How do people travel with a toddler that gets motion sickness?!

[SamPoodle123]

AIBU to not want to ever travel with our two year old who gets motion sickness? I suffer from emetaphobia, so it is literally my worse nightmare, hell on earth to be stuck with someone who pukes and wants be held by me etc....no place to escape etc. How the heck do people do it? Not to mention, I feel bad for my sweet girl when she is not feeling well. It makes me feel like its not fair to put her in the position of not feeling well etc. I know I need to get over it. She loves to go to new places.

So my question is, what is the best way to handle it? It is not like she really understands at age 2.5. I know when older she can learn to vomit in bag, but how old can you get them to learn this? Any way to prevent it? We bought dramamine from the USA, which can be used from age 2, but its a chewable pill....so not sure if she would actually take it!

When kids are young and you know they get sick in car or while traveling, do you just travel and let them puke and then clean up the mess....what the heck do you do?

I really feel for you 💐 My eldest was extremely car sick from around 9 months old. And I do mean extremely. Anything more than around 3-4 mins in the car and she would vomit and cry. And then she'd feel ill for hours afterwards. GP was useless.

Basically how we dealt with it was by not driving anywhere when she was awake until she was probably 3 and could manage more like 10 mins without being poorly. If we had to make a journey (I.e. family wedding or something genuinely important) then we had to drive at bedtime or naptime so she'd sleep. I'd get her to sleep in the car seat attached to the pushchair chassis and then transfer the seat to the car when she'd nodded off and just cross everything that she'd stay asleep. This often meant travelling the night before an event to a location that may have only been 40 mins away. It was very stressful and very distressing for everyone and it profoundly impacted our daily lives for a few years.

I suppose people will wonder why we didn't just bung her in the car and get on with it but it hardly seemed worth putting her through feeling so, so lousy just to go to the zoo or whatever and have her spend most of the day recovering from being so sick. She didn't "bounce back" after the journey ended. We were very lucky that she seemed to travel OK (mostly - we had a few bad journeys) by train so we could make a few day trips by rail. Quite expensive though so it didn't help on a day to day basis.

She gradually got better and by the time she started school she could manage a journey of around 20 mins. Occasionally 30 mins.

By the time she turned 6 it seemed to suddenly improve out of nowhere and she could travel on straight-ish roads for a couple of hours. Journeys with lots of twists and turns are still a bit of an issue but I suspect this is usual for most kids.

Our 3 year old can now reliably be sick in a tub if required which makes a huge difference in terms of mess... we also always have a good supply of towels and tend to keep the car pretty cool. I've also taken a lot of stick for the fact she's forward facing but it definitely makes a difference. You have my sympathies, car sickness is dire.

I still suffer from travel sickness ( unless I am driving).

Personally I am much worse if I travel with am empty stomach. Much better to end something bread like first eg toast. If it's a long journey I take hot cross buns to eat to keep me going. Have a drink ( water) to sip.

Don't look down for any reason. If I need to check a map ( or phone) while a passenger I ask the driver to stop first. Maybe an iPad attached to the seat in front would keep your toddler focused.

Fresh air can help, but sometimes I just try and fall asleep.

I tend to do all the driving!

My youngest started suffering from travel sickness at two years old so until he was 3 and could take travel sickness tablets* (boots travel calm are suitable for 3 years old and up, although there's a manufacturing issue right now which is annoying as I wanted to stock up while I was in the UK) I would take change of clothes, extra towels, cover him in a towel, and lined a big bowl with a bag (actually used those special potty bags from his travel potty as they have a pad that soaks up liquid) and kept that on his lap as it was much easier for him to be sick in a big open bowl than in a bag, and then could just take the bag off and tie it up and put in a bin and put a new bag on.

*chewable tablets, he's always taken them fine but he's been having chewable tablet vitamins and xylitol since about a year old so used to it

We starve the kids before our big journeys. No breakfast until we get there, or nearly there.

I don’t agree with this. I get really bad car sickness and it’s much worse on an empty stomach - the horrible debilitating feeling of sickness I mean. Even if you don’t puke, it can be worse for the actually sufferer as there’s no relief.

Can you go on journeys that don’t involve the car? Train to the airport / ferry port or just train all the way?

If you have to use the car, windows open. Driver drives in a considerate manner, no lurching about or racing gear changes. Plenty of water available, and plain, bland food.

@BeginningBridge cross posted with you!

I also need to be the actual driver these days as I even get it a bit in the front passenger seat (but not as badly as in the back, which I simply won’t do). Poor kids don’t get the choice though!

We’ve been lucky enough to go abroad once already this year and will go again in a few weeks - both times going by train!

No, you can buy it over the counter, we do for my three year old. In fact my NHS GP told me the NHS doesn't prescribe for travel sickness and that 'it doesn't usually require medication, try some travel sickness bands' when I went to them having tried absolutely everything. So unhelpful. Phenergan is the only thing that works for her so we've continued to use it despite one pharmacist refusing to sell me it. We travel as little as possible by car, though, so she doesn't have it every day. Goodness knows what we would do if she had to go in the car on a regular basis.

We have a sick bowl lined with a plastic bag. The sick one named it the chonga longa 😁. We do all the usual things... Being careful about what they eat before we travel. Pressure bands and travel sickness pills. Keeping them occupied while awake, no books or screens, regular stops, smooth driving. However I think knowledge that the chonga longa is within reach helps as well.

Solidarity @outlyingtrout. My little one is exactly the same. It makes life so tricky.

I'll add no dairy before travelling (recent experience....) and if you have to travel through a winding road stop a few times on the side of the road to "take in the views"

Most of this. My eldest screamed as a baby never mind a toddler. I was told by my parents it was driving - So I happily passed the baby seat over - to their car they lasted 20 mins until they pulled off the motorway as she was screaming so loud it gave them a migraine.

I tried everything and I mean everything those wrist bands the lot. All of the above is good advice except two
don’t put them in the middle seat - vomit in your hair when driving, all over the controls etc is the worst place for sick to go.

for me the advice not to look down is great but a DVD player on the back of headrest in front - forcing her to look up and ahead and focus was our miracle cure. Silence and no vomit.
it took me two years and a three hour a day commute to find that out.
cold water, wipes, cool car and absolutely no blame here are you musts.
I never sought treatment from a gp and aged 15 she seems to have grown out of the worse of it.

Hi not sure if this will show up on the thread - or if this has already been suggested but my DD gets car sick on any journey lasting more than 20mins. After a google on brains and motion, we bought her bluetooth headphones and THEY WORK! I have a playlist on my phone of childrens songs / theme tunes, the BBC iplayer app does Cbeebies radio and then there's always childrens books on Audible, for long journeys. No screen, just audio.
Has also saved us having to listen to the Gruffalo on constant repeat!! Definitely recommend child safe headphones. We still keep sick bags in the car, just in case (you can get childrens ones on Amazon).

@CityLifeCountryWife how do the headphones work? Do you mean instead of looking at screens she listens to audio? As my kids would be sick if they looked at screens. My youngest does not look at anything and gets sick in 20 mins. Or does listening to something help in some way!?

Take the train?

Take the train. Less likely to get motion sick

Dvd on the back of the head rest in front was the only thing that worked. Grew out of it about 10 and we stop often and she sits in the front now

So the science says that listening to something (no screens, just headphones, connected to your phone via bluetooth), reduces the amount of pain signals traveling to the brain, alleviating the intensity of your nausea or other uncomfortable motion sickness symptoms.
The NHS suggests "distract children by talking, listening to music or singing songs" so this is essentially doing the work for you.
Noise cancelling headphones can make people nauseous, so don't go for those. We bought the JBL kids headphones for our DD a couple years ago (she tuns 4 in Jan) and they've been life changing. The audio levels are controlled for children.
We ask her what she wants to listen to when we get in the car, sometimes its songs that she sings along to, other times its stories, or bed time stories on spotify.. the trick is to find something that lasts a while, so you don't have to play DJ, or a playlist, so you're not always playing DJ.
I'll tell you that my Spotify Wrapped consisted solely of the Frozen soundtrack!!

@PollyPut and @SusiePevensie if only I could take the train everywhere in the world with my little one I would lol. But that is hardly the case....so unfortunately I need to find a solution for her. We of course take the train every single opportunity we can.

@CityLifeCountryWife I will have to try that and see. She is 3 now so perhaps we can get her to wear the headphones and to listen to music. But have you tried if you just played music in the car? Do they need to have the headphone on?

hmm we did do that initially but it was becoming a LOT having to listen to children's music / stories on repeat - we drive a fair bit and I don't think it has the same effect tbh.
I found that when she had the headphones, it gave her the freedom to listen to whatever she wanted and we could still listen to normal radio when driving. Also, it makes life easy if they get stuck on a particular song that they want to listen to over and over again haha.
Oh and she loves listening to Cbeebies radio and stories too - all free!
NB DD never falls asleep in the car, so we've used this tried and tested method even for a dive to France. She listens and looks out of the window, works a treat :)

@SamPoodle123 if you had mentioned taking the train in your original post, we wouldn't have suggested it. We were trying to help. it wasn't obvious that you were taking the train at all

Is she still rear facing? My DD was sick quite abit around that age when she was but since turning her FF she is fine, as long as she doesn't do too much 'looking down' activities such as reading or colouring (i'm the same) strangely though, she is fine watching a film on my phone (I do prop it under the headrest of the passenger front seat,so she is looking ahead when she watches it)

Also, agree without others about trying to avoid 'B' roads (always used to make me nauseous as a child) and driving straight after meals/on an empty stomach

Vomex? Comes as suppostories and as syrup, is safe for toddlers. Fresh air is also good.

I still get horrendous travel sickness now

A few tips from me

1. It is better to have eaten something plain before you travel as motion sickness on an empty stomach is even worse
2. Buy medical sick bags where the sick turns to crystal form in a bag that can be sealed. It smells less so doesn't stink the car out. I still travel with these now!
3. Go to the GP and get prescription anti nausea drugs - for long journeys get the sedating ones so that she sleeps. It's kinder all round!
4. I can't sit in the back of a car and some cars are worse than others. Make sure she can see out the front and no screens.
5. Don't make the car too hot as it makes it 1000x times worse.

I cannot use screens at the back of a car even as an adult.
That or reading still makes me sick.
I waa proper throw up machine, bit luckily some motion sickness pills worked at the end because apparently everyone was tired of dealing with sick bags and other stuff I threw up into...