My 2 yo daughter vomits regularly in the car, has done for maybe 9+ months now. I’m getting fed up and I’m sure she is. If anybody has ideas to help her I’m all ears.

one of those magic bracelets is a pretty good placebo 🙂

What kind of car is it?

None of my kids have ever suffered from car sickness but other parents I know have reported improvement when they are in MPV type vehicles which tend to have higher seats and bigger windows with lower cills than ordinary cars which makes it easier for the kids to see out of and for their brains to reconcile the movement of the car with the horizon.

The one time in history where that ^ might be an acceptable answer! Get some anti-vibration stickers to put on the car/child too

Can she see out the windows? Does she sit watching an ipad or similar? How fast do you drive and how are the corners for your passengers?

Tablets? my brother used to take some little pink ones and it would stop him being sick no idea if placebo or not

Tablets?

giving my son an iPad certainly helped.

Octavia
View in the back is not amazing, bra sets with solid head rests block a bit of forward view unfortunately.

I thought she got better when I swapped her seat to forward facing at about 19 months old, but last night…bleugh…. She has puked a few times facing forwards.

She does it with me driving sedately, short journeys in town or longer motorway runs. Yesterday, nearly back home to London from Liverpool, going very steady, just came off the M1 and a few minutes later….bleugh. her mum had given her a book to look at for a while a little before as she was so bored. When I suggested that might have been the cause it went badly, very badly.

Well isn’t the usual answer for car sickness to get the sufferer to drive, seems the obvious answer to me.

bra sets with solid head rests

*mind starts to wander*

Deactivate the front passenger airbag and sit the child in the front and the missus in the back?

Bra seats? Auto correct…. Vrs. Seats with big solid head rests make the view a bit restricted

Might try the front but it’s not supposed to be as safe. No front iso fix points so relying on the seat belt, which leaves the car seat she’s in now with a bit of movement. Hmmm

her mum had given her a book to look at for a while a little before as she was so bored. When I suggested that might have been the cause it went badly, very badly.

Has reading a book ever been a cure for car sickness??

You do realise that she may never grow out of it! Speaking as someone who was always car sick, journeys were always interrupted regardless of their length. Now, as an adult, I can’t sit in the back of a car, boat journeys are a nightmare even if it’s the Sandbanks ferry or across Southampton Water. Flying was another nightmare but have avoided that for many years.

It is what it is.

Maybe the thread should be, ‘how to tell mum the book was a bad idea, and not trigger a blazing row’

Tbf, little’un has puked with no book on many occasions.

Phenergan from the chemists. My lad was the same on any journey over about 30 mins but we tried some Phenergan and it worked a treat. Give him some before bed and then again in the morning before the journey and we’ve had a couple of years mostly puke-free

At least when older she may use a bag….. Not herself, her car seat, the back of her mum’s seat and several other bits in range.

My youngest gets car sick, we got her some of them travel bands from the chemist with a bump that presses the underside of her wrists. Don’t know if they’re a placebo or not but touch wood she’s not been sick whilst wearing them, and was sick regularly before.

Phernagen. Right, I’ll try it, if mum let’s me.

Is that one of those ear canal fluid thickening things? Any side effects?

I think it’s anti-histamine that’s used to treat a few things along with travel sickness. The chemist it Aviemore recommended we try it after about 4 puke stops on a trip from Manchester, going back we had no incidents. It makes them a bit drowsy but that also helps as when they’re asleep they don’t barf!

Haven’t seen one of those magical anti-static strips hanging off the back of a car for years. Are they still a thing?

Think it’s an austerity thing, the amount of static had been cut back

book will definitely make it worse

I’d be sticking mum in back seat…I’ve always had my daughter in front of car since she could sit forward…she always preferred the view from the front. Now drive a Puggy Partner and she happily sits in back as the rear seat is raised so she has a better view.
My advice is based on my own findings and there was nothing scientific about them.

Front seat is a good call. Another thing to try is to stop before she’s sick – if she’s normally sick at 30 minutes, stop at 25, take a 15 minute break and then repeat. Institute of Aviation Medicine at Farnborough used to do something similar with trainee pilots and a spin rig.

As a kid I used to hurl every time I was in a decent car, Jags, Mercs, leather seats and wafty suspension = buckets of chunder, spraying across the windows.

[video]https://youtu.be/ujhImZbroIg[/video]

A combo of phenergan (does that even exist nowdays, this was about 40 years ago), keeping the temperature down, looking out the front window and not looking down (no reading, even a map could bring the vom on) was the only thing i could do to reduce it.

Also, smooth driving isnt always the answer, keep it fast and loose, plenty of left foot braking which, combined with playing a car spotting game, keeps kids looking out to the horizon which may help.

Good luck.

Unfortunately there’s no pattern time wise. Yesterday she was fine for 7 hours, other times she’s puked in 10 minutes. She is still too young to say she’s feeling poorly and she doesn’t seem to know herself until she surprises, and upsets herself, vomiting over herself and the car. Hopefully that at least may soon change as she is talking lots now.

And some do grow out of it – mine did by about aged 7 although if bored they’d still chuck at the 2 hour mark.

Could it be due to the sheer embarrassment of riding around in a Skoda?

EDIT: Just to be clear, that’s a joke.

Having the kid in the front would be a good idea. You don’t have to disable the front airbag – that’s only for rear facing seats in the front where the kid’s head is right on the airbag. But check your manual, don’t take my word for it.

her mum had given her a book to look at for a while a little before as she was so bored. When I suggested that might have been the cause it went badly, very badly.

Tell her from us travel fairies that reading in the car DEFINITELY makes us car sick. That’s a recipe for puke.

We went through this with my son from about 1yo. We tried the stupid band to no avail. Tried blacking out his window and encouraging him to look out the front winscreen but tbh the best cure seemed to be avoiding giving him any kind of big meal before traveling and making sure he was in the car regularly.

If he wasn’t in the car for a week we could be certain that he would be sick. He’s more or less over it now, but saying that he’s in the car daily now.

No book for sure. One of the great skills of rally co-drivers is that they can read their pace notes without barfing. That and having no fear. Forward view of the horizon makes the world of difference – motion sickness is caused by the brain getting confused signals from the inner ear and the eyes.

The inner ear is pretty good in the short term but drifts off over time. There are lots of examples of pilots being convinced they’re the right way up in cloud but finding themselves upside down! Vision is the primary sense so use it to keep the inner ear constantly re-calibrated.

She’s not in the car often, hmm. The car isn’t used a great deal.

7!? Five more years of this mess, please no. I’ll take the train.

I’ve had a sun shade on her side window, wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. Given that forward view is poor maybe a better side view would help? Although come to think of it the blind was up yesterday.

Food wise some incidents seemed to be soon after eating so we try to not do that now. Obviously you can’t starve her on a long journey but we stopped twice and she ate a little each stop. Second stop was motorway food so not great but I thought we’d kept it plain, some bread and some unsalted fries plus some oj. Mum reckons it was too much juice. I don’t know.

Side view important, since you can’t see forward. So yes take the sun shade down.

Also a full stomach is better than an empty one. Also sugar helps in the form of sweets. This is a real condition that many millions suffer from – lots of info online 🙂

Sugar? Oh poo, another thing that mum won’t take well… Sugar is evil apparently.

Molgrips, any specific links I should read?

her mum had given her a book to look at for a while a little before as she was so bored. When I suggested that might have been the cause it went badly, very badly.

Yes, indeed it did, small child hurling all over the available car interior and occupants!

I used to get really nauseous in cars, due to a combination of cigarette smoke, (owner smoked), and trying to read;
the constant movement of the text while trying to focus on it and read messes up the inner ear and vision, just like sea-sickness does, it’s all basically motion-sickness.
I can read in a car now, and sometimes do, but I find it tiring and uncomfortable so I don’t bother, a train is different, it’s much smoother.

It makes them a bit drowsy but that also helps as when they’re asleep they don’t barf!

I used to barf in my sleep!

Re driving – it’s not the overall speed that’s the problem necessarily, it’s changes of direction or speed. So you need to drive extremely smoothly. Brake very gently, and only ever move the wheel slowly. This takes good anticipation, and it will also limit your overall speed of course on windy roads. I’ve been with people who’ve made me sick not by going fast or even braking hard, just by coming on the brakes too quickly. Often I’d rather you took a bend faster and braked less. But then with me, braking is worse than cornering – with other people it’s the other way round.

Molgrips, any specific links I should read?

No, just 42 years of experience and anecdotes 🙂

I’ve found also that having something in my lap helps slightly, in an extreme situation at barfcon 4. Like a bundled up jacket or pillow or something. Don’t think that’s in any studies…

Oh and my med of choice is Sturgeron. Not infallible (in terms of nausea – I generally don’t barf), just mutes the feeling enough in most cases. But few side-effects. Then again for a kid you might want the drowsiness as a side effect.

AHH stugeron, that’s the one I’d heard before, used for sea sickness.

Blimey molgrips, I hope my little girl isn’t as prone to suffer as you sound!