Is there anything I can give a travel sick baby?

[ellie3009]

Hi all,

My baby is 6.5 months and is travel sick. He starts crying within 10mins of being in the car every single time, presumably because he is feeling yucky. If he does not fall asleep, he is usually sick within 30 mins. If he falls asleep, he is usually sick almost immediately on waking if the journey is long.

We are going on holiday next weekend and there is a 5 hour drive involved, plus the plane... I am dreading how horrible he is going to feel and feeling really guilty for putting him through this. We didn't know he was so travel sick when we booked, or we may have reconsidered.

Does anyone know if there is anything I can give him at all at his age? Everything I can find when googling is for over 2yrs, which doesn't help me much. I know Phenergan is given for kids, but that also seems to be listed as not for under 2's.

Any help or advice very gratefully received.

I found this page that gives a few suggestions and

Looked at something like <a class="break-all" href="http://m.toysrus.com/skava/static/product.html?type=TRU_product_us&url=/product/index.jsp?productId=12448403&domain=www.toysrus.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this from toysrus

I get travel sick so can really relate!

Thanks. Most of the suggestions on that page really apply to older children unfortunately. I doubt I will be able to convince him to drink peppermint tea. We are doing Baby led weaning, so he might suck on a ginger nut biscuit though... not really sure if that would help TBH.

I'm a bit sceptical about the wrist bands, I was a travel sick child and I was still sick every time I wore them. Plus I'd be surprised if I could adjust them small enough, his wrists are tiny.

The wrist bands really works.

Wrist bands work for me and I also used them for morning sickness which they worked for too. I think they would probably annoy a baby though?

You could ask your GP if they can prescribe anything perhaps. Or just take a lot of changes of clothes :( Maybe break the car journey up as much as possible? You might find he's okay on a plane, I am absolutely fine. I was travel sick since being a baby as well, my mum said it helped when she put me in a forward facing car seat but appreciate he's still very little to do that.

If you make the peppermint tea up with sugar and put it in a bottle or something, then dip a muslin in he might suck it out of that. Sugar not great but as a one off.

I was always travel sick as a child. Took several years to realise it was because I was reading in the car. The focusing on something while moving messed with the balance in my head.
I'd suggest if you have any toys hanging or a car seat backing with pictures on get rid of them as it could be having a similar effect.
Also pop to the doctors they will normally give permission to use things that are designed for older children and you'll get it on prescription.

Reading makes it much worse for me but I used to get it even when not reading. I had to sit in the front and look straight ahead for the whole journey, which I did because I didn't want to be sick.

The only thing that helped was pre empting it and breaking up the journey, until I got older and grew out of it more. My dad used to just keep going and I remember puking with my dad driving lots of times whereas with my mum we used to stop loads of times for a proper long stop with a walk and stuff. Took ages to get places but at least I wasn't sick. I only really feel travel sick in coaches now if I sit near the back.

If you want to keep her rear facing for much longer it might be worth looking into a seat which holds her higher up in the car so she can see out the back window, focusing on something far away and being able to contextualise the movement like that seems to help the most whereas looking at something inside of the car or out of the side windows makes it worse.

Thanks for the suggestions people. He's obviously too little to read, but he is sick whether he has toys with him or not. TBH he ignores them anyway when we're in the car.

we will break journey as much as possible, but since he is sick so quickly (normally within 30mins) I'm not sure if that would just prolong the agony!

Is he forwards or backwards facing? Can he look straight ahead out of the front window easily? DS is not sick if he sits in the middle and look straight ahead.

My dad explained that, aside from reading, it is the rapid movement of items going past in the side window that is the problem, so looking at something that does not move, like focusing on mountains, or something at a distance helps. Of course you cant explain this to a six month old, but it could be worth trying position him so he can look out through the front window?

The way it was explained to me is that the brain can't understand why you are getting feedback from your senses that you are both moving and sitting still at the same time. The reason it makes you feel sick is because it is assuming that you have been poisoned and attempting to get rid of the poison from your system. That's why people get car sick, boat sick and air sick but don't get sick on e.g. horses or bikes. I used to find when I was a kid that I was much better in older cars with less smooth suspension, although all cars have good suspension compared to the 90s now.

At 6 months he's too small to be forward facing really, but it might be worth getting a higher seat so he can see out of the back rather than the sides.