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.

A lot of car seat experts say the rear / forward facing thing is a myth - that actually if a child is going to be car sick then they generally will be whichever way they face. But i dont have the references for that to hand. Certainly for us, DD1 was always sick RF in a car, but was also sick FF on a bus or train! So no difference really. DH's sisters also get really travel sick so ive wondered if there is a genetic component? We found that time helped - as soon as she got to 4, we started giving her kewells. Then we incrementally stated to do longer journeys to get her used to more travel. Now shes pretty good and even if we forget the kewells, she can manage ok. From about 3, we had towels laid over her like a blanket on each journey and a sick bag, and she got pretty good at catching her own sick to give whoever was driving time to find a safe place to pull over.

Our son is 3.5y now and things have got a lot better over the last 6-8 months. He's now old enough to say when he starts feeling sick, so we can stop for a few minutes and get out of the car if needed.

I think he's old enough to start looking down the middle of the car and out the front windscreen, rather than sideways out the passenger window, which helps too.

You have my sympathies and no solution to offer. We think our toddler has travel sickness. It’s only on rare occasions though for us.

I had travel sickness as a child, that bad that when I went in a car in the back I was guaranteed to be sick if it was more than 15-20 minute drive. I have it on ferries too and still do as an adult. Not a solution maybe but I found being at the front stopped the sickness, and being the driver was the cure! I still feel very sick if I travel in the back of anyone’s car. That much I usually offer to be the driver and hate taxi rides.

My son is rear facing. We find it’s worse with stop start traffic, swerving, or if he’s eaten before we set off. It’s worse in my husbands car (civic) but only once in my old car (Clio) and not so far in the Tucson but it’s only been a week in that car. The other day he was sick after going on a swing for too long, well that can happen with anyone but it was similar to his car sickness. So I wonder if it’s the smoothness of the car for him as well.

Not sure if any of that helps really, sorry.