When Your Kid Gets Car Sick
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If your kid regularly gets car sick or it runs in the family, a road trip can seem like a scary adventure. You never know when your child might feel queasy on the road, so pack a box of supplies for cleaning up so you’re prepared for car sickness.
Whether you’re just running errands or going on a Road Trip, it’s important to have a Car Sickness Kit on hand. Here’s how to put one together, including motion sickness remedies for kids, throw up bags, and cleaning supplies.
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Family road trips can be great fun and create fantastic memories for parents and children alike. While Road Trip Snacks and Travel Essentials for Family Trips are important things to plan for, so is the inevitable bout of car sickness.
Yes, you hate to think about it. But, when your child hollers, “Mom, I feel sick!” from the backseat as you tool along the Five with no place to stop, you’re going to have to think about it. So, plan ahead.
Why It Matters
Both my girls tend toward car sickness. Experience — like when both of them threw up in the car two days in a row — has taught me to be prepared for car sickness.
Trying to clean up the Rapunzel doll’s hair in the aftermath is no fun. Trust me.
You never know when your child might feel queasy on the road, so pack a Car Sickness Kit and keep it in the car. You’ll feel so thankful you’re ready to face the challenge.
FAQs
The following health information is not to replace the medical advice of a doctor.
The Mayo Clinic explains that car sickness, a type of motion sickness occurs when your child’s brain gets confusing information from the eyes, inner ear, and nervous system, such as when they feel the movement of the car, but because their vision is blocked by a large seat, the movement and their view don’t match up. The same can happen on amusement park rides.
Normally healthy people can experience motion sickness symptoms which typically go away about 4 hours after the motion has ceased. Should these persist, be sure to seek medical care.
For persistent nausea and vomiting, contact your family physicians’ office and ask the doctor or nurse for their advice.
Things to help you prevent car sickness or treat motion sickness symptoms:
They say, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” If you can prevent your child from getting car sickness to begin with, so much the better.
We’ve used trial and error over the last few years, and now have a complete arsenal of preventive methods.
To avoid car sickness, consider packing these items:
- child-size sea bands
- peppermint or ginger candies
- Children’s Dramamine
- peppermint or lavender essential oils – either diluted in a rollerball or drops placed on the sea bands
We use these in combination on long road trips, particularly since our daughter gets anxious about the idea of traffic and getting sick.
Some of them may have a placebo affect, but my motto is “whatever works when puke’s involved.”
Things to help you in the event of car sickness:
All the prevention methods in the world won’t clean up the mess, so it’s important to keep these items on hand for when the worst really does happen.
I keep these things on hand:
- paper towels – for wiping up
- disinfecting wipes – for sanitizing
- large plastic cups or ziptop freezer bags – these can stand in for vomit bags.
- mini can of Lysol – for fumigating and sanitizing
- squirt bottle or bottled water – for wiping off car seats, seat belts, and Rapunzel’s tangled doll hair (don’t ask)
- plastic trash bags – to contain all the trash and mucked up clothes
- hand sanitizing spray – to clean up the parents and helpers
It is now standard operating procedure to hand the boys puke bags so that they can hand them to their sisters should they get sick en route. And if they miss the vomit bag, well, we’re prepared for clean up duty, too.
More Family Travel Tips
What works for you?
Leave a comment below and let us know what works for you.
This post was originally published June 7, 2011. It has been updated for content and clarity.
If your kids are prone to car sickness it’s worth picking up a canister of Nature’s Miracle Pet Mess Easy Cleanup. It is coarse granules with a clumping agent that will solidify the mucus and the mess. Makes it easier to gather up and or sweep up and later vacuum out of the car. It has a sweet cherry lollipop smell which most children find more pleasant than deodorizers and sanitizer sprays. Also don’t feed kids who are prone to car sickness any acidic foods before they travel in the car especially orange juice.
I haven’t had a chance to try it myself but someone told me to have yogurt containers with some kitty litter in it. Apparently it helps to absorb liquid and smells, so if the kid pukes and you can’t pull over, or if your child rides a bus home from school the lid can go on and the whole container can be thrown out when possible. My middle child is our car sick one, so I’ll be trying it this summer.
Interesting! Thanks for letting us know. Update us once you try it out? (But, hopefully, your child won’t need it on the road this year.)
My 5 years old and I both suffer from car sickness. So, whenever we are for a good length of time in car, I usually keep lemon and orange drops handy. They really help in making me feel less queasy. I also try and put my daughter to sleep as that helps
Adding lemon drops to my list. Yum!
Oh, how I wish I had read this before my 5-year-old shared his lunch all over me and my care the other day! i had to whip into Walgreen’s covered in ick and get paper towels and wipes to clean him and the car. creating a kit now …
Bummer! No fun!
I totally get all of these great supplies. I have a few too. Thankfully a few have out grown it, so I am hoping the rest do too… This is a great idea to share. Not alot of people understand nor do they know what to do or where to start.. This list is very handy and helpful.
Great! Glad this is helpful. Tell your friends. 😉
DON’T FORGET THE BUCKET!
Where’s the bucket?
Does Molly have a bucket?
“I need the bucket…”
My poor siblings had to put up with me throwing up a lot. Hasn’t happened in a while. Fingers crossed I make it through a big debate trip with my high schoolers without throwing up. That would be embarassing….
I hope you do okay. Yoga breathing can help, too.
I also found sour chews, such as sour gummies or jelly beans, help. (That tip came from the OB/GYN). I can’t eat mint, so it’s a good alternative for me and mine. We give ginger cookies as the straight ginger can be a bit strong and met with resistance.
I found Bonine works better than Dramimine, but they no longer make a children’s version.
Thanks for the tips!
Also pack motion sickness pills just to be safe
Have you ever tried peppermint essential oil for the carsickness? I was shocked at how well it has helped my ten year old. We just put it on the bottom of her feet and it does the trick every time.
I’ve read some conflicting stuff about applying it neat, so I don’t think we’ll go that route, but I appreciate the suggestion. That might be a good option for a car diffuser. Thanks.
Oh, how I wish I would have seen this last year! My family drove 1,000 miles to Missouri for my son’s graduation from boot camp and AIT, and my, then, 2 year old must have vomited at least five times each way in our RENTED mini-van. The smell was horrible, and I felt so sorry for her. My poor husband had to do a major cleanup before returning the van!