We often talk about our love for travel on Babyccino, which I share whole heartedly, but there is one aspect I find difficult about travelling with children, and that is car sickness. Our daughter, Beatrice, suffers from the worst car sickness, and it is both heart breaking and debilitating. For us it’s specifically cars — sometimes black cabs, but never buses, boats, trains or planes. (Yet, hopefully!)
I also suffered with car sickness for years of my childhood, so when Beatrice is unsettled in the car, I am transported to that horrible feeling. As a child it affected my love of road trips for years of my life. I worry it will be the same for my daughter.
In our case, it has affected how we travel. I can no longer drive with the kids alone. Beatrice is sometimes sick within 5 minutes of being in the car, and I usually sit in the back seat to act as a nurse and to comfort her. On our recent trip to Granada, poor Beatrice spent every car journey sick. On what should have been a picturesque and enjoyable road trip with the snow covered Sierra Nevada mountains in the distance and cherry blossoms and orange trees in the foreground, the poor girl felt sick for three hours straight (and got sick 4 times!).
While we’ve discovered some ways to travel better over the last four years, unfortunately it hasn’t gotten any easier, and I still haven’t found the ‘cure.’ But, I have lots of helpful tips, as does Esther, who’s son Pim also has car sickness. So we thought we’d share our tips here and encourage others to share what works for them.
Here are our car sickness tips, and please by all means, share yours!
- Sit up straight and look at the road ahead. If possible have the child safely sit in the middle of the back seat. (Rules vary from place to place and for different ages of course).
- Bigger, higher up cars if renting / hiring a car. They seem sturdier, and you don’t feel the road as much. Also cars with big / low windows do toddlers can see as much as possible.
- Open windows — fresh air is so very helpful
- Never read or look down. Pim enjoys audio books.
- Mints — Esther had car sickness as a child and her mother gave her Mentos, mints with a soft inside which are chewable, to make her feel better. Unfortunately the mints had the opposite effect and made her feel worse! Until today she can’t eat them! Mints are a common cure but in Esther, and Beatrice’s case, they make them feel worse. So tricky!
- Avoid driving in or behind Diesel cars and trucks. If you do use the inside air circulation and not outside vents.
- Buy cars or carseats with leather or fake leather upholstery. (Esther said it took her awhile to learn this but it’s key!)
- Car seats with removeable covers. Again, essential!
- Travel with extra blankets and/or plastic lined cotton sheet. This doubles up as a blanket (when it’s cool if windows are open). We never leave home without ours.
- Collect sick bags on flights to use in travel. We always have one on hand if not three or four. Also bring some extra ‘rubbish’ bags to put things in.
- Put a cool / damp handkerchief or bandana around a child’s neck if it is hot outside, my husband swears by this trick to cool them down (while the windows are open). You can see the wet bandana in the first photo!
- No food, snacks, or even water before or during car journeys. We ‘fast’ at least 3 hours before getting in the car. I do it with Beatrice so she doesn’t feel left out if others are eating. This is the only thing that works for us. Some people say crackers or oatcakes, or mints, but she simply can’t have anything. Her treat, when we get to our destination (whether she’s been sick or not, just because she’s being a good sport) is to choose the meal of her liking!
- Extra change of clothes
- Breathing slowly thru the nausea
- Lots of car games (I Spy, Rhyming Games, etc) to encourage looking out of the window. And singing seems to act as a good distraction too.
- Travel during nap or bed times — if they are tired and go right to sleep that seems to help.
- Frequent stops work for some families but seem to make little difference for us.
- We haven’t found motion sickness wrist bands effective but some people swear by them!
- Straight roads, not windy ones, when possible of course.
- Overall supportive and positive attitudes. Even though it’s simply not fun!
Hopefully this is something that Pim and Beatrice will soon grow out of. I know both Esther and I did by our early teen years.
Please share your tips!
Thanks in advance,
Lara x
P.S. Both my husband and I, and both of our mothers all had car sickness for numerous years of our childhood. However none of our siblings had it. Strange, right? Is it genetic?
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