Three-month-old with motion sickness: how can we make her more comfortable (and actually go anywhere!)?

[miserableinmotion]

DD is three months old and doesn't seem to be a happy traveller. I've mostly done just 10-minute journeys locally since she was born and have noticed she can become very upset - but with short journeys, we soon stop and are able to comfort her.

Recently, I took DS out for the day and it was an hour's journey. DD slept for half of it, and for the rest, was inconsolable. She sat in the back with DS, who did an amazing job of trying to comfort her, but she was absolutely screaming, choking, crying herself hoarse, turning purple. The journey involved motorways, so I couldn't stop immediately, but I managed to stop twice to comfort her. It was the same on the way home. DS got upset seeing DD so upset, and I felt absolutely awful that I couldn't comfort her straight away; it felt as though I was letting her "cry it out". It was heart-breaking.

Putting her in her car seat, she's fine - chatty and smiley. As soon as we drive, and especially get some speed up, she goes to pieces - and then calms down again once we stop. So I'm convinced it's motion sickness.

We've tried timing journeys around when she's tired, removing any other stimulation (toys, mirrors, etc), but nothing consistently helps. She obviously can't take medication, go forward-facing, be positioned so she can see the horizon or anything else. So what do we do? Yesterday, just going to town to do errands, she wailed for the whole ten-minute journey. There aren't loads of places we need to go, but we do live in a fairly rural area so can't walk to do errands or visit nearby family and friends. I do the food shop online.

My friend whose son suffered similarly, said he was a lot happier once he could travel forward-facing. With the new car seat regulations, and guidance to keep babies rear-facing for as long as possible (15+ months), would it be irresponsible to go forward-facing as soon as DD hits 9kg? It might be safer to be rear-facing, but for her, it would seem cruel to subject her to the level of misery she's experiencing currently for another year or more.

Also, I will be going back to work when she's eight months old, and the childminder does school/pre-school runs several times a day, and I'm anxious about how upset this could make DD on a daily basis.

Any thoughts on what we can do now to help her, and about car seats in the future? Thanks so much.

What car seat do you have? Sometimes different ones can be less comfortable.

I would add a car seat sheepskin to make it comfortable. And add a toy and mirror so she has something to look at. Try not to put in car straight after milk

DS had reflux and was exactly like this. Car journeys were a nightmare, it was so stressful I just stopped using the car unless I had to (easy as we're city based).

Getting a forward facing car seat definitely helped. We got one when he was 9kgs and he was over a year by then but he would still get car sick on journeys over half an hour and vomit everywhere.

He's three now and travels much, much better but will still get sick occasionally.

Artandco, thank you. We have a couple of different bog standard rear-facing baby seats. DD is the same in them both.

When she gets so upset, she becomes very hot, so I would think a sheepskin might make her overheat. I've also been advised to remove toys/mirrors, as focusing on them (non-moving) could make DD feel worse. I appreciate you posting though.

Superworm, I'm sorry your DS suffered similarly. I can totally relate to wanting to ditch the car altogether; DD becomes just so unhappy. It's encouraging to know your DS became a lot more comfortable once forward-facing. DD is quite big - if she sticks to the growth curve she's on, she'll get to 9kg at around seven months. That just seems so young to go forward-facing, but it also feels wrong to put her through this misery for another year or more. Hmm.

Good to hear your little one is a much happier traveller now. Thanks for posting.

Is she actually sick op? Or 'just' distressed? Have you tried her in different cars as my dd was worse in some cars than others, just wondered if you and your dh both have cars and could you swap for a bit and see if that helps.

A sheepskin would work well then. Sheepskin worKs in a way that keeps Them cool in heat and warm in winter due To natural fibres. Hence everyone in Australia uses. We always lined prams with it especially when in Middle East as it draws the heat away from them

I would use a forward facing once she's able to tbh. It did help a lot. Car journeys were constantly broken up by having to stop as he would scream, cough and choke, go purple etc - it was awful and so distracting while driving I used to go through red lights just to get back quicker