Travel sickness help for children

[Haveacwtch]

My five year old ds suffers with travel sickness. It happens on most journeys over 20 minutes so is really restrictive. I have a half hour cat journey tomorrow and am worried he will be crying the whole way.

We tried stugeron when we went away the other week and although they helped they knocked him out and he was really disorientated. This is no good when we were out for the day.

Any ideas please.

Many thanks

Joyrides from boots worked for my daughter, Failing that always have him in the front seat.

DS1 was like that - sick on absolutely every journey.

Then, when he was 3.9 it magically stopped. Because DD was born, and with 3 kids, we had to move DS1's seat to the middle of the back seat (we had 3 ISOFIX points so this was straightforward).

Magically, from that first journey, he has never been travel sick again - not even felt queasy. It's because he's looking straight ahead out of the front window.

Apparently that middle-of-back-seat is the safest spot as well, as it's the sides of the car which get caved in if there's an accident.

If you have ISOFIX / seatbelt fixings for that spot, I would def try it.

Make sure he eats something before you travel, it helps to have some food in your stomach. Don't let him read books or play with toys which has him looking down - he has to look up out of the window. I second the suggestion for moving him into the middle if you can. I know you get wristbands for motion sickness but I have no personal experience of them.

Wristbands for travel sickness help my dc. As does sitting in the front seat, or the middle of the back seat - agree with LastingLight about looking ahead out of the window. Reading and looking down at toys are bad.

Joyrides work for my dc on boat journeys - not tried them on car trips. Worth a go, though!

We use Kwells juniors which help. Car seat in the middle also good as others say. No reading/videos definitely. Maybe a stop half way for some fresh air. Avoid fizzy drinks and lots of food on the journey but as Lasting light says get him to eat something before you leave.

Also try to avoid making a big deal of it before you go as it can become a bit self fulfilling. If he thinks he will feel sick he will do.

For really long journeys we tend to travel at night so DD sleeps and break the journey at a Premier Inn maybe. Obviously a bit pricey but sometimes worth it.

This year we are camping in the south of France and Dd and I will fly while Dh does the drive with our gear by himself. A bit drastic maybe but it saves time with a bad traveller.I feel your pain though but they do grow out of the worst of it. Dd at 4 is already better than she used to be.

I second the wristbands - I'm a terrible traveller and when I was pregnant and couldn't take the usual tablets, I used these. They mostly work fine for me although I can be a little iffy on boats/plans, so generally take a pill for those journeys. I can really sympathise though as the pills make me feel like a zombie - when I asked in Boots if they had some non-drowsy travel pills the lady told me that they didn't, but it would be fine because I would just relax into it …. I guess she's never tried them ...

these work well for my ds.

I have two travel sick kids and we use either joyrides or phenergan. Phenergan needs to be taken the night before travel, joyrides can be taken 20 minutes before travel. Both seem to work very well on my children.

Different perspective, but I always suffered from travel sickness as a child (and am still prone to it as an adult) my mum tried everything available at the time for me (over 30 years ago!) and nothing worked.

Only things that I discovered worked over time (and which allow me to be a normal person now and travel on public transport - I never learned to drive as I was always scared I'd be sick) are:

Facing forward with a clear view of the window (so second the idea of the middle seat being a good option)
Having a fragrance I like nearby (sprayed on a hanky I can hold to my nose or on my wrist)
Having a window open so that I can have fresh air in my face (warm cars are the worst)
Wearing earphones and listening to music that I liked has been the thing that has been the biggest difference and enables me to cope if the above conditions are not met!. Having music on in the car itself didn't work, had to be earphones (not sure if its just a distraction thing or if it has anything to do with ears and balance?) and I realise this might not be any use to a 5 year old (and you'd need to make sure earphones had noise safety limiters - although these are pretty common now)

Things that made travel sickness worse were:

People talking to me (need to zone out when travelling)
Eating food beforehand (esp anything sweet - I always needed to travel on an empty stomach, and ginger has never worked for me)
Toys or books or anything to look at (need to stare straight ahead)
Dodgy or abrupt gear changes - my DH has learned to drive really smoothly as cars that jump about and pull up suddenly at junctions etc, really make it worse
Smelly cars, esp smell of petrol, smoke, dogs, or too strong car freshener

Hope you find something that works - travel sickness is hideous :-(

Yes to headphones and travel bands, I was horrendously travel sick as a child and DS and DD1 seem to have inherited it . They've both taught themselves to tune right into the music and let themselves fall asleep now so it's getting better but we still have a large supply of spare clothes and plastic bags in the car just in case.
DS forgot his travel bands on a school coach trip once and put the pressure on the point of his wrist with his fingers instead for a few minutes which he reckons worked well.
Plenty of fresh cool air is always good and peppermint oil on a hanky soothes the stomach.

Eletheomel - if fear of travel sickness is the only thing stopping you from learning to drive then I think it might be worth your while trying a few lessons to see. I was always horrendously travel sick as a child and am still very bad as an adult, but I have never ever, in almost 30 years of driving, felt travel sick whilst I was at the wheel.

Sorry HaveaC, I don't have any tips. I used to take Dramamine as a child, which I don't think is available in Europe anymore and does knock you out anyway. For shortish journeys sitting in the front seat always helps a bit, but it's not as safe as the back for a child. A story CD and sitting still gazing out the window helps my DS's car sickness a bit.

Eletheomel I was terribly sick when travelling as a child and even now as an adult I get queasy from some of the triggers you describe. My dad is much worse - I've seen him get sick from one trip round the block as a passenger. Neither of us ever get sick when we're driving.

My DD has been travel sick for years without a pattern - Sometimes she can manage a two hour journey and be fine and next time we do everything in exactly the same way and she will be ill after 20 minutes. A nice lady in Boots once told me to take a plastic container with a lid in the car and this has been a godsend when we on the motorway unable to stop. No plastic bags that leak and the lid keeps the smell away until we are able to stop and clean up.