Car Sickness Stories
Learning to Drive with a Car Sick Toddler!
contributed by Anna-Maria K.Here in the UK it's the roundabouts that make life especially hard for parents of young children. I have so many friends whose little ones can't be in the car for more than 15 minutes without throwing up...
...though I've also got friends who drive their babies around in the car to get them to go to sleep. Everyone's different!.
For the past 6 months I've been learning to drive, and although I leave my son (he's 2) with a babysitter when I have my lessons, when my husband takes me out for driving practice my son usually has to come too. He's always been reasonably OK in the car, but this kind of 'practice driving' really makes him car sick, especially when I'm doing lots of roundabouts and manoeuvring. I tried motion sickness bands, but they're too big for his wrists and anyway he just pulls at them all the time. People say that most children grow out of being car sick, so I'm hoping that he'll be better by the time I pass my test!
Update:
I've passed my driving test! Now that I can drive we're spending a lot more time in the car than we used to. My son still has some problems with feeling car sick on long journeys. I deal with this by pulling over quite often. Just a few minutes stopped with the doors open for some fresh air helps a lot. And he has his own water bottle that he keeps next to his car seat so that he can have sips of water whenever he wants. Having his favorite music playing, or listening to a story CD seems to help too.
I've tried to get him to eat ginger biscuits but he really doesn't like the taste. He has breadsticks to eat in the car instead, but I'm not sure if they help or not.
Now my son is 3, for really long journeys (like when we go on holiday) I sometimes use Joy Rides pills. They're really easy to use, he just has to keep it in his mouth until it dissolves away. The list of ingredients looks a bit scary though, so I don't want to use them too often. Hopefully he'll completely grow out of getting car sick soon.
See also:
- Read other Motion Sickness Stories
- Read about Car Sickness Prevention, Remedies & Treatment
- Top 10 Tips for Preventing Motion Sickness when Traveling