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?

Think about life experiences that don’t involve lots of travel.

it you must travel

blast the air conditioning. If the front seat passengers aren’t shivering, it is too hot in the back.

frequent dry snacks like small
crackers. An empty stomach feels worse. Puking is not the worst part of travel sickness, it’s just the part that other people see. Once you vomit you generally feel much better. It’s the times leading up to the vomiting or where you never vomit that are truly miserable.

sucking on hard candy or lollipops can also help

dramamine does help. It’s not as good as the prescriptions only available to adults, but it helps.

never place travel sick child in middle seat. Sit forward facing on trains. Sit near the front of planes and make sure in a forward facing seat as well. Don’t go on boats, there is no way to make a boat tolerable.

You see screens up on the back of the seat in front forcing her to look up we’re fine on the lap or reading just no. Audio book on main stereo fine.

never ever in the middle seat - I speak as a mum who was vomited 🤮 at from the middle seat all over the dashboard.

always forward facing - always

proper sick bags

toothbrush and toothpaste (for the other end not to be used mid travel)
mild orange squash etc to take the taste aeay
hair shampoo the spray stuff and brush
two towels minimum
two change of clothes minimum
towels for the seat and floor
never place anything on the floor

in my experience aircon is normally a no
window open is better

no reading or looking down
medication is a must

I actively minimised journeys over 30 minutes or on bendy roads as it’s a horrible way to start a day out for everyone.

Where I couldn't eg occasions/visiting relatives for a weekend we would travel at night so he would sleep.

Travel sickness tablets were a game changer when old enough. Stugeron for longer trips or Kwells (I think) kept in handbag which I think can be given and effective even once feeling a bit queasy for use in unexpected circs eg trip to shops includes a diversion with lots of roundabouts 😩 having to use top floor of multi-storey car park 🤢

Trains are generally ok … except the bendy pendolino.

At 13 he will be thrilled to tell you he can game in the backseat of the car after a Stugeron 😲

My brother used to be travel sick. Mum used one of those waterproof apron things that kids use for painting. Basically she would get him in his seat. Strap him in then put the apron on him. It was quite long so she sewed some loops on to the bottom corners and attached them to the front seat somehow. The front seat also had a waterproof protector on. So when he was sick it was very quickly removed and really easy to clean.