Dealing with car sickness was an ongoing theme in our family. I still feel my middle brother did it for the attention. But whatever the root course, me and my eldest brother had to contend with buckets being passed around, window rolled down, awful smells and journeys from hell. So it is surely some sort of retribution that I now have two of my children who suffer from car sickness and ironically, now find that I suffer from motion sickness – just going on a swing with my children can set me off.
It seems car sickness is a common problem among 3-12 year olds. It happens when the body, inner ear and eyes experience motion in different ways and send conflicting messages to the brain. The result is feelings of nausea, dizziness or vomiting. My six-year-old only has to go over a few speed bumps and around a few corners before she starts looking green. It seems the smoother the car ride the more likely she is to be sick.
If we’re going on a long family journey I now give her a “Joyride”, a chewable tablet which contains hyoscine hydrobromide. This is thought to help by blocking the messages sent to an area of the brain which in turn sends nerve messages to the stomach causing vomiting. We allow her to sit in the front (airbag switch off) with plenty of distractions, which usually means singing along very loudly to the soundtrack of ‘The Sound of Music’. Distraction, whether it’s singing, chatting or telling a story, plus plenty of cold air focused on her face definitely helps. By the time we get to our destination, my husband (who has been doing all the driving and having to chat inanely with a six year old for three hours) complains about a blinding headache and how stressful family life is.
So here are some of our top tips:
• No reading in the car. Focusing on a page while moving sends mixed messages to the brain which cause motion sickness.
• Don’t smoke in the car and avoid wearing or eating anything with a pungent smell.
• Try travelling at night or early morning when children are more likely to sleep through the journey.
• Eat a light snack such as crackers or fruit and avoid eating a big meal beforehand and no fizzy drinks.
• If possible keep windows open so that fresh air is circulating.
• Keep children occupied, talk to them, tell stories, sing.
• Make sure they can see out of the window.
• If they start to feel unwell, ask them to pick out a landmark on the horizon and keep watching it. Looking into the distance sends a message to the brain that they are moving and can help ease any feelings of nausea.
Some other remedies you may want to try:
• Sitting on brown paper or newspapers. (Newspapers have worked for us on the odd occasion)
• Wristbands that use a stud to exert pressure on an acupuncture point can help alleviate motion sickness.
• Take a look at www.purpleturtle.co.uk for a whole range of remedies from ginger queasy pops to orange modelling dough combined with essential oils which are inhaled and absorbed through the skin. The oils then help to settle tummies and alleviate feelings of sickness. The orange colour helps to balance and realign the energy centres that are out of harmony.
• Over the counter tablets – Joyrides works for us.
• Ginger biscuits.

PS. My brother did grow out of it and now spends his time travelling as far away from us as possible!