Toddler sick in car all the time - is there a miracle car out there that helps

[Mama1028]

We are in the process of changing cars and have a two and a half year old who can't seem to go longer than ten minutes in the car without throwing up. I'm probably looking for a miracle but has anyone come across a car which has helped travel sickness in children. We have quite a small drive so can't have anything too big. At the moment we have an older BMW X1 which I thought would work as it is higher up but no luck. Any advice would be welcome.

I was always car sick as a child, even on very short journeys. As an adult i still get sick and I can’t sit on the back of a car for long especially if it is very closed in. You do get more thrown around in the back I feel.
The only thing that helps me is to be able to look out of a window, preferably to the horizon, or to be in the driving seat, although when I was pregnant I would get car sick even then.

Only things that ever worked here were sitting in the front and having passenger window right down, not great in cold/wet weather.

I still get car sick at 53 if driven by someone who takes corners and roundabouts too fast, who brakes and accelerates too quickly, or who has smelly air fresheners 🤮. If I go any distance we try to avoid roundabouts. I am fine on motorways. The very worst is winding country lanes, the sun at eye level and overhanging trees that then cause a strobing effect.

I used to get very sick as a child in my grandfather’s car and a big part of it for me was the smell of the (leather?) upholstery. I can still remember it now. 🤢

Yeah, this makes a huge difference. I still get really car sick when my partner drives. So much abrupt acceleration and deceleration!

Winding the windows down helps, too!

Diesel or petrol? I am much more likely to feel sick in diesel cars. I don't think its fumes but the way the higher torque which makes it more jerky. Cruise control helps a bit.

I know some people have had worse car sickness in some EVs, although I've been in my mum's EV and dad's electric Mini, and I've had no ill effects. I tend to get car sick if I try to read or look at a map that isn't on the big screen, but other than that I'm okay. Best thing to do is to try different cars.

Might be worth considering an osteopath,I suffer from vertigo and travel sickness and have done from a young age. I've found if my neck and head aren't aligned properly it's 100 times worse. I can't travel backwards on a train for instance.
A chat to an osteopath who works with children is worth a thought.
It's so miserable to be travel sick all the time.

I was so travel sick as a child that I couldn't go more than 5 minutes in a car or on a bus without vomiting. It drove my parents mad, I think they really believed at times that I chose to be that ill to inconvenience them! As an adult it is nowhere near as bad, but at times still an issue. The magic solution for me, and what we use for my youngest who seems to have inherited the issue, is phenergan. I could list a whole host of things that people swore would help which never did (I actually feel nauseous now if I see those bloody pressure point travel bands anywhere after all the times I vomited whilst wearing them and I can't stand butterscotch having been forced to consume it before car journeys because someone had told my mum it worked and she believed them), but phenergan has never let me down.

What evidence is there to back that up? Both me and my youngest are chronically car sick and neither of us lacked/lack outdoor play of the kind you describe.

my eldest was the same at that age and we live in the sticks with loads of really hilly and winding roads. GP told us there aren't any medicines for under 5s.

I know you are asking for car features, but other things that helped us without changing the car:

Really trying hard not to accelerate or brake harshly, especially on bends. I guess cruise control would probably help.

Forward facing (not sure it reduced the actual sickness but made it easier to distract DC and to shove a bowl in their direction.

Teaching DC to be sick in a bowl (and keep hold of it till we could stop safely)

Eye test - DC needed glasses and getting them did reduce the sickness.

Just Google about vestibular development and the link to motion / car sickness. I’m a pediatric nurse and more outdoor play that develops the vestibular system usually forms part of the recommendations for children with severe motion sickness at this age.

I used to get car sick until I learnt to drive. Weird that it stopped completely, both for being the driver or a passenger.
Maybe I should learn to navigate a boat! I still feel rotten on sea journeys - even occasionally on the local chain ferry.

For me I just had to get my 'car legs' (like sea legs)! I was very sick as a younger child, but when I started S1 and had a long windy bus ride twice a day, I was cured in a fortnight. I'm sure this doesn't work for everyone though.

For my own kids, forward facing has made no difference. The thing that has made most difference is them being old enough to vomit in a bowl! They are still sick, but that's all it is. They don't also have to endure being stripped down at the roadside in the freezing winter wind, and then sitting back in a car seat stinking of puke. We find most vomiting can be avoided by doing 20 minutes driving then 5 minutes walking about, and repeat. It does limit how far you can get though.

Mine is but nowhere near as badly. Coach trips mainly. He now goes to and from school on the bus (60-ish minutes) and can even read so he has 'grown out of it' mostly.

You may already have tried these, but just in case you haven't:

• As he's forward-facing, trying putting his car seat in the middle (if your car allows) and get him to look at stuff on the road ahead of you.
• If you can't put him in the middle and his seat can rear-face, you could try turning him back around and getting him to tell you about the car behind you, etc.
• Black out blinds on the side windows so he doesn't see stuff flashing by in his peripheral vision can help.

I'd also be inclined to try the glasses, it's low-risk and simple and cheap if it does work.

My son did this. Ugh. He has grown out of it to some extent but still gets it if the road has a lot of twists and turns. Never heard of an actual model of car that helps.

My young dgs stopped being car sick if he traveled in the front, facing forward.

Some interesting thoughts. He is very confident in a play ground and climbs and balances etc with no problems so don’t think it’s his balance. We are quite a short sighted family so having his eyes tested is worth thinking about. But it sounds like the best solution is phenergen or sitting him in the front. I can’t wait for him to be old enough to be able to articulate how he’s feeling.

I was also nursing, I was still vomiting as an adult, got chatting to a consultant I was working with, she asked me if I had had a lot of ear infections as a child,yes, plus one as an adult. I do have balance issues and have problems going up and down hills, and flying. Just another thought for you.

An old wives tale (but my Mum swears it works) - sit on newspaper. Easy to try even if it does nothing.

I know a primary teacher who takes the 'magic newspaper' on the school coach. If you sit on it, he says, it reduces the vibrations in the seat and no-one is ever sick when sitting on it! I'm sure it's a placebo effect, and wouldn't work on a 2 year old. But if he's still going at 4 or 5 it might help as a distraction, and you never know . . .

You have my sympathy. My daughter started being travel sick around age 1, she’d be sick after just 15 minutes in the car. She’s 9 now and still sick often, been to the doctors back and forth. Haven’t found anything that helps unfortunately. As she gets older it does get a little less

I have one like this, and we are rural so it has been just awful.

the best we have come up with is
front seat, airbag off. Appropriate car seat. Joy ride kwells for longer than half hour trip.

disposable sick bowls from Amazon as standard.

loud music seems to reduce it. Silence increases it.

I feel so sorry for her. Outs her off doing things. But just have to manage it as even school is a twenty minute drive

If they are rear facing, turn them round. Some kids can’t tolerate travelling backwards. I don’t like it as an adult.

Empty ice cream tub with a lid for sick bowl and sit on a newspaper