Travel sickness in 2 and half year old - was fine, now vomits after 15 mins in car!

[Cakehead]

Help. Our toddler has suddenly developed car sickness. We don't use the car that much as can walk most places, but last month I took her on a 25 minute journey and she wimpered for the last five minutes of it and then threw up down herself.

Took her out yesterday to Epsom - fifteen minutes - same thing again. Saw it coming this time, so tried opening windows, trying to make her look forward, etc, but still happened once she got out of the car.

Have driving holiday looming in Ireland in April, hence my panic. Can't get anything from Boots (most things are for over-3s) but did get the wrist bands.
Any tips greatly appreciated...

My hairdresser told me about peppermint oil. She said she used to have the same problem, but her Mum put dabs of peppermint oil behind her ears and on the inside of her wrists and it stops her feeling travelsick. She said her Mum found out when she was learning aromatherapy.

Anyway, it was well-tested on a rough Channel crossing on the way to her ski holiday, and she had no symptoms whatsoever. She swears by it, combined with a peppermint sweet to suck, to keep the tummy settled, apparently.

I am going to try it with my dd2, as she gets quite travelsick in the car, especially on long journeys and windey roads.

Good luck!

I get travel sick and have found that putting those sunshade things on the side windows (like horse blinkers) mean that I can't see the world whizzing past at speed. It seems to help.

aside from that some ginger biscuits are said to help, does she nap in the car? could you time your journey to coinside with her naps?

Good luck!

Tictacs, or polomints. I think it's a combination of the mint and the distraction.

The effectiveness of the pills is inversely correlated to the niceness of the taste, I find.

isn't phenergan suitable for 2+? It's a sedative but used as a preventive for travel sickless in very small doses. My dd used to suffer badly with travel sickness, and that was the onyl thing that worked for us. She did eventually outgrow it.

Ooh lots of good ideas. Any more greatly appreciated.
She does seem to be OK if she naps, but I'm wondering if this coincides with her new car seat that we got last month. She can now see much more out of the side windows, spaghettiarms, so I'm thinking of your blinds as very promising... Our holiday in Ireland is going to involve lots of pit stops to long-lost relatives who doubtless will probide lots of food, so you can see why I'm worrying...

My ds got/gets very carsick. It definitely got decidedly worse when he was around 2. I didn't find anythign that worked. The only thing you could really do was try to time car journies around times that he would nap (he was exceptionally good at falling asleep in teh car). Also he became very adept at throwing up in a bag at quite a young age. Make sure you put plastic down under the car seat (garbage bags are much cheape than the purpose made stuff they sell in stores) and even cover car seat with towel. Always bring a change of clothes and lots of wipes and zip lock bags (to put pukey clothes in for rest of journey). Ds is now 7 and gets sick a lot less. And even if he does get sick he can get it all neatly into a bag now.

I used to get travel sick all the time when I was a child, 1 mile used to do it, my mum used to dose me up with phenergan. My ds used to get travel sick. I brough him some wrist bands that had a plastic ball which pushed a point on his wrist. It worked and I never had to give him travel sickness medicine. He used to vomit when mil fed him or gave him loads to drink then took him somewhere in her car. She did this when she gave us a ride to my best friends wedding, he was only 18 months and was sick all over himself. Lucky it was just juice, wasn't nice for him or for me as I had to hold him. I would seriously recommend the wrist bands, they sell them in boots. We went to wales by car (300 miles) and he was not sick once.

My friend's daughter used to get severe car sickness and she was told to get her child's eyes tested!! Not sure whether that was the cause or not.

How weird! The TicTacs worked for my ds too. Can't explain why - she has the orange and green ones.
I have found that if she's not sleeping in the car, she should have access to something small to nibble on - raisins, tictacs, dry cereal.

My ds2 is/was a martyr to travelsickness. It started when he was about 3yrs. The wristbands didn't work for him. For a while he would get nauseous at the first roundabout after leaving the house!

Confidence/expectation has a lot to do with it, too.

Once he was 5yrs he could take Stugeron, which worked miracles, though it did give him a dry mouth - and made him hungry. But it did give him a chance to believe he could do journeys without getting sick.

I am convinced there is some correlation between lefthandedness and sickness and/or dyspraxia/dcd and travelsickness.

As he's got older he's got better. He can now go 20 miles without needing Stugeron. He always has it for planes (it's the landings that get him).