We have been very, very, very fortunate that neither of the kids have puked in the car. I have one that gets queasy but can hold things together if he doesn't read. DS2 can't even watch a movie in the car without feeling miserable. He already hates long car rides and being sick makes it 10 times worse. I use the motion sickness bands, all ginger chews/hard candies, peppermint, cracking the windows, and for our next car trip I'm upping my bag of tools to include Dramamine. DS2 barely made it an hour for our last trip before he got sick.

Yes mine started getting car sick at that age. He’s 4 and still gets sick. But it does get easier. I swear by kids Dramamine. I have a case of half pills in my purse. You get better at gauging when to give it. For day care drop off no. For the 6 hour ride to grandmas yes. As a rule of thumb, any long ride in a car that is not ours, yes. Before air travel, yes (he doesn’t get air sick but just in case, plus there is typically a long car ride after an airplane so why not). I’ve also trained my kid to not require an iPad in the car. We talk, listen to the music, and he will nap for a little. The 6-8 hours to grandma in Charlotte is his max. The 4 hours to grandma in Pennsylvania is a breeze. DH doesn’t follow these rules and DS still throws up in his car (which is also low riding- think Audi). Whereas it has been over two years since any throw up accident in my car (high riding SUV).

It's common that carsickness suddenly kicks in sometime between 1 and 3 as their balance improves. Pre-walkers, e.g., rarely get car sick. (It happens, but is much less common.)

It does get better. As DD1 got older she started checking in with DD2 to see if she was feeling okay to give us an update. Eventually DD2 got old enough to let us know when she wasn’t feeling good, which was great. Recommend the motion sickness bands and always being ready to take an exit. You can also put a plastic poncho on them or nearby. To give you hope, my DD who used to get sick anytime we were in the car for more than 15 minutes outgrew it by age 9-10. She will once in a while get nauseous, but hasn’t thrown up in a while. We still will take an exit when she’s nauseous, but it’s so much better than before!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, my son did. I remember him puking on a 45-minute trip to Great Country Farms. Thank goodness we brought a change of clothes. He's 8 and still gets car sick.

How do you handle car trips now? What has helped?

sea bands (not sure if these work, but we still use them)
a/c going
windows opened
a little ginger ale/sprite (i think it was the excitement of having soda helped him feel better.)
Dramamine works best.

For us, puking started a month before he turned 2. He's now nearing 3 and still puking. I generally sit in the back with him and hold the puke bowl. He usually feels better afterwards. We don't feed him anything heavy before longer car rides (just have him snack on crackers or toast) and always bring a change of clothes and old towels. He refuses to wear sea bands unfortunately.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids also developed motion sickness around 2 in both planes and cars. We use the sea bands acupressure bands on both of them and carry a vomit kit of a an old kitchen towel to drape over their chests and lots of gallon ziplock bags for catching puke and dirty clothes, etc... The kit also contains wipes, paper towels and extra clothes. Happily our older one seems to be growing out of it. She's 7 now and things have been better since around 6/6.5.

The younger one we have seated in the middle seat of the back seat so she can see out the front better, which helps a lot.

OP here, and... do you just get used to the puking? Do the kids start knowing when they're going to get sick and can hold the bags themselves? Do they always feel better after puking and is the rest of the trip fine?

I get really stressed out now on car trips because it's often just me in the car with my 2 boys in the back and there's no way I can drive and catch puke at the same time!

They definitely get better at it, but it's HARD when you're alone in the car with the puking kids. And yes, they/you just get used to it. The gallon ziplock bags have a bit of structure so it's easier for the kid to get the puke in the bag. I have a friend who gives her kid reused takeout containers because that's easier for her kid. I'd recommend the sea bands + encouraging them to look out the windows (be sure to tell them to look at the trees/buildings and not at other moving cars) + feeding them light/simple food when you have a long trip ahead of you + windows open for a bit of air when they start to feel bad or air conditioning on. One of the first symptoms of motion sickness is feeling hot and cooling off helps.

Usually the puking helps them to fell better. If one of our kid starts complaining we try to get off at the next exit and stop for just a minute or two. Unloading kids out of the car sucks, but a few minutes of stable ground can often help and it's better than having to stop 10 minutes later to clean up vomit!

Anonymous wrote:Our kids also developed motion sickness around 2 in both planes and cars. We use the sea bands acupressure bands on both of them and carry a vomit kit of a an old kitchen towel to drape over their chests and lots of gallon ziplock bags for catching puke and dirty clothes, etc... The kit also contains wipes, paper towels and extra clothes. Happily our older one seems to be growing out of it. She's 7 now and things have been better since around 6/6.5.

The younger one we have seated in the middle seat of the back seat so she can see out the front better, which helps a lot.

OP here, and... do you just get used to the puking? Do the kids start knowing when they're going to get sick and can hold the bags themselves? Do they always feel better after puking and is the rest of the trip fine?

I get really stressed out now on car trips because it's often just me in the car with my 2 boys in the back and there's no way I can drive and catch puke at the same time!

Our kids also developed motion sickness around 2 in both planes and cars. We use the sea bands acupressure bands on both of them and carry a vomit kit of a an old kitchen towel to drape over their chests and lots of gallon ziplock bags for catching puke and dirty clothes, etc... The kit also contains wipes, paper towels and extra clothes. Happily our older one seems to be growing out of it. She's 7 now and things have been better since around 6/6.5.

The younger one we have seated in the middle seat of the back seat so she can see out the front better, which helps a lot.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, my son did. I remember him puking on a 45-minute trip to Great Country Farms. Thank goodness we brought a change of clothes. He's 8 and still gets car sick.

How do you handle car trips now? What has helped?

Yes, my son did. I remember him puking on a 45-minute trip to Great Country Farms. Thank goodness we brought a change of clothes. He's 8 and still gets car sick.

DS has been a pretty good car traveler, but all of a sudden he starts complaining of a tummy ache when we're about 15-20 minutes into a drive.

He's been facing forward for about 10 months so it's not that.

Anyone else's kid suddenly start getting car sick at around 2.5?

If so, was it just a phase?