Sudden car sickness in 17 month old

[eiy2028]

Hi,

My 17 month old has randomly developed car sickness, we’ve no idea why since we haven’t changed anything in the last several months but she projectile vomits when in the car even if the journey is only 15 minutes.

I’ve looked online for solutions but we aren’t doing any of the things that they say cause car sickness, and therefore the solutions aren’t relevant or helpful. For example, she doesn’t read books, use an iPad, etc in cars and we never give her a big heavy meal before journeys. Today, she had a snack on a handful of raspberries and a baby bell at 3.30pm, we set off at 5pm, and by 5.15pm she had projectiled all the raspberries and cheese up.

Any recommendations on how we could try and help, aside from the general “no reading books, no eating big meals before driving” etc?

we would be very grateful!

I am a travel sickness sufferer so sympathise. Make sure your little one is not too hot .and there's a window open. Maybe something very bland such as a cracker would be a better snack then fruit and cheese? Sorry, but there's no easy answer.

Is she forward facing or rear facing in her car seat?

Dn was regularly travel sick until they moved her forward facing in the middle back seat. Being able to see through the windscreen seemed to ease it (a little, didn't stop completely).

As a fellow travel sickness sufferer, I really feel for little ones rear-facing and not looking out the window. I get why the law was changed but travel sickness is exacerbated by staring at a fixed surface when being swung around.

All that worked for me was turning my son around to be forward facing. He is still sick on windy roads but it was almost every journey when he was rear-facing! Also, keep the car cold and open the windows so she gets the wind in her face.

Forward facing does make sense, I hadn’t thought of that before! She is rear facing, the only 2 times she hasn’t been sick since this all started we’re both times she was forward facing (in a transport on holiday where they provided a car seat). Maybe it’s that, thank you!

Were they always travel sick or did it come on suddenly?

Thank you - today was very hot. I wasn’t in the car so I have no idea how hot the car was, but I will check with the person who was driving

Sorry this is happening OP. Is she still rear facing? If so, the following is recommended by members of a rear facing group on Facebook:

• more upright car seat
• window cracked open
• no food/heavy meals before
• no books/iPad/reading
• cool car
• travel bands
• blocked out side window
• “earth belt” or anti static/grounding strap for the car
• belted seat that’s closer to the ground (not on isofix bases as they sit very high up)
• travelling around nap time
• ginger biscuits
• taking headrest off so they have full view of window
• travel sickness meds

I’ve also heard others suggest to have a crazy 30 mins of dancing / jumping around before getting in the car.

Forward facing in the middle seat worked for DD too and she’s now only sick in the car when we go skiing because of the mountain road. I’m the same and can’t sit in back of a car, or look at anything except the road ahead.

As others have said OP, I would try forward facing her. It was the same for my niece. Your dd is over 15 months, so legally allowed. My two are still RF at 3.5 & 2 but if they were getting travel sick like this, I would turn them FF, but no doubt some will disagree with this.

Yes forward facing will definitely help. I suffer from travel sickness and strong smells are definitely a trigger too, so try to avoid any car air fresheners or perfume etc. An open window helps a lot. Strangely I sometimes find music in the car makes me feel worse!

Thank you! I will try the more upright car seat, and the grounding strap sounds really interesting I’ve never heard of that. Travel bands too! Thanks a lot!

She needs to be forward facing

I'm sorry, but at their age they are far too young to forward face safely due to the higher risk of neck injury when forward facing. Please try exhausting the other options suggested above to avoid travel sickness before considering forward facing.

www.rearfacingtoddlers.com/pages/why-rear-facing-is-safer

Hi, thank you. I know rear facing is safer, I have always planned to keep her rear facing until 4 years old. My plan is also to try all methods before trying forward facing.

However, my concern is that when I am alone in the car with her, there is no one in the back to help her. The first time it happened, I was alone with her on the motorway and had to pull onto the hard shoulder to help her as she was throwing up so much she couldn’t breathe properly/was choking on it. So not sure what the best or safest option is in this situation

I understand this information but in reality it’s not that safe either as a parent driving being distracted by your child puking and distressed in the back of the car. So I think some common sense has to prevail.

Sorry op; my post crossed with yours making a similar point!

I get that, but there are options to try without rushing to forward face. That's why I suggested OP exhaust the options to try and remedy things before forward facing. Forward facing should be a last resort due to the significant risk of injury in a crash.

Oh OP I sympathise. My daughter started with travel sickness around this age and I’m sorry to say she’s still going strong aged 6.
Things which help:
Definitely watch the temperature. When it is warm seems to be our DD’s main trigger so lots of cool air if possible flowing through the car.

We turned our daughter after a choking on vomit incident when she was rear facing (and my bigger child was RF until 5 so really really didn’t want to!) as a younger child we used to put up a muslin and trap it between the window so that she couldn’t see outside. We found that helped.

Kwells kids taken 20 mins beforehand as soon as she is old enough.

bands, glasses, strips didn’t work for us.

We now have a box in the back seat with a towel, wipes, carpet cleaner spray and spare clothes which means she can tip it out and throw up somewhere ‘easy’ when the mood strikes and that we are prepared if it’s a really bad moment.

My oldest was the same at this age. We had to turn him forward to fix it and it got much better. After that he could cope as long as not too hot or windy, we also limit food and drink. When he grew out of his car seat and went without a booster he had another period of really struggling and this was helped by bands but I think they need to be old enough to understand what they're for for them to work. My 9yo has recently started with travel sickness out of the blue so you have my sympathy

Echoing the others, unfortunately there’s nothing unusual about it appearing to “suddenly” come on. Children tend not to develop travel sickness until 18-24 months. (DS was unfortunately an “early developer”).

Tbh the only thing that really works for us is timing longer drives around naps. I’m tempted to try antihistamines but I worry that will just make him groggy and unhappy without being able to communicate why.

As an adult prone to car sickness I can tell you the driving habits that set it off so you can try to avoid them; jerky driving, ie going round roundabouts and corners anything but very slowly and smoothly, fast acceleration and braking, winding country lanes particularly when the sun is at eye level and there are trees overhead causing a strobing affect. I can avoid sickness when these are avoided and am absolutely fine on motorways.

Hang on in there until they get to be the right age for the medication!
We travelled by train more often. Went on straighter routes even if longer.

Oh gosh that’s so scary, your poor daughter! It’s exactly what happened to me, I was screaming on the motorway was the scariest moment ever until I could get out and help her.

I'm also really really nervous about going forward facing, at what point did you decide to turn her around? We even just bought a few months ago one of those extended rear facing car seats

A well rated forward facing car seat is definitely safer than choking on vomit and having to stop on the hard shoulder. By all means try the other stuff where you can but some of like getting a toddler to keep bands on, always being able to time journeys over nap, getting them to eat ginger probably aren’t going to happen and IDK what medication options there are for 2YOs, kwells are good but are 4+. Sometimes you have to way up the balance of risk and use some common sense and (for example) a properly forward facing Britax (or other well known brand of) toddler seat that got a good ADAC rating is still a very safe choice, and probably the safest one you can make given your specific circumstances.