The Best Products for Motion Sickness and Car Sick Kids

Nothing ends the excitement of a road trip quicker than a car sick kid, am I right!? Two of my three kids get horrible motion sickness, and while we still stress about it every time we're heading to the car, we have found a few hacks to help prevent car sickness, as well as some products that help make the occasional vomit a little easier to deal with. Being the mommy blogger I am, I'm happy to share those tips with you now (and hope you'll leave a comment with your own advice!!).

Disclaimer: This post contains some affiliate links - you won't spend more but we'll get a small commission from purchases made through our links.

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Sea-Bands
Whether or not you believe in alternative medicine and acupressure, this is worth a shot! It works for many women for morning sickness, and is a very popular prevention of motion sickness in children and adults on the sea, in the air, and on the road. You can find them for as little as $6.56 for children or adults on Amazon (affiliate links). These work great for my kids, and they enjoy wearing them (my daughter got pink camo and my son got green camo), you may want to stock up on an extra pair or two per kid because we tend to lose ours frequently.

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Dramamine
Dramamine is an anti-nausea medicine so talk to your pediatrician before giving this to your child. It makes my children pretty drowsy the entire day, and when my son got to be about 6 years old he started refusing to take it, saying it made him feel sicker than the car did. Feeling terribly, I stopped giving it to both of my kids. But, it's an option and in my experience does work pretty well especially when giving it to them before getting in the car. You can get 1 pack of 8 grape flavored chewables for ages 2-12 years for $4.88, or 1 pack of 8 orange flavored chewables for kids and adults for $4.35 on Amazon (affiliate link)

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Anti-Motion Sickness Glasses
Now, we haven't tried these yet but they seem to be the new thing! With liquid in the lense-free glasses (so you can wear them on top of your own glasses), they provide a permanent horizon and supposedly can CURE motion sickness within minutes of putting them on!! I'm planning to get us a couple of pairs to try out soon, and I'll update this post if/when we do!! They seem to go for between $10 (Amazon affiliate link) to $110 (for the original SEETROËN Glasses)

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Candy & Aroma Therapy
Smelling or eating mint, ginger, citrus / sour items can help with morning sickness as well as motion sickness. You may need to experiment to see what works best for your child, but my 6 year old has recently found chewing mint gum to be a huge help. He doesn't ever get gum, so I think it also acts as a fun distraction! When pregnant, I used to find sour patch kids (affiliate link) helped with my queasiness, and have heard this can help kids in the car as well. Try out some different candies or essential oils and let us know what you or your child find helpful!

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Vomit Bags
Sometimes, no matter what you do, your child will vomit. So, you have to be prepared and we've found these vomit bags (affiliate link) to be so easy to keep in the glove compartment or your carry-on bag on the plane! They stack flat, then you can quickly pull one out, hand it to your kid, from about 3 or 4 years they can use without assistance thanks to the hard plastic ring at the top, then twist and pinch shut til you get to a garbage! Sure... they're wasteful, but if using motion sickness preventative measures, you won't have to use them often. 

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Other tips:

• Be careful what foods and drinks your child has before and during travel. Dairy can make the tummy upset, not to mention it is horrifically smelly and gross when thrown up. Oily and fatty foods should also be avoided. Think simple, healthy, possibly salty foods. Pretzels are a popular car snack for my kids.
• I've found that my kids tend to get more car sick when holding their own tablets, and less car sick when I place one in front of them and out of their reach. Maybe it's something about looking straight ahead instead of down? Not to mention it's safer in the case of an accident to have tablets secured. You can search for various types of head rest tablet holders here (affiliate link).
• I'm not sure there's a soul out there who doesn't know this, but just in case, I must note that looking out the window (especially looking straight ahead at the horizon or far distance), or sleeping, are great ways to prevent or end car sickness. If you have just one child, the best bet is likely for them to sit in the middle seat so they can see out the front window best (not to mention this is the safest seat in the case of a side collision.
  
• My oldest child, however, has started to request the side seat because he's found fresh air and open window to bring him great relief.

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Our favorite products for preventing and dealing with car sick kids:

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