When kids find car driving sucks - travel sickness and what parents can do about it

Holiday season is travel time and especially families with children like to travel by car. You stay flexible and can take everything you need. However, many children do not enjoy driving and react with nausea and vomiting. Remedy various measures.

Travel sickness, also known as kinetosis, mainly affects children between the ages of three and twelve. The little ones get sick, they moan and complain and in the worst case they start vomiting. If home remedies fail, only the medication or other means of travel remains.

How motion sickness arises

As a rule, children are particularly ill when they travel by car or plane. Seasickness is also a form of motion sickness. Symptoms that can range from mild nausea to severe vomiting are the unfamiliar and rocking movements. These bring the equilibrium organ in the inner ear completely out of rhythm, because the eye is no longer with these movements. The brain is overstimulated and the body reacts to the contradictory signals in its typical way. While babies and the elderly over 50 years are mostly immune, younger adults and especially children are often very violent. A mystery to science is why women and girls are significantly more affected by motion sickness. Researchers suspect a link between the female hormone balance.

Measures for the prevention of travel sickness in children

So that the motion sickness does not even arise, you can take preventive measures. This helps especially if your child shows only mild symptoms:

• The main cause of motion sickness are the contradictory signals that are delivered to the brain, so the driver is almost never bad.
• Talk to your child about the ride and include it in the ride. Share with, when and why you brake and warn you of turns and gradients.
• Do not start right after a luscious meal, the last meal should be low in fiber and fats.
  Constant chewing can prevent the symptoms.
• Provide your child with low-sugar and low-calorie snacks such as carrots, rice waffles, wholegrain biscuits or rusks. Chewing gum can also help.
• So that the sense of balance is not overwhelmed, the child should sit in the direction of travel. Also sitting in front (observe the legal regulations!) Can remedy.
  Children who are prone to nausea should not read on the ride or play with the Gameboy, and if so, keep their heads straight ahead.
• A tilted head signals calmness to the brain, the driving movements convey the opposite.
• Common visual and thinking games can distract you.
  Sufficient fresh air, protection against gasoline and other extreme odors also often help to prevent the occurrence of motion sickness.
• If you already know that your child is reacting violently, provide plastic bags or other suitable tools to pick up vomit immediately.

Remedy for travel sickness

If the preventive measures remain ineffective, then you can try various medications and home remedies. Different conditions apply to each traveler, and so it is quite different, which helps in the onset of symptoms.

• Ginger tablets or ginger water as a herbal medicine.
• Homeopathic remedies such as Nux Vomica or Cocculus. These should be taken regularly before and during the trip.
• Acupressure at the so-called Neiguan point. This is located on the inside of the wrists about three fingers away from the wrist wrinkle in the direction of the elbow. To key is the point between the two flexor tendons. The point is massaged with a middle and index finger for about one minute each side before and during the journey at intervals of 30 minutes.
• Over-the-counter drugs containing dimenhydrinate (antihistamines) as chewing gum, tablets or suppositories.

If all else fails, then you might want to change the mode of transport. If your child does not tolerate driving, it may be easier on the train or on the plane. The administration of medication should be reserved for emergencies. Prescription medications containing high-dose drugs should not be used on children.

Did I forget something? Can you think of any more points?
I´m looking forward to your experiences and additions.

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