My dd has started self induced vomiting in the car....any ideas on how to stop her doing this??

[secretsquirrel1]

My 19/12 dd has started 'self induced' (by sticking her fingers down her throat) vomiting in the car, and I am at my wits' end as to what to do to discourage/stop it. She only ever does it in the car, and up until now I have managed not to react to it (tricky). I have also tried to stave it off by ensuring that if her hands aren't busy then her attention is by lots of singing! However, I really lost it a couple of days ago as I was on the M25 and almost at our destination when she had a massive vomit! And because I've now reacted, I'm now worried that I've really started her off. Any help/tips gratefully received....

poor you, could you try some sort of activity toy for her to occupy her while you are driving, maybe some sort of reward system when she isnt sick eg if she lasts 10 minutes make a big fuss about her. Maybe frequent stops to give her some positive attention when the trip destination allows for this as it maybe that she feels a bit upset that you are otherwise occupied. I agree wiht giving it as little attention as you possibly can when she is sick, put covers over carseat and take a change of clothes everywhere. Is it even possible that she might have a bit of motion sickness and she is relieving it by gagging herself. I think if your harness allows it that travelling in the front helps some children. Hmm hopefully someone else has some ideas for you.

my dd has had travel sickness since she was 6 mnths old, she starts feelign sick then gets worked up so she throws up. When she was your dd's age, 'magic medicine' worked, used to give her some icecream syrup on a spoon and tell her it was special medicine, so she wouldn't feel sick.

Many thanks for those tips! It's just so annoying when I've not had any problems up until this past month - we've driven up to Cumbria on numerous occaisions, for example! However, I've also been told by a few people that they themselves developed travel sickness when they got to toddler age....so yawningmonster, you could be right about the motion sickness.

my dd2 has terrible travel sickness and self induced vomiting sessions (according to her paed anyway). she started vomiting as a baby, and even tho we always calmly cleaned her up it still carries on. she just vomits and carries on with what she is doing. you can tell when she is gonna be sick in the car as she does quiet and looks serious, its like she is concentrating on not being sick. I really feel for her sometimes as she cant help it, it has become 2nd nature for her to vomit, fortunatly its now mainly travel sickness and not the self induced vomiting.

my ds did this yesterday, we don't have a car so we very rarely use one, but when he has been in a car he has had travel sickness, yesterday we were only going for a 5 minute journey in my sisters car, before he got in he said, But i'll be sick. i said you'll be fine, it's only up the road , so we strapped his seatbelt on, and before my sister had even started the engine he balked so much he made himself sick. I think if they have had travel sickness, then they associate it with the car, and just think i'm going to be sick so they bring it on themselves.

I'm back - been away from a computer for the last week....
Well I've also been told to try ginger biscuits or peices of stem ginger. I'm trying the biscuits at the moment which have worked (except for one time). Bit messy, but smell better than sick .
Hope this helps everyone else....