If you’ve got a child that suffers from travel sickness going on driving, flying or cruising holidays can be a real struggle. It’s a nightmare to be scraping vomit from every inch of the car or off the poor passenger next door, and you just feel terrible for them when they feel so miserable. There’s nothing good about it for anyone.

Travel sickness or motion sickness is caused when the brain receives conflicting information from the inner ears, eyes and nerves in the extremities. Yep, basically motion sickness is a result of the brain being confused!  It commonly affects children 2-12 years and the good news is that you can grow out of this cursed problem!

The thing that we most want to know is how to minimise (if not end!) motion sickness so here’s some tried and true tips to help:

  • Drive through the night! It’s almost impossible to get motion sickness when you are asleep so if you have a chronic sufferer it might be advisable to drive through the night (or nap time for shorter journeys) in the hope of avoiding it altogether
  • Banish the stimulation! Get rid of books, activities, printables and ipads. All these sensory activities are meaning a child is looking down. Looking out the window and keeping the head up definitely helps to prevent car sickness.
  • Freshen up! Keep the air circulating in the car – leave the window down or run the air con, stale air seems to compound feelings of motion sickness.
  • Think about the pre-trip foods – dairy, spicy and heavy meals can exacerbate motion sickness and make the upset tummy feel worse. Stick with dry crackers, toast and the kinds of foods we offer with the BRAT
  • Ask your pharmacist and doctor to help! There are prescription and non-prescription medicines for helping with motion sickness. Some people swear by seasickness bands via the pharmacy, which work on constant application to the pressure points, but the science is out on these!
  • Stop early! If you hear a little voice from the back seat say the dreaded words ‘I feel sick!’ stop straight away. Getting out of the car, walking around in he fresh air and having a cool drink can be enough to re-set the mood and get you on your journey again feeling better.

We asked our community members what works for their family when it comes to motion sickness, here are some of their tips and tricks you might like to explore…

Our community recently shared some of their cures & tips:

  • “Fizzy drinks and lots of burping settles the tummy”
  • “Sucking on barley sugar lollies”
  • “Pressure bands from the chemist and ginger tablets. Travel calm do a natural ginger tablet”
  • “Ginger beer is our secret family remedy.”
  • “Definitely no milk – milk is a vomit for sure!”
  • “The wrist bands have worked for us, they seem to help our son no end.”
  • “Sometimes a distraction can change the mood, the minute someone says they feel sick we sing, put on the radio or begin an ‘out the windows’ game.”
  • “Distraction does seem to work – with the windows down!”

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