Putting 2yo in front seat of car???

[dontcomeatme]

I've discussed this multiple times on MN but we're at the end of our tether right now.
My 2yo DS is severely travel sick. Has been pretty much since he was born, we could never drive for more than 40mins to an hour at max and he would projectile vomit. We had to forward face him at 2yo which we desperately didn't want to do but he was choking on his sick rear facing and being in the laid back position.
We're now at the point where even a 20-25 minute journey is making him sick. We are washing the car seat that often we have bought a spare to use while one is in the wash, and as soon as one is clean the other is dirty 😭 I sit in the back with him primed with sick bags but it makes him hysterical just to look at them so I feel like I'm making him worse!
We've been to the GP multiple times now but they just say its one of those things 🙄 I'm ringing on Monday and I want an emergency appointment with a different GP, this level of sickness isn't normal. It is projectile! Comes out of his mouth, nose, absolutely covers him. He goes grey and feels like sh*t for the rest of the day 😢
Do they prescribe anti sickness meds for kids or do we have to buy them? Most of the ones I've seen online are for 4yo plus and I'm hesitant to give him them.
I am seriously contemplating putting him in the front of the car, with the airbags off. Is that insane? AIBU to think this is the solution?!?! He's 28months, 99centile height and weight. We seriously don't know what else to do!
We've started walking and getting the bus everywhere just to prevent the sickness but this isn't sustainable, we missed a hospital appointment last week because the bus didn't come on time 🤦🏻‍♀️
Any suggestions at all? What worked for your DC? Can the doctors actually do anything ? Do you think front seat would help? It always helped me as a child but this was the 90s, my parents shoved me up the front without even a booster seat.
Any advice is appreciated 🙏

That's factually incorrect. Even as adults we would be safer rear facing than forward facing, regardless of being in the front or back. FF in the front seat isn't safer than RF in the front seat with airbags deactivated. It's very simple physics. I don't want you to make decisions based on untrue information especially when it comes to life saving advice, so it's definitely worth researching more into. Hope you find something safe for him soon either way

Not answering your question, but I’ve got a child like this and since she’s got a bit older (probably since about 4) I keep a large plastic mixing bowl in the car and the second she makes the noise like she’s about to be sick I can pass it to her and she is good at throwing up into the bowl. If we go in taxis I have to go with sick bags. Many’s the time we’ve arrived at an airport clutching a bag of sick. It’s surprisingly difficult to find anywhere to dispose of it at the airport too!

This is exactly what my DS is like !!! I am really hoping the medication/sitting up front helps. It's horrendous x

Posters suggesting a change of car, we've had 2 cars in his little lifetime and neither made a difference. But we can't change it again, we bought a 7 seater when he was about 1 and can't afford to change unfortunately. Our last car was no different for him either though x

If your child will wear headphones you could try the nevasic app. You listen in the car and the sounds do something in the inner ear to help with nausea. It works for us. But it does need to be used via headphone to work properly.

its interesting that the bus is ok for you, as for us buses are much worse due to the continual stop start motion.

All these people suggesting RF in the front - are you bonkers? RF is known to worsen car sickness and it would completely defeat the purpose of sitting in the front which is to be looking forwards through the front windscreen!

Op my sister was like your DC. The only thing that helped was sitting in the front. You will get people on here insisting its the worst thing you can possibly do but i get it, you can't leave him puking his guts out constantly.

Where have you got this from? It really isn't

Edit to say I've seen your following comment realising that it isn't.

I do sympathise. My now DD5 still gets horrendously travel sick. Used to be sick daily on the 20min drive to nursery. She's much better now she's older but is definitely worse on the classic windy roads, if she's drank milk/anything fizzy or eaten before driving. If she's got a cold) snotty she's 10x worse.

She is now at expert at catching her sick. We have these sick bags https://amzn.eu/d/8ki7nPW which are great and you can tie them up when full.

I found travel sickness tablets nows she's old enough to have them don't work very well and neither do the pressure hands.

These patches are definitely effective though https://amzn.eu/d/boL8kqh

I remember even taking my car to be checked at the garage because she was always worse in my car and there was nothing wrong with it.

Yes I've wondered if it could be an inner ear issue, I didn't actually think about his vision, it seems okay but we all have quite severe astigmatism so I'll get him an eye test booked as well! I'd rather rule everything out see if I can figure out a way to help him x

Thank you I'll definitely try these, dramamine seems the most effective option online x

Yes. I think I'd try placing car seat in centre of rear and forward facing. I'd also raise the seat with something underneath. After reading all the tips I'm leaning towards medication prior to traveling. Poor child vomits so frequently and violently it may have caused some anxiety, so perhaps breaking the pattern with medication would be a sensible approach for a while. That nevasic app looks interesting, too.

Exactly this! Thank you x

@wombatstewfortea I added an image further in the thread, it is illegal if you can't deactivate the airbag and I've yet to check the car, hoping it can be deactivated x

He doesn't get sick in the bus? What's different about that?

I would definitely move him.

No idea? He's still in his pram on the bus maybe that maybes a difference? I was the same I never felt sick on a bus, maybe its all of the big windows that stop the mixed signals in the brain. We have never done a very long bus journey, max we've tried is 40 minutes, perhaps he would start to suffer the longer we were on the bus x

Sorry OP I edited my post with somethings that helped us

My daughter can go 20–30 minutes without throwing up now but if my mother is driving, she’s sick in less than 5, because she has exactly this abrupt driving style.

Is the car very hot or air conditioned? Can you open a window to let in fresh air, do you drive nice and steady with no sudden movements (as far as possible obviously). Very hard or soft suspension? Is it the same in all cars? I would try sitting in the front with air bag turned off and see if it helps.

I had to turn my daughter FF from around 15 months because the travel sickness was awful. She’s fine FF in back seat. I also get really bad travel sickness but I’m fine in the front seat or middle seat. Is he on a tablet because that worsens travel sickness.

Motion sickness is strange. I don’t think any two peoples experiences are the same. Mine has largely gone now I’m an adult and sit in the front but I do start feeling queasy quite quickly in the back. That’s actually the worst, when you aren’t actually sick but end up with that shaky, nauseous feeling sometimes for hours afterwards.

In many ways there are parallels with pregnancy nausea - some women have it so badly they are hospitalised and some women go through pregnancy without so much of a hint of sickness. Motion sickness is similar really, it just doesn’t affect some people but for others it’s really bad. And I guess as with pregnancy there are different triggers.

Sympathies OP, my DD was exactly the same. At the time we lived abroad and the front seat was illegal so we put her in the middle, thankfully the car was big enough to do this, and it worked. With time she mostly outgrew it and now it’s only really windy roads that get her. If you can I would try the middle first. If still no improvement or the car is too small then definitely do the front. Push the seat all the way back and consult your manual re the airbag because it varies for forward facing seats depending on the model of car.

Thank you 🫶 x

No he doesn't have a tablet. We let him listen to his yoto but we always tell him to lie his head back and not look down. I'll see if no yoto player makes a difference, but I doubt it. Sometimes we just play music and chat and it still happens x

Definitely try the piratin, that and cold air was a game changer for us. Her consultant thinks she'll grow out of the issue but said s lot of families use it as you can give it earlier than most of the actual travel sickness pills for children now, which mostly start at 4 or 5. We use IKEA ziplock bags and have one in her cup holder and others in the car for sick clothes to keep the smell down. We have to use the car a lot for unplanned trips to hospitals etc, so can't just decide not to travel/use public transport.

We always have the windows open. We've had 2 cars since he was born and he was the same in both, our new one drives like a dream, we're both quite catious drivers so I don't think it's very abrupt driving. Especially with him getting worse we always drive slowly round corners etc because we're anticipating the sick 😣 x