Motion sickness tips for kids

Double tap if your toddler has experienced motion sickness 🚗

Motion sickness while on the road is a horrible experience. There’s no way around it after it occurs. The car seat stinks, your toddler stinks, and everyone is miserable.

This week on PedsDocTalk TV 📺 I go over everything about motion sickness from why it even happens to how can we help our toddlers when it occurs, like environmental modifications, alternative therapies, and medications that can be used to relieve symptoms.

What is motion sickness? ➡️The exact cause of motion sickness is not fully understood, but it is believed to be a result of conflicting signals sent to the brain by the body’s sensory systems.
The inner ear plays a significant role in motion sickness, as it is responsible for detecting the body’s position and movement in space. For example, when you are in a car, the vehicle is moving, but you are still, perhaps on your book or tablet. Your inner ear detects you are moving but your visual system is fixated on a book or iPad in the car ➡️ CUE nausea. This concept is really important to understand, especially when it comes to remedies and things to try to help our kiddos with motion sickness.

So what can we do? Here are some short tips I’ve gathered from the PedsDocTalk community.

➡️Increase the airflow in the car by opening windows, vents or even using a handheld fan.
➡️ Sniff an alcohol pad, which is great for pregnancy nausea too, by the way!
➡️ Consider keeping the car at a cooler temperature this can help the feeling of nausea.
➡️ Try to plan longer drives for when kids are sleeping. I’m okay with this as motion sickness impacts older toddlers and not newborns/infants (for newborns and infants, we’d want check-ins if they’re sleeping in a car seat).

For more on remedies for toddler motion sickness check out my Youtube 📺 Channel, and don’t forget to subscribe.

How do you help your toddler (or yourself) with motion sickness? 👇🏽