horrendously travel sick for years and the only thing that stopped me ruining every journey was sleep tbh. We did most very long car journeys either at night or very early hours of the morning anyway and I would put my headphones on and go to sleep. It works with DS as well who see,s to have inherited it.
YANBU to want to limit journeys, travel sickness is awful for everyone, especially DS but if you can work around it then do.

Dobbiesmum has a very good point actually: if the DC are good sleepers, set off for a day out at 5am, get there (or very nearly) and then have breakfast in a cafe. He's more likely to be asleep and thus not feeling ill, plus he isn't eating before travelling.

I still can't have milk (more than a splash in tea) before flying/driving in mountains/TOM.

Front seat isn't the safest, but it does help a lot. Centre back looking out the front, may.

DD1 didn't like the way the world wizzed past the side windows.

DSIL says best of all is learning to drive and DH is a bit the same way.

I know Stergeron 15 is recognised for use by sea sick scuba divers, so I assume it doesn't make most people drowsy, but it's 5 plus.

A word with your GP is indicated, I think.

Depends a bit how bad your DS feels with it. My DD1 just yaks everywhere and then feels fine and completely unperturbed by the whole thing. So we take very much your DH's attitude of trying to get her to aim in a bag, clearing up and merrily going on our way. I think if, as some posters suggest, travel sickness made her feel terrible all day, then I might feel differently.
Are you dreading travel to Europe for other reasons or just this? I was not a big traveller with small kids, just all the faff put me off- it all seemed to fall on my shoulders.

Oh he's so excited by everything that he stays awake if we travel at night or early morning, long enough to puke anyway waaaaa

The worst sick I ever got was after a rather greasy cheese sandwich at the airport before a (rather calm) flight. Boy, was I sick!

Oh, and DS has vomited yoghurt after drinking a glass of milk before a trip.

Put his car seat in the middle of the back seat so he is facing out the front window, not looking out the side.

As A Childminder had quite a few children car sick, and found this was the best cure.

I would avoid unnecessary journeys by car. How is he at travelling on trains? Train journeys are usually much more fun for small children anyway as they can see more and you can do things with them as you're not driving. Rather than breaking up car journeys into small chunks, can you just use the car to get you to the nearest station or not use it at all?

I feel sick on road journeys if they're long or twisty routes. I'm not actually sick but I feel bad. Eating small amounts during the trip seems to help, things like grapes. If I feel very hungry or tired I'm more likely to feel travel sick. I can't read on coaches or in cars and I wouldn't be able to play a game. I just need to keep looking ahead. I've had it since childhood and used to be sick on coaches or feel awful.

No food, Sturgeron 2hrs before, front seat, air con, no reading/games... I used Sturgeron as a scuba diver and never feel odd or drowsy on it.

I also agree that you need to sleep to reset the balance, if I get car sick it ruins my day until I've slept it off.

My boyfriend knows not to complain when I need the air con on now.

I think you should limit journey times, your husband is being unreasonable, but why not compromise or ask your son what he prefers?

Your husband is definitely the unreasonable one.

My son got travel sick from 10 months old. Literally could barely drive off. He is 6 now and still suffers.
He was prescribed stematil by the doctor. Take it 20 mins before driving (he was weighted to be given the correct dose) and we can now drive six hours without stopping. It changed out lives.

Ask your doctor. Tablets never worked for ds. He needed a prescription. Good luck.

I was beginning to think I was the only one who gets worse travel sickness if I travel on an empty stomach. I find having a good breakfast and taking an apple to nibble if I do start to feel sick really helps, Also sitting in the front is a must for me. When I was a kid I was sick every time we went out for the day but I always felt fine afterwards and would ask for something to eat straight after being sick. I was never sick on the journey home either

We had wristbands from Boots, they worked really well.

Did this happen when he was in a rear facing car seat?

Phenergan works really well for my DS (3.5), who also voms on car journeys longer than about 15-20 mins. We give it to him the night before we travel and then again in the morning, and he's never (yet) thrown up on it, even when he sits in the back.

Some children can react a bit to it - think it can make them either drowsy or hyperactive - but luckily we've never had this problem. Although, thinking about it, the drowsy bit wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing on some of our longer car trips.....

Piriton, a short acting sedating antihistamine worked well for my kids and works for me if I have to sit in the back of cars. Advantage of easily bought OTC

I have always had awful travel sickness.

so many people have given fantastic tips but best for me by far is sitting in the front, having plain crisps to eat really slowly, talking to take mind off it and enough wipes and something to be sick into on motorways.

it's not ideal at all, but some people will just always have it, and it shouldn't prevent you from ever going anywhere, I think the best thing is timing, if I can ever go to sleep on a journey then I always wake up feeling sick but at least I haven't been sick.

This is REALLY disgusting, and I don't want to overstate, but like with morning sickness, if you know you are going to be sick then better to eat something which doesn't taste horrific coming back up again.

bananas, crisps, ginger biscuits, toast all help, as does peppermint tea.

I am never car sick when driving so I think that's because you are concentrating and in control of how fast you go.

also, for me I stop feeling sick when we stop and then start feeling sick when we go again, so stopping every twenty minutes just makes a journey endless. Sometimes it was better for me just to get it out of the way early on, but I am guessing if you have more than one it might set the other off.

sorry for you all, motion sickness is grim xxx

DD is car sick, in particular for long journeys. Keep a window open, so it's fresh air, not fab during the winter but it does work. She also sucks a lollipop - suggested by GP before we went down the medication route. The sucking motion keeps the sickness away. We also get up quite early when driving a long journey - about 3am ish, this way she does go back to sleep in the car and we can break the back of the journey before having to stop.

A tip is to have a packet of baby wipes, bottle of water, change of clothes and a tuppaware box with a lid - for obvious reasons.

Get your DH nice and drunk. Early the next morning when he's feeling vomitous, put him in the back seat of your car and whirl round and round roundabouts and twisty roads. When he vomits, wipe his face with a baby wipe and carry on driving to Alton Towers. Make a fuss if he doesn't have a lovely time.

I can really sympathise. I had terrible travel sickness as a child and still do if I have to travel in the back. As a few people have said try moving his booster to the middle seat.

Apparently the science behind this is that our bodies interpret movement in inner ear and combine it with what they are seeing to build up a picture. When the picture (ie looking out a side window or not looking out the window) doesn't match the forward movement that the brain/ear is processing then it can throw off the inner ear/brain connection and make you feel ill. Same way an inner ear infection can affect your balance and make you nauseous.

If that doesn't work would you consider letting him in the front in a proper booster? Entirely up to you obviously, I know lots of people feel very strongly about little ones in the front even in boosters. I just know it's the only thing that works for me.

And it's the combination of looking forward through the windscreen and getting cold air direct from the vents on my face that helps me. Nothing else!!

With my dd we found there was a definite psychological element for her. If she knew journey was longer than 10 minutes she would throw up. So knowing that we got the bands and told her she couldn't possibly be be sick with them on... Bit of a risk but we started with small journeys. Then when she was ok on those we built up gradually to longer journeys all the while reinforcing the "wow they really do work perfectly ". That was when she was 3, she's now 5 and only wears the bands for long summer holiday journeys, everything else is ok.

Sorry to ramble on, hope some of that was of help.

YANBU to be scared of longer journeys but imo should try and work up to them otherwise you are going to be pretty stuck for places to go as he grows up. Oh an DH needs to help!!! We took the strategy one cleans the child and one cleans the car or bags up the mess!

One thing I have found is that the more I travel, the better I seem to get. So if you start with journeys within his ability, and keep doing it, then you should be able to gradually add on 5 mins. Not traveling for ages, then suddenly doing 2 hours would be the worst combination.

Also, I often take a tablet the night before, so that the worst of the drowsiness wears off as I sleep, then I'm ok to travel until mid day. So you could get somewhere, then give another tablet at the end of the day before heading home, and it won't matter if he just goes straight to bed.

And tell your dh it may be common, but it is a medical illness. Would he drag ds around if he had flu, or a broken bone?

haverer