Child being car sick every day - should I have health concerns?

[namechange0998776554432]

DS (6, autistic) has a car journey of over an hour to & from school and is currently being car sick most days. I'm not looking for advice on how to help this - it's a complex situation and unlikely to improve any time soon. On the plus side, it doesn't bother DS and he cheerfully tells me all about it when he gets home.

I'm more interested to know if anyone has had a similar situation with a child frequently being sick, and thinks there's any specific health concerns I should keep an eye on. I was very sick in my pregnancies and my teeth suffered. I also wonder if it contributed to reflux I got later on. I don't expect a GP to be very helpful but if there's anything specific I should look out for, I can be alert and ask for investigations or treatment if I think it's needed.

DS is a healthy weight & height, he has a restricted diet so he's been referred for blood tests to check his nutrition levels. He drinks plenty of water and doesn't seem dehydrated.

If anyone has any advice, especially based on personal experience, I'd appreciate it!

I have a child with Asd and he suffers terribly with travelling too. Apparently the motion sensation can be heightened in Asd so it's worse. Kwells or sea legs or similar work.

I know you said you didn't want solutions, but can I suggest glasses? Fir me - and I'm an awful traveller - they really work. I use a version of these. www.aspiraldance.com/easing-motion-sickness-with-travelshades-review/

You could probably make your own from a pair of cheap glasses & some black card though.

I don't like medicines as they make me sleepy and wrist bands don't work. Once I feel travel sick, I feel awful for the rest of the day - if your DS is similar it is really debilitating.

Get his eyes checked for conversion issues.
Our dd who is dyslexic was like this as a child and at an eye test it was discovered she was seeing double etc and so her brain couldn't cope with the car movement and what she was seeing.
She saw an optometrist and did some training of her eyes and has never been sick travelling again.
It really was life changing for us, car , plane, train , coach she would be sick and was miserable for her .
Hth

Thank you this is very interesting and I've never heard of it until this thread. Can a normal optician check for this? He has regular eye tests and they've never picked anything up

I can believe this, because he has lots of issues around movement, lights, sounds etc so I imagine it is all more overwhelming for an autistic brain

Yes I am doing all this. Obviously the taxi driver doesn't want him to be sick so they're generally willing to do this type of thing, but it's not always possible - there are a lot of other factors at play

@namechange0998776554432

It was picked up at a regular eye appointment.
When they bring the lolly stick thing towards the child with a picture on the end and ask them to say when they see double.
Dd saw double far away from the normal range and so we were referred to the optometrist from that.

It turns out dd that as you have two eyes it was normal to see two of everything- makes sense in a child's thinking!

Thought that

Hmm, really good tip. Nothing has been picked up but since DS has problems with communication this is the kind of thing that could be missed. I'll definitely get it double checked at his next appointment