Any suggestions to help car sickness?

Does it only happen in the car or does it happen at other times?

Mouse_tales is a discussion leader in the East Valley for arizonamoms.com. She is a business owner, community volunteer, and aspiring runner (whew!), who most enjoys her roles as wife & mom. Her children range in age from 4 to 13.

Try giving them ginger tea 30 min before a car trip or flight. All you have to do is steep some fresh ginger root in hot water for a couple of min and add some honey. Also, you can give them peppermints(my Grandma always gave me the blue Michigan mints) to suck on while they are in route. Mint is supposed to help with nausea. I used to get terribly car sick as a child and this helped me. Have you talked to their pediatrician? Maybe they could prescribe some motion sickness meds, or maybe they could tell if you Dramamine or Bonine would work as well....

what about those SeaBands - bracelets for motion sickness?
Are they just for grown-ups?
I've had friends wear them day-in-day-out for pregnancy morning sickness to a decent amount of success.

I would think they would find it pretty cool to get special jewelry to wear to keep them from barfing!

Good luck.

If you try something that works great - write back and share with all of us. I could use the solution for summer airplane rides. Coming back home from any vacation into PHX in the summer w/ the heat - there is always so much turbulance and I don't manage it well!!!

Happy2BMommy, is a stay-at-home mom who just turned 40 (argh!) with a 6 yr. old daughter and a 4 yr. old son, and is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com living in Scottsdale.

Wow! My sister has 6 yr old triplets too (Feb. b/g/g). I can imagine how difficult the car sickness is. I remember always - all my life, sorry to say - being prone to motion sickness. With my kids, I remind them that the thing that will make them sick, is trying to focus their eyes on moving targets. Reading in the car, trying to play Leapster, looking out of the window, all make them sick. Perhaps, some sun shades to block their vision and eyes wandering out the window? Headphones and music with their heads back may help, but that won't work for long on a long trip. When they queasiness starts, my kids now know to immediately close their eyes and put their head back.

"Only a life lived for others, is the life worthwhile" - Albert Einstein

Half a Dramamine, crushed and placed in juice. Make sure they drink it about 1/2 hour before leaving. Worked like a charm for our little guy. I'm so sorry--we used to dread car trips too!

Brooke Romney is an unbalanced mom of three young boys who constantly has too much to do, and too little time. She writes the Mom Beat column for The Gilbert Republic.

Have you tried non-drowsey Dramamine, if they can swallow pills? There is also a chewable kind in the same section with a name like Bonine. We keep some in the car, in my purse, in Grandma's car...

My daughter is now 8 and we've been using it with her for a couple years now. I'd suggest trying it, it has changed the trip for us, and for her.

Lovemy4 is a discussion leader for North Central Phoenix, tired mother of 4 great kids and wife to one great husband.

Hi, Lisa -
The other Moms have given great ideas - the same as I would have said after researching motion sickness online.

I had asked if their throwing up only happened in the car because last summer, our little boy started throwing up in the car, too. And, then, it went beyond that - he'd throw up a little bit after the trip, etc.

I started a journal of what was going on, what he had eaten, etc., during the day and discovered that 1)he tended to throw up in the morning, 2) he would throw up if we ran late for lunch (which tended to coincide with when we were in the car), 3)he would cry and get very agitated before he threw up - more agitated than I had ever seen, including shaking and turning really red in the face.

His doctor ran a number of tests and it turned out that he is hypoglycemic. He was throwing up because he blood sugar was imbalanced (too low). It's also the reason why he would become extremely agitated, red in the face, and oh yes, the crying so angry & sad, it ripped my heart out.

I saw that you mentioned that your boys have sensitive stomachs and after reading your story, I had a sense of deja vu! I am not a doctor; however, if you think that it might be more often than just in the car, you could consider asking your doctor to test.

I think the journaling really helped.

Just a thought. Best of luck!

Mouse_tales is a discussion leader in the East Valley for arizonamoms.com. She is a business owner, community volunteer, and aspiring runner (whew!), who most enjoys her roles as wife & mom. Her children range in age from 4 to 13.

I got carsick when I was a kid and it didn't stop until I started to drive. I have two daughters and one is just like me and the other not at all. We use Dramemine - I haven't used the non-drowsy stuff. I would be afraid it wouldn't work.

sure, fine, whatever

My parents used to douce me up with Dramamine. I used to get car sick a lot especially on car trips. Not sure why but I did, and espeically when I was pregnant. But I'm good now. Check out dramamine. It pretty much knocks you out so bring pillows.

Lisa - Mom to her spunky little Scarlette

I got car sick when I was little too. The only thing that worked for me was to sleep. I couldn't read or play a game or anything. As I got older I would so be used to going to sleep as soon as the car started that my husband, boyfriend then, got so insulted and said that I wasn't very good company in the car! Poor guy, I just got used to handling car trips that way. My brother got so grossed out by my throwing up that he would start to gag. It probably would have been better for him if he were in a different place in the car, but our cars were smaller then. I know fresh air worked. Not much else, tho. I did grow out of it; that's something to be hopeful about!

Ask your doctor and try the dramamine. If that doesn't work, you may have to think about some Benadryl before long car trips to make the kids sleepy. I hope you find what works. Please let us know when you figure it out!