Q&A: rear-facing toddler carsickness

Jessica writes:

"Hello! Thank you very much for having such a helpful blog--I refer to it often, especially when we're suffering from sleep or teething troubles.  I have a question that I just can't find an answer to. My 16-month-old daughter is still rear-facing in the car (she's 18.5 pounds), and we're hoping to keep her that way as long as we can. However, she's been getting carsick whenever we travel for more than a half hour or so. Yesterday, I had a feeling she was about to "pop"--the car was warm and sunny, and she was crying a little bit--not mad, "I WANT OUT" crying, just "I don't like this" crying. So we opened her window a crack and tried to cool down the car with the A/C. It didn't work--without fail our car smelled like yogurt. Also, before we got in the car, we took off her coat and pulled her sun shades down to keep her cool(ish) and to keep the sun off of her face. Do you have any better ideas on how to keep her stomach contents down when traveling? (My husband and MIL think the only way to fix this is to turn her around--but I'd really like to avoid that.)  Thanks very much!"

I have no idea. Truly. I get carsick myself sometimes, and have no cure for that. And since I don't have a car, I really don't have any good advice for people who drive all the time. (I have lots of good tiips for taking kids on the subway, though.)

Readers? You must have some magic cure. Or is this some thing people just suffer through that I never knew about?

Comments

[k[betterboxing]]

This happens sometimes with my 2.5 year old [who is still rearfacing, swedish style]. Yes, keep her cool, and also if you can, dont time the journeys so that you will be in the car right after a big meal. Make sure she can see out of the side/back window if possible, and then point out things on the road that she can see. "The car behind us, it is red, there is a lady in the car, etc" In my experience the key to avoid car sickness is to keep your eyes on the outside world. Of course it also helps if you drive quietly and consistantly. Lots of lanechanging and acceleration/decceleration can be quite upsetting in the back... Good luck!

[Melis]

We never really had trouble with this, but maybe something like a ginger cookie either right before or while you are driving might help-my inlaws took a ferry from Anchorage to Sitka, Alaska and one of the people on the ferry handed out ginger snaps to everyone to help prevent motion sickness. My mother-in-law swears by them now anytime she travels.

[Katherine]

I've read that antihistamines are effective for preventing motion sickness. Obviously, you can't do that everyday, but for occasional long trips it might be an option. Ask your pediatrician about the appropriate dose of benadryl.

[Rachel]

Mythbusters proved ginger pills to be effective against motion sickness. I would assume gingersnaps, ale, etc. to have some effectiveness, too. Worth a try!

[J]

What about putting her in the seat without a jacket? You could bring her to the car in it, then take it off before you strap her in. Also, I am sure there is some battery operated fan that you could attach someplace in the back to keep her air circulated and keep her cool. Good Luck! Doesn't sound like fun. :(

[Elizabeth]

We live on an island and one of my sons used to get sick on the ferry quite a bit and on curvy roads. I bought motion sickness bracelets (sea bands they're called) which have worked wonders. They come in kid sizes too. I first started using these when my son was old enough to understand that the bracelet was supposed to help so I cannot be sure that the bracelet really worked or that he just felt like it did because we told him it would. Good luck.

[Lee]

We had the same problem and moving to the forward facing car seat did the trick. I'm not sure why you are anxious to keep using the rear facing seat. Everything has been so much easier for our son and ourselves with the seat forward facing. They can see more of what is going on and I think feel a little less trapped.

[wookie]

I would also second the ginger pills, and a lot of the other commenters.

I would encourage you to talk to a car-seat safety person (maybe at your local police station?) about why the rear-facing-20lbs/1year rule is the way it is. If it's an issue of muscle control (and to be honest, I was under the impression it was) then you 16 month old probably (barring CP or other muscular control issues) has the body strength to be forward facing and it sounds like she'd be a LOT more comfortable that way. I know as a parent we need to consider safety first, but it may be that the reason that rear-facing rule is in effect is no longer particularly applicable to your child, in which case you could turn the seat around with no worries :-)

Hope you find a solution that works for you!

[Jennie]

I am very sensitive to motion sickness and aside from Bonine (an OTC motion sickness medication--you could ask your pediatrician if there is something similar for children) what helps me is to close my eyes so that I cannot see everything passing by so quickly...I am not sure if your daughter would follow a direction like that yet however. When I was a child, I always used to fall asleep in the car as a way to combat my motion sickness.

[Nancy]

Turn her around! Yikes, the poor kid!

[carmie]

Rear-facing is much, MUCH safer than forward-facing. It's not an issue of muscle control. Little kids have larger heads in proportion to their bodies than do adults, so if they are involved in a crash, that extra weight will pull their necks forward much harder. Check out www.thecarseatlady.com for some good reading.

That being said, I get horrendous carsickness if I face backwards or sit in the back seat. I can definitely sympathize! Sometimes I can't even turn around to talk to my son without getting nauseated. Having a window cracked helps a lot, as do ginger Altoids.

I had to turn my son around right at the 12 month mark because he was almost 36 inches tall, which was too tall for his rear-facing seat. If he were shorter, I would have kept him rear-facing a lot longer.

[Amy]

My son is no longer a toddler, but he does get car sick... we keep the window rolled ALL the way down for him whenever possible... even in the blistering Houston heat. For him, it's not about staying cool as much as having air circulate around him. He'd take blast-furnace August air whipping around him to stave off the nausea over the ice-cold A/C anyday. Just a thought.

[Chesney]

Gingersnaps or any other ginger cookie, works for both kids and adults.

[Rosemary Grace]

The bracelets are called travel bands, if you google for them you should find a site that sells them. I don't know if they come in that small a size though, I first used one when I was 9 years old and it's amazing how well it works. It has a little button that presses on a pressure point in your wrist and reduces nausea. I'm told they also work for morning sickness.

[ellen landrum]

I understand that rear facing is safer- way safer. But carsickness is awful, truly awful. I get seasick and carsick- esp. if I'm inside a rocky boat (we live on our boat) and can't see the horizo, or if I'm reading/looking down in the car. Ginger helps enormously. But really, I hate to be bad mommy, but I feel like Sophie (my 14 month old who also seems prone to motion sickness) is in a REALLY safe car seat (Britax roundabout), with a tether, properly installed, harness cinched up tight in the center of the car (where she can see out and get circulation from the A/C). She is really about as safe as she's going to be.

I always loved car trips as a kid, with music and the opportunity to zone out. I would strive to keep your daughter from associating the car with getting sick. That's just my two cents!

[Anne]

We don't have to deal with carsickness thankfully but despite knowing full well that rear facing is safer (to 30 lbs. and if I'm remembering correctly it is due to their pelvis - stronger at the age they make about 30 lbs. so if they are in a accident the pelvis holds up better) but we had a screamer. Turned my son around at about 14 months and we've all been much happier. but this is a decision I made after much thought about my driving habits and serious consideration of the pros and cons.

[Bethiclaus]

I have a very small one-year-old and we also are keeping her rear-facing until she's at least 20 pounds, although possibly longer. We haven't suffered with motion sickness yet, but I'm finding it hard to believe that true motion sickness would be resolved simply by turning forward.

I would try the sea bands. I use them for seasickness and they seem to work wonders.

[erin]

Maybe some natural ginger-ale in a sippy cup? The bubbles and ginger always help my stomach. We turned our daughter at one year because she HATED the car seat. Now she fights sitting down, but that's because she's a toddler :O

[caro]

I have no idea how this translates into treating your toddler or if it is just a crackpot theory I've dreamed up, but I am a hard-core carsick person and the severity of it seems to correlate with the balance of carbs and protein I've eaten that day. Toast and jam in the morning with no protein = nasty carsickness. Toast with egg = much better. Eggs, no toast = sick sick sick. Maybe you could pay attention to that kind of thing for a while and see if there's a combo that seems to help?

[Kathy B.]

well -- the 'rear-facing for as long as possibler' rule is relatively new (not in effect when my child was young) so I have a different perspective. As someone still prone to car-sickness (age = over 40) I would turn her around to face the front.

[Brooke]

First, good for you for keeping her rearfacing. It is much safer (and at 18.5 lbs you can't legally turn her anyway). Have you tried installing the seat more upright? Once kids have good head control, they don't need the 45* angle anymore. That might help her see out the windows.

You can also check out car-seat.org which has message boards with some good advice on all things carseat related.

[k[betterboxing]]

For more info on the Swedish rules/results see here:
http://www.physorg.com/news78663976.html
http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html
Children in Sweden are rearfacing untill they are 4, most move straight from a rearfacing seat to a booster seat - and they have less than one carseat death per year. It seems to me that it could be worth it to look for other solutions to the carsickness.
*steps of soapbox*
:)

[Allison]

I've been a life long sufferer of motion sickness.

The ginger snaps might help. A bottle or sippy cup of ice water might help too. I know the second I start to get too warm, I'll blow and the ice or cold water might help keep her cool from the inside. I don't go anywhere as a passenger without my sports bottle full of ice.

Another trick is singing. It's a distractionary technique. Since motion sickness is primarily caused by the disconnect of what the eyes are telling the brain and what the middle ear is telling the brain, getting a child singing or telling a story keeps the brain busy. You might have to suffer through interminable rounds of the A-B-C song, but you might have fewer clothing changes. Even now, if my husband notices that green look on my face in the car, he puts in a cd that I like and cranks the air conditioning.

Good luck to you and your daughter! Carsickness is no fun at all.

[Hillary]

Dramamine
I have given it to my daughter for two years now. Check with your doctor about dosage. For us, it was half a chewable tablet.

Life saver. She is happy. We are happy.

As an adult I also suffer from it. Non of those other remadies ever helped me, sorry to say. Good luck!

[dot]

We just discovered that my toddler loves candied ginger (we get it in the dried fruit section), that would be something else to try that would be a little higher dose of ginger than a cookie.

[Portlairge]

I have no advice on the car sickness- sorry.
This link is the reason I will try and keep my son rear facing as long as possible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRP7ynNI8mI

[kate]

I have to say I agree with those who suggest to turn her around- of course ensuring that she is in a proper carseat or booster with a 5 point harness, and not an adult seatbelt under any circumstances.
With much unfortunate experience of carsickness myself, I definitely think facing backwards is a major contributor.
I think sometimes you need to weigh up what is the increase in the risk of injury in front and rear facing, versus what is the increase in risk of having an accident due to constant crying, need to distract etc in the car...

[ALG]

I get carsick very easily, so as a kid, I used to get to claim shotgun, where I would spend the entire trip staring out the front window, focusing on the horizon. I don't know if you can do this without obstructing your own rear view, but you might want to put a mirror in so your child can "see" out the front window.

Mint candies also helped, but sucking on sugary candies is frowned-upon nutritionally these days (as well it should).

I empathize.

[Sara]

My daughter did this until we turned her seat around. She would barf after 20 minutes in the car, without fail (unless it was straight highway driving). After another 20 minutes, she would barf again. And so on. Nothing helped - we just got in the habit of bringing paper towels and rags with us, and one of us would sit in the back with her and bring up a towel as soon as she gave the Warning Cough. I second the recommendation of trying to schedule long trips to coincide with sleeping. (Nighttime is a tough call - the headlights can be very disruptive to sleeping, but the darkness cuts out the visual cues that cause nausea when they contradict the cues from the inner ear.) Also, don't give the kid anything to eat before the trip that you really don't want to see coming up again...

[Helena Atkinson]

I would not turn her forward. A sick child is better than a dead child, and in an accident she is five times safer in a rear facing seat. In Sweden you will find that the only child deaths you have are children in forward facing car seats. In an accident, the force on the neck is equivalent to 300kg when forward facing, compared to 50kg when rear facing. Being car sick is horrible but being injured or worse in a collision is worse.

[Melissa]

I think it is funny. My son didn't start getting car sick UNTIL we turned him around to face forward. JUST a THOUGHT!

[Denise]

Our daughter just started doing this at 2 1/2 years old. She is still rear facing, and we have 'just' moved her from the middle seat to the side because she is having a sister in a few weeks! We took a long trip/backroad to the beach and she threw up twice. We 'did' flip the seat forward for the rest of the drive, but are putting it back rear for regular trips around the city to see if it was the position or just the backroads and long drive. At 30 months I figure we 'could' forward face for longer trip backroad trips if it helps her feel better.
In your case, I would do as the others say. Try not to leave after a big meal, and maybe have her snack on some soda crackers or ginger before, and lots of distractions during the drive. (our daughter loves to read, which may have also triggered the sickness) I guess you just need to do what you can and balance your options. And always listen to your gut, not other people on your educated decisions!

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