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.
Oh wow! Never thought of that. I could have used that with my second son.
Shudder—so glad mine aren’t prone to that. Love your set up though. We do keep ginger tablets on hand. Got us through a 7 day cruise (and no effects of dramamine), bus & car rides through the mountains, etc. So, not sure how well this works for those who get real sick, but the “real queasy to nauseous folks”– works great. (would have jumped overboard without the stuff) 🙂
I am a total hosptial throw up bag klepto. Anytime we have to be at a doctor’s office, hospital, Urgent Care for whatever reason, I just happen to need plenty of these….and they stayed stored in the car. They work perfectly, contain the mess and are plenty big. Unfortunately, 2 of my kiddos are carsick prone as well….and my family lives 12 hours from us. We are road trip experts. 😉
We use a gallon-sized zipper bag with couple of paper towels folded up and tucked inside (to help soak up the liquid part…). And, paper towels and wipes in the event of any “misses.”
Sea Bands have been great for my son, but we have used benadryl, too (same active ingredient as dramamine).
I have to chime in about the SeaBands! I have always been prone to motion sickness from a child. I get dizzy doing a circle in Zumba! Last summer, our family did a 4000 mile road trip over 12 days. I wore SeaBands the entire time and NEVER got sick even going over mountains and with my spouse being the driver (not always the most relaxing experience). I did a little reading, a little knitting, minimal turns to the back to help our then-3 yr old. We do keep the same kit in our car with reminders to the (only) older child prone to sickness about where available receptacles are just in case. 🙂 Oh….and no milkshakes…ewwww….
We called it a “yukk bucket”. I would label a medium sized container and store plastic shopping bags in it. That way the “yukk” was contained in a bag which is easily thrown out. Thankfully our daughter doesn’t get carsick as often anymore.
My oldest son is prone to carsickness, and I am starting to get it more as I age! I’ve discovered that those starlight peppermints ($1 a bag at walmart!) can help to ward off a queasy tummy if we suck on them periodically throughout the drive.
Our fifth child is the puker- we keep a gallon ice cream bucket with the lid at her feet so she can sit it in her lap when she feels it coming on.
I also recommend the ziploc bags! I like the gallon size though, helps with splatter! I also keep a bath towel or two to put over the carseat before they sit back in it.
We always stock NEW ziploc bags in our car for car sickness. Preferrably the quart size. The kids can puke in them and we can zip up the top and toss it at the next stop. Works great!