 Car
Sick Kids?
Sorry
I brought it up!
By Laurel Smith (Roadtrip
Mom)
Tips
for Car Sickness...
Car sickness
has plagued parents since cars were invented! Luckily moms and dads have
all kinds of tricks for coping with it.
Mom's
Minivan readers were asked to submit their Best Car Sickness Tips and their
Worst Barf Stories! These car sickness treatment tips worked for the parents
who submitted them, but you may find that only certain ones or a combination
of some of the techniques will work for you.
Tips for Prevention or Treatment
of Car Sickness
-
Peppermints...lots of LifeSaver
Peppermints, or peppermint candies. Keep a supply in the car
-
Ginger snap cookies. Eat
a couple before you start the trip and then periodically during the trip.
This tip was recommended by several readers!
-
Avoid reading in the car, particularly
on winding bumpy roads. Be sure to keep eye focus mainly to front.
This helps the brain process sensory data and avert the vertigo.
-
Use Seabands, which are wrist
bands with a small round metal button that presses into the inside of each
wrist. They are tight & work by accupressure. Some people swear
by them! Also called, "No Queeze
Wrist Bands"
-
Place the child in the middle
of the backseat so they can see out the front, rather than the sides, which
can appear as a blur.
-
Pick a spot as far away as you
can see and just focus on that for a few minutes not the road whizzing
by
-
Breath deep through your mouth,
not your nose.
-
Stick your hand out the window,
just a little bit; whether it is 100 degrees or 10 degrees.
-
Fresh water and saltine crackers
-
Keep empty 3-pound butter tubs
in the van with their covers, so that in case of an accident, you can re-cover
the tub until you reach a place you can empty and rinse it out.
-
Keep plenty of lollipops on
hand. You can even get special motion sickness ones called Queasy
Pops.
-
A cool face cloth. The minute
someone feels that urge come on, hand them a peppermint and have
them place the cool face cloth on their forehead.
-
Ginger root capsules, ginger
ale and plain cake donuts!!
-
An ice pack applied to the back
of the neck -- ten minutes on, ten minutes off -- works wonders.
-
Wear wrap around sun glasses
-
Take Benadryl
or Drammamine 1-1/2 hour prior to drive. Don't wait until you are already
on the road or it will be too late. Consult a doctor if necessary before
using!
-
Keep a bottle of Fabreeze to
get rid of accident odors
-
Never travel without a big tub
of wet wipes!
-
Keep an extra change of clothing
easily available for all travelers
Be prepared! Have a Bio Pack
cleanup kit to clean up the mess! It's a spill kit for travel.
And, be sure to keep barf bags on hand in the car if you have a frequent
barfer!
| Read more about car sickness,
and about my darling daughter "champion of chunks" at my blog:
(Isn't she adorable?)
|
 |
Readers' Carsick Stories
These will make you laugh
until you ... uh... hurl. At the very least they will make
you feel like you are not the only one who has ever had a child who should
have been named "Ralph". Read on only if you do not have a weak stomach!
A child who got sick? Yes
that would have been me and the one I remember the most is the
ride back from Girl Scout camp
after being feed a "breakfast" of donuts and Koolaid I was taken home in
the back of a station wagon facing backward and needless to say it only
took me about 10 minutes to get sick, and the kicker is i can still to
this day remember the little brother of the driver yelling "Mom, Mom Look
what Sherry did". To make it worse we still had 40 minutes worth of drive
time. Not fun LOL Sherry
We were headed to Bend for
a basketball tournament (all weekend long), it is 3 hours away over a large
mountain pass. At the top of the pass, my son Robby puked on his
sister and her friend, on their uniforms and in their bags. It was 18 degree's
out and we couldn't roll down the windows. When we finally found
a restaraunt, I had to buy something to use their restroom. Christine
My 11 yr. old son always
get car sick if we have to travel far. The worst time was when he was just
2 yrs old. We were on our way to a camping trip and he was strapped in
his car seat and we were driving around this road that just kept going
and going around a mountain. Next thing I knew he barfed all over me (who
was sitting next to him) so we pulled on the side of the road and we both
got cleaned up. well...this was not the end of it..after we got back in
the car he barfed a total of 5 more times. By the time we got to our campsite
him and I BOTH were cover head to toe in barf!! I must've looked horrible
stepping out of that car!! everyone was laughing except me of course! My
son was just happy to get out of the car! Our car smelled so bad for days!
ewwwww :) Christina
My now 11 year old daughter
started getting car sick when she was 4 years old. A friend told
me to buy Seabands,
which are wrist bands with a small round metal thing that presses into
the inside of each wrist. They are tight & work by accupressure.
THEY REALLY DO WORK!! A few summers ago, we drove from central Indiana
to Memphis, TN & she didn't get sick at all. She forgot to wear
them once on the way back from the dentist office & got car sick.
She had corn for lunch at school that day. It wasn't pretty to clean
up! Also, I keep a roll of paper towels, a couple of plastic grocery
bags, wipes, and Lysol spray in my van, just in case. We have 3 or
4 sets of sea bands. They can be found in the pharmacy section with
the over the counter motion sickness medication. I sometimes get
headaches while riding & wear the sea bands when the headache starts.
The headache goes away! Nisha
(Editor's note: Also called,
"No Queeze Wrist Bands".
My husband bought a old beat
up 1977 Winnebago for us to take on vacation last summer. My six
year old daughter, the black toy poodle, my hubby, and piled on in for
an adventurous trip from NC to Montana. Everything was fine until
we got to about Alabama. Both poodle and little girl got sick.
Projectile vomiting - no kidding. Of course, I am panicking as my
hubby drives us down this bumpy road and vomit gets flung everywhere!
We had to take an extra day to clean it up, but we did finally make it
to Montana and had a wonderful time hiking and camping. Sara
The only time I got carsick
was driving through the mountains of the Carolinas when I was a kid. I
can almost get sick again thinking about the experience. I live in a very
flat place, Florida, and it was so different than what I was used to, is
what did it for me. I think it would help whoever is driving would slow
down a bit when going up and down and around those mountainous roads. Taking
breaks would help too. So would giving passengers more of a sense of control.
Also try not to take the windingest roads in the area. Yuck! Can I barf
now? Daphne
About 20 yrs ago we were
traveling with 5 small children across southeastern Mo. We
stopped for breakfast in a small town as we had gotten up early to travel
as we had no air conditioning ...... we stopped in a small town for breakfast
and everyone that lived in the town had to be in there... I think it was
the only place to eat... Well the kids all had french toast and syrup for
breakfast... we paid out bill and got on the road. About an hour later
Lisa started to throw up and i passed back a swim towel to her, (couldn't
stop along the road as there were no shoulders to get off on) it wasn't
long until we had all of the children throwing up and I was running out
of towel... so I turned around and said hold out your shirts and catch
it we will stop as quick as possible.... Finally we found a filling station
with only an out house... Much to my pleasure, the station attendant felt
sorry for me and got me a bucket of hot soapy water to start cleaning the
kids and the car with....I gave it a lot of thought for a few yrs
afterwards about traveling with my children... I have often wondered
if that entire town got sick after they ate at that restaurant.... (anonymous)
 When
i was a kid... we had a 5th wheel which we towed (of course) behind a big
ol' ford pickup... well if we were getting sick in the 5th while in transit
the signal was to turn on the light over the door of the 5th wheel... while
no one driving saw it and my brother enjoyed watching older sister projectile
vomit across canada hahahahaha. I think it is against the law now to let
your children ride in the 5th wheel? Charlene
Happy Travels everyone!
~ ..· ´¨¨))
-:¦:-
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´
..·´ Road Trip Mom -:¦:-
-:¦:-
((¸¸.·´*
TIP -- Find several Motion
Sickness prevention products at Amazon!
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Road Trip
Mom recommends:
Back
Seat Travel Games Tin
For kids of all ages. A travel
tins with various activities. Comes with magnetic pieces & activity
cards. Hours of Fun!
Available at Amazon
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Back
Seat Survival Kit
From Klutz. A full-color book
of car activities, plus a game pad, and a vinyl pouch full of everything
you need Hours of Fun!
Available at Amazon
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