Tips for Dealing with Carsickness in Kids

Carsickness is something that affects many young children and can turn fun outings into activities that you dread. My daughter started getting carsick around 18 months, and she would get sick on Every. Single. Car Ride.

If you’re caught by surprise, it can pretty much ruin your day. But fear not – once you learn the signs to look out for and the tips & tricks for handling it (or cleaning up after it), you can still enjoy a day out without it being much more than a hiccup.

And more good news is that many children outgrow it, so all those times you sat next to your child clutching a barf bag or washing puke out of the car seat cover (which is no easy feat) will one day become a distant memory – hopefully sooner rather than later.

Here are my tips, which will hopefully help another mom out there who is dealing with regular carsickness.

(Full disclosure: it primarily happened with my daughter when we were living in NYC with just one kid and driving only occasionally, so it was relatively easy to manage, if still annoying. Had we been living in a suburb where we had to drive alone with a young child throwing up frequently in the car, that would have been a different story and I’m honestly not sure what we would have done. We do now live in a suburb with the need to get in the car very frequently, including a 15-minute drive each way to/from daycare – thankfully my 4-year-old has grown out of her carsickness, and so far so good with my 20-month-old – but I’m definitely keeping my fingers crossed!)

Avoid Certain Foods Beforehand and Bring Tummy-Friendly Snacks

I’m not sure if this is scientifically proven, but many moms swear that dairy before a car ride can exacerbate carsickness in kids prone to it – and this is what I found as well for my daughter. If we avoided milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, regular cheese, mac & cheese, ice cream, etc., before a car trip, she was less likely to throw up. If she ate those items, she would throw up almost immediately upon starting the drive.

In addition to dairy, avoiding anything too heavy, rich or sweet is also a good idea. Instead, stick to light and rather bland foods – the types of things you’d give to a sick kid. Pre-car-ride breakfasts that worked well for us were toast with peanut butter, an English muffin or bagel with a little butter, bananas, applesauce, dry cereal, etc.

For the drive itself, I would also bring bland snacks – things that were neutral or a little on the salty side, and not too heavy – such as Cheerios, Kix, Chex, Goldfish, pretzels, crackers, applesauce pouches, plain mini bagels, etc. And I’d always have cold water on hand in one of these water bottles, which are insulated and stay cold for a long time if you add a couple ice cubes. I also experienced carsickness as a kid (and even as an adult), and these are things that help me too.

Time the Car Ride with Naps/Sleep

Whenever possible, try to time your car trip so that it aligns with times they’d normally be sleeping – naps or nighttime. A sleeping child is much less likely to be a vomiting child. I would often find myself singing the same lullaby over and over until my daughter would doze off, and then breathing a big sigh of relief when she finally fell asleep so I could relax a bit and stop worrying about whether she would throw up.

Crack the Window, Crank the A/C or Bring a Fan

Fresh or moving air can do wonders for carsickness. Cracking the window is best, but not always possible if you’re going fast on the highway or driving through an area with poor air quality. In those cases, keeping a steady stream of A/C can help too, especially since keeping cool can also help stave off carsickness. You can also bring a small personal fan to get moving air on your child if they like that – especially when they’re still rear-facing, since the A/C might not reach them as well. The fan can also check off the distractions box, since they may like holding it themselves and playing with it (be sure to get a kid-safe one, like the one linked with soft blades or one that encloses the blades like this one).

I always felt a lot worse if it would get stuffy or warm in the back seat, and once you start to get carsick, it’s an incredibly uncomfortable feeling that makes you want to crawl out of your skin – or at least your clothes. And speaking of which, sometimes dressing a child lightly so they don’t get too warm, and/or taking off their socks and shoes, can help too.

Sit in the Back Seat and Provide Distractions

Speaking of the back seat, it can be a big help to your child if you sit back there with them. It’s not ideal, but I didn’t return to the front seat until my daughter was over the age of 3 – including cramming myself in between her convertible car seat and my son’s infant car seat in our small Mazda SUV before we upgraded to the much roomier VW Atlas. Sitting in the back allowed me to provide distractions, offer water or snacks, sing to her, catch any vomit in a barf bag, and comfort her if she did throw up.

Distractions can go a long way in preventing carsickness. My husband & I once sang made-up verses of “Down by the Bay” for the entire 40-minute cab ride home from JFK airport to our apartment in Manhattan. This was during the height of our daughter’s carsickness, and she made it the entire way home without throwing up (which is no easy feat in a Manhattan taxi cab, where I often feel sick myself).

For some kids, letting them watching something on an iPad can help too; but for others, it can make their carsickness worse, so you have to experiment a little with your old child to see if it works. We found that with our daughter that it helped. I first noticed it on a trip to San Francisco when she was 2.5 and we were letting her watch Moana (her favorite movie at the time and the only thing she would watch) to prevent her from getting too antsy in long car rides, while we drove around the Bay Area visiting old friends. I realized at some point that she wasn’t throwing up, so after that we’d let her watch the iPad any time we were in the car and it seemed to provide her with needed distraction. (Pro Tip: Be sure to download your child’s favorite shows or movies while still at home with WiFi – I made that mistake once on an airplane, when I thought we had Moana since I had purchased it, but I hadn’t also downloaded it, and the airplane WiFi wasn’t powerful enough to run it without constantly freezing – CUE MELTDOWN.)

Learn the Signs and Keep Barf Bags Handy

After catching vomit in a Muslin blanket a couple times (which went directly into the trash upon arriving at our destination), I decided to invest in official barf bags from Amazon – or “emesis bags” as they are medically known. These plastic bags with a hard plastic rim are great for catching your child’s vomit, and the seal top prevents them from leaking in your car (for the most part, anyway – I mean, don’t toss it onto the floor upside-down) and largely contain the smell (you will still want to crack the window and throw this thing out the first chance you get). They always live in our car, in the diaper bag, and in my purse so it’s easy to grab one when you need it.

Once you can identify the signs that your child is about to throw up, it becomes a lot easier to at least prevent the mess (by the time the signs happen, it’s usually too late to avoid it). With my daughter, I noticed that she would start to get fussy and a bit squirmy, and when she coughed, she would often puke very soon after. I would be sitting next to her in the back seat, clutching a barf bag with white knuckles, and once the cough happened, I would shove the bag up to her mouth and would often be able to catch it all. I say “shove” because in her earlier toddlerhood she would try to fight the bag, pushing it away, and you really don’t want that to happen at the moment the vomit happens. Sometimes I had to gently tip her head forward too, because young kids don’t know to do that. One time on a cross-country flight, my husband was sitting next to her on an airplane, and even though he got the barf bag up in time during landing, she vomited with her head straight up and pretty much all of it dribbled straight down onto her and the seat [insert emoji with hand covering face here].

When my daughter got a little older, around age 2.5, we practiced using the barf bag with her at times when we weren’t in the car. She understood it better at that point, so even though she couldn’t quite hold it herself in the moment, she at least wouldn’t fight it and would invite it instead. Now at age 4, she rarely if ever throws up in the car, and since I sit in the front or am driving, I make sure she has a bag handy and tell her to hold it up to her mouth if she’s feeling sick, which she does willingly.

Bring Cleanup Supplies + Change of Clothes

Even if you know the signs and are doing all the tips & tricks and have the barf bags ready, it’s not always possible to prevent all vomit messes. Always always have at least one change of clothes for your child in the diaper bag, preferably two if you’re not going straight home after the return car trip (and a spare top for you is never a bad idea either, in case they turn toward you for comfort). If your child is a frequent car vomiter and you want them to wear a particular outfit for the day, have them wear the spare clothes in the car and bring the nice clothes with you. We once went to a birthday party in Brooklyn, and even though it was only a 20-minute ride and I thought we were in the clear, my daughter threw up as we were turning onto the block, about to get out. She was wearing her cute party outfit, and the spare clothes I had brought for her were subpar. Not the end of the world, but we were both a little disappointed that she couldn’t wear what we had picked out together for the day.

When putting together the spare clothes, bring ALL the items – top, bottom, accessories, undies, socks, even shoes. It is possible they will projectile vomit, as happened one time with my daughter – she kind of lurched forward and hit everything chest to toes. It also happened once that my daughter puked right after we got out of the car when we also thought we were in the clear, so it went straight down onto her entire body. Oh yeah, and tie their hair back in the car – for obvious reasons!

It’s also helpful to have a bunch of necessary cleaning supplies stashed in your trunk or back seat to clean up any messes. We keep extra wipes, paper towels, and garbage bags, as well as a couple extra bottles of water in case more than a wipe is needed.

Resort to Meds and Other Gimmicks

Nothing working? Here are a few other things you can try…

• Check with your pediatrician, but ours had recommended Children’s Benadryl for long trips (you don’t want to use it for short trips, because it can make them drowsy), and at a certain age, Dramamine may be safe too. We never ended up using it, but I’ve heard from other parents of carsick kids that it has helped.

• There are also Sea Bands that some people swear by. I bought them for my daughter but she wouldn’t keep them on in the car, so I never had a chance to find out if they worked.

• Another thing you could try is lollipops like these, which are supposed to help with upset tummies due to motion sickness. My mom had given me some to try with my daughter that were a sour fruit flavored lollipop – probably similar to the kinds of sour hard candies I sucked on while pregnant and experiencing morning sickness – but I never ended up trying them, because she was starting to outgrow her carsickness by then, and I knew that if I said she could have a lollipop in the car if she was feeling sick, she would abuse that policy and ask for a lollipop on EVERY car ride. (You know your own kid, so try at your own risk.)

• Turning your child’s convertible car seat around to be forward-facing can also help, if they’re of an age and weight that makes it safe (check with your pediatrician). We weren’t comfortable turning our daughter’s car seat around until she was 3, but if we had been living in a suburb and driving alone frequently, we might have had tried it a little sooner (after age 2, per the law). Some people report that it didn’t make a difference for their child, but it definitely did for ours – she threw up a lot less after she began facing forward. It makes sense to me, since I’m not able to sit backward on any kind of moving vehicle without feeling sick. It also makes it easier to help your child if you’re in the front seat, since you can reach back to hand them a barf bag or even help them hold it up to their mouth, or give them a snack or water.

Carsickness can be a really difficult thing to deal with and can feel very stressful, especially for us moms who are often the ones sitting in back and dealing with a vomiting and upset child. But try not to let it prevent you from going on fun family trips and creating nice memories. The more you deal with it, the easier it becomes – like so many parenting things. Maybe you’ll even laugh about those carsick memories one day! And remember: at the end of the day, it’s just a smelly mess that can be cleaned up, and there’s a bath and washing machine waiting for you on the other end.