Tips for Preventing Car Sickness for Kids During Trips

Motion sickness is a familiar woe for drivers, especially those who frequently travel with kids. It single-handedly turns family trips into long and tedious car rides as the children quickly become restless.

Thankfully, nausea, dizziness, and other symptoms can be prevented with strategic planning and minimal adjustments.

How to Prevent Kids From Being Car Sick

There are ways you can prevent your children from getting motion sickness. It usually involves proper entertainment, better ventilation, medication, and the right diet.

Avoid Screens

Cybersickness has similar effects to motion sickness, but it doesn’t involve movement. It’s mostly due to a mismatch in sensory input involving the visual and vestibular system.

This is when your eyes (visual system) tell your brain there’s movement, but the vestibular system signals everything is steady.

The mismatch is one of the primary reasons for motion sickness inside the car, especially since kids tend to look at screens or read books during the trip. As such, they should avoid using their phones or tablets inside a moving vehicle.

Listen to Music or Audiobooks

Entertainment is usually a necessity when driving with kids. But as mentioned above, screen time should be lessened to limit motion sickness. Keep them engaged by playing music, podcasts, or audiobooks.

Have Them Look Outside

A kid that’s more prone to motion sickness should sit in the middle seat to have them look up and out the windshield.

You can also play games to keep everybody entertained. Some classic car games to keep them distracted and focused outside include the license plate game, scavenger hunt, and counting cows.

Plan Pre-trip Meals

It might be best to plan your pre-trip meals if you’re going on long road trips. Greasy and spicy food isn’t good for children since it could result in an uneasy stomach because they’re slower to digest.

Feed them small portions of natural food. Crackers, ginger, apples, bananas, and nuts are easy to digest and pack protein and starch. Apples, in general, help reduce nausea-inducing chemicals in the stomach.

Eat Bland Snacks

It’s normal to get hungry during long road trips. In this case, it’s best to pack bland snacks, such as crackers. As much as possible, avoid feeding them chocolate or anything too sweet.

Refined sugar can feed opportunistic bacteria not meant to be in the digestive tract, which may induce motion sickness.

Better Air Ventilation

Proper ventilation helps fight motion sickness, especially if someone’s starting to feel ill. It also removes odors inside the cabin that might induce motion sickness.

Opening the window or going outside for a few minutes should stave off nausea.

Use Medication

There are over-the-counter medicines that prevent motion sickness. You can always ask your pediatrician for the appropriate medication. Some common ones include antihistamine, dimenhydrinate, and diphenhydramine.

Read the label to see the best time to take the medicine. They’re usually more effective when consumed an hour before the trip. Do note that drowsiness is a common side effect.

Use Pressure Bands or Patches

You can also use pressure bands or patches to treat motion sickness. While they may not be as effective as medicine, they often work well enough to limit the common symptoms.

There are available kids’ motion sickness patches online. However, note that some of them only work for children 12 years old and above.

Scopolamine skin patches are an example of a medicine alternative for kids that don’t like swallowing pills. You stick them behind your ear four hours before traveling. However, these only work for adults, so it’s best to consult your pediatrician first.

Let Them Sleep

Letting the kids sleep during the trip is also an effective method to prevent motion sickness. This is because the systems that cause car sickness aren’t working. The medication listed above should keep them asleep, especially if they’re not non-drowsy.

You can also plan ahead of time and travel during the night to coincide with their sleeping schedule.

What Is Motion Sickness and What Causes It?

Motion sickness is triggered by movement, making it common when riding cars, buses, trains, planes, or boats. Elders and children between 5 and 12 suffer from it more often. As mentioned, it’s caused by a mismatch between the visual and vestibular systems.

It’s essentially an imbalance between what you see and what you feel. It’s common in vehicles because they’re moving while your body is still.

Symptoms of Motion Sickness

Some of the common symptoms of motion sickness include the following:

• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Pale skin
• Headache
• Cold sweat
• Dizziness
• Irritability
• Increased saliva
• Rapid breathing
• Inability to concentrate

If you notice any of the symptoms above, it’s advised to stop the car and let the passenger get some fresh air. Give them medication or water if you’re unable to. This should help them get over motion sickness momentarily.

The Bottomline

Car sickness is a type of motion sickness commonly felt by elders and kids aged 5 to 12. It’s caused by an imbalance or mismatch between the visual and vestibular systems. Some symptoms to look out for include nausea, vomiting, and headaches, among others.

Thankfully, there are ways to prevent motion sickness. You can have your children avoid using their phones or tablets and have them listen to music instead. Similarly, there are medications you can buy over the counter to combat motion sickness.