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 🙏

We're the same, we can manage daily without the car (mostly), but my youngest DC has a lot of health issues and he's been admitted to hospital multiple times already and we have to get to the hospital quickly, I don't want to take my poorly baby on the bus to try and get there 😔 plus as stated in the OP, we missed one his hospital appointments due to the bus not coming on time. Sometimes there's just no choice but to drive x

I am another car travel sufferer and I am well into my 40s. I feel sick in the back seat and certain car smells can also trigger it. I don’t ever physically get sick but it can trigger terrible nausea. I have developed vertigo bouts as I got older so I think I’ve always had an issue with the fluids in my ears.

I don’t see why you can’t put child in front of car as long as correctly installed but travelling backwards for me makes me exceedingly ill so it might make it worse.

there are travel sickness meds available - they may not be licensed for small children though but definitely investigate. It must be very limiting for you all so you have my sympathy .

OP it would actually be helpful to know which cars they are. I still get awful motion sickness as an adult, modern cars that glide round corners with super smooth suspension are the worst for me, electric cars particularly. I'm much more comfy in a clunky old banger.

@Digdongdoo be sensible. The OP can’t really buy every type of car in every model to see which one doesn’t trigger sickness, and it’s likely they all do. Yes, some may be worse than others but there’s no way of knowing that without more expense than is practical for most people!

@dontcomeatme is the car a manual or automatic? If it’s manual, see if you can rent an automatic for a few days and see if he does any better in the back. Some people, and I am one of them, get car sick from sudden, frequent changes in acceleration, and manual transitions have a lot more of that than an automatic. Here in Canada automatics are the norm, but when I have been a passenger in a manual, I really struggle with sickness from the sensation when gears are changed.

Airbags or no, the front passenger seat isn’t safe for him. It’s called the shotgun seat for a reason!

She says they've had 2 cars so it would hardly be an extensive list...
But if OP thinks it's too outing or whatever, I'd advise an older car without glidey suspension and breaks.

That’s not what I mean. It wouldn’t be outing and it isn’t an extensive list. But let’s say you say ‘well, my travel sickness wasn’t triggered in a Toyota Yaris 2010 model. So they buy one of those and he’s still sick. So then what? They can’t keep buying cars, even cheap ones!

We had a Citroën C4 cactus and we changed to a Citroën Grand C4 picasso 7 seater. Both manuel. My closest friend has an automatic and I had high hopes for that as we often car pool but he still got sick, and now I feel bad going in her car as its not anyone else responsibility to have to clean up after us x

We clearly like our Citroëns 😅

I did feel incredibly sick going in the back of the Citroen we hired on holiday. I don't know what it was about that car. I was fine in the front.

I know what you mean about "glidey suspension and brakes" but TBH all modern cars are like that. I don't think buying a 90s Ford Escort will do much for OP's concerns about safety!

In terms of safety BTW this sickness sounds so extreme that it is worth prioritising over RF and back seat position. He is over 2 and will be OK in an age appropriate seat with airbag deactivated. The only issue you'll get is if he's 99th percentile and you don't have isofix in the front, you'll get an issue when he gets to 105cm/18kg because there are no seatbelt fitted FF seats which go over both of these at once. If you can get hold of a Maxi Cosi Beryl, that would probably be the best thing for that - it was very well rated and totally seatbelt fit up to 25kg. But has been discontinued unfortunately. Probably the newest thing you might have a chance of finding, though.

Bless him. Poor thing. Not devil spawn teslas or anything then. Perhaps if you're good drivers, try slamming the breaks on instead? Sounds like you'll just have to wait for him to outgrow it unfortunately.

Poor little guy and poor mum! If it helps, I will say that my motion sickness has gotten much better once I knew my triggers (although I am way past 2!) I spent years avoiding long car rides, but now I’m fine with those. The Dramamine will help, but make sure you give it several hours in advance. I think the packet says 2 hours, but I would suggest adding an extra hour (just from my experience).

And most importantly, again from my own experience, if the Dramamine works the first time, do another car ride with Dramamine within a day or two, and a few more within the next week. Yes he might be a bit drugged for a week, but if it works, it can help long term. He might fall asleep, but wake him up before you get home so that he knows he was in the car without puking, You want to get him into a routine where driving in the car without getting sick becomes the norm for him. Currently he associates the car with sickness, and I guarantee that causes anxiety which makes the sickness worse. Once he’s able to get in the car without seeming stressed, just pretend to give him the magic pill for a while and eventually he may forget about it,

Different car? Something low to the ground with sports stiffened suspension? I hate those SUV s with their soft suspension; it feels like you are on a boat!

You can fit a RF sit in a passenger seat, OP. It is only not allowed in a side facing seat.

https://www.gov.uk/child-car-seats-the-rules

No it's not but airbag must be off....that's what the symbol with the red line means on your seat and on the car....

What car seat is he in? Have you always bought the same brand? I assume your spare is the same brand as the usual one.

It is just with you saying he is 99 percentile for height and weight this might play into it. His body position in that seat may be exacerbating the sickness.

This is the issue we have with both DS. The 2YO is 17.5kg so just shy of the threshold, my 5 month old is already 12.7kg 🙈

This is great advice thank you 🫶x

We need the 7 seater and only just bought it, we can't afford to change it now x

Also worth noting, if he's 99th centile you may not be able to safely have him in a seat much longer unless you actually buy a 36kg RF seat. Most FF seats only harness to 18kg, and the very few that FF longer require isofix and a top tether point so can't be used in the front seat.

He's far too young to be in booster with seatbelt.

I agree with trying these, only thing that worked on my DS!

This is what I'm worried about, I physically can't RF him it was 10 times worse !! X

The Joie Bold R forward faces with harness up to 25kg, but you'd need to keep him in the back seat to use it. It's currently £120 in Argos too

We found piriton helped. It has to be piriton as that has the right sort of antihistamine that is in the same family as ones used as antiemetics. But it isn’t as effective as others that are actually used for sickness.

Go back to the dr. We’ve just had antiemetics prescribed for our 3 year old who is too young to take over the counter medicine. It wasn’t difficult, I’m surprised your GP is so dismissive. We just said we’d tried all at home/non-drug remedies, and she was getting distressed if we mentioned the car.
He did want to know her weight before he’d prescribe, but she’s only just 3 and is pretty small, so your son being 99th centile might meet whatever weight our GP was looking for (he didn’t tell us what weight she had to be, just that she weighed enough for him to prescribe it).

Op another option might be the middle seat in the back. Again with a clear view out the front and encourage him to look forward.

My friend does that with her LO a little bit older than your wee guy. Helps Mummy drive. Red light, amber, green light, left bend, right bend.
He's probably too young for the left / right thing but get him to count trucks, colours of cars, anything to keep him looking forward.