Carsick Toddler

I would ask her pediatrician for tips... maybe even medication.

Saltines, peppermint candies (ones with REAL peppermint oil), ginger, etc. all help calm upset tummies. Maybe keep some on hand for when she gets nauseous.

You could try putting a screen on her window. Sometimes, the trees, other cars, electric poles, etc. whizzing by makes carsickness worse. She will probably get bored more easily though, so you will need something to keep her entertained.

If i were you I would have someone sit in the back with her and have a bucket handy. Also is she on the side of the car? sometimes moving a person to the middle of the car helps eliminate watching the fast things go by the window.

Ginger is supposed to help - tea, drinks, etc. You might try that.

I used to always get carsick, still do!

It helps to have some fresh, cool air blowing on me.

The driver needs to be conscious that lots of stopping and going, especially sudden stopping and going, is going to aggrivate the motion sickness. The more smooth they can drive (making sure they come to gradual stops) the better the motion sickness is.

Looking out the front window at the horizon helps. So if your toddler starts to look a little "green" see if you can point out some things in front of you that are on the horizon that she can look at. Don't have her look out the side window unless she is looking at things that are far away. Point out some things that are far away such as "look at that tree" or "look at those clouds!" That helps bring the equilibrium back.

Frequent stops with walking around in the fresh air helps. Point out objects near and far around you as you walk to bring the equilibrium back.

There are medicine and wrist bands. I'm not sure what you'd do for a two-year old. Ginger root is a natural herb that helps.

A product called Odo Ban works wonderful for getting out smells. You can get it at Walmart or Sam's Club. I use it to get out cat pee smell so it will work on anything! It also disinfects.

You can possibly try a more natural approach instead of medication. My youngest would get carsick on longer trips. I would limit her food and drink intake and give her Tabors Teething tablets, you can get them at walmart over the counter. They are little tablets that dissolve in her mouth...I would giver her about 4 or 5. There is something in them that help settle their tummy. I also gave get the gas drops you buy over the counter. The generic brand worked fine. So before every trip she got both of those and that really helped a lot.

Our 3 year old get sick on curvy roads. We drive slower for her, keep a bucket near by, and tell her to close her eyes and go to sleep. Also, she nibbles on ginger chews. I use to get sick as a kid too. It's not fun. :(

My friend's son always gets carsick -- not just on long trips but almost every time he's in a car for even the shortest ride of a few minutes. He also gets violently ill on any plane, boat, ride, etc. He is nine now and still has not "outgrown" it, unfortunately.

I would say, based on his experience, that your child getting carsick once a month or so doesn't qualify as "all the time" as you characterized it. See if there is something in common every time she does get carsick: Does it happen mostly or only on trips of more than, say, 20 minutes? Ten? An hour? Does it happen on short trips around town or only on those winding roads you mentioned? Does it happen more in one car than in another, because one of your cars tends to give a bumpier ride? Try to figure out if there is a trigger here -- length of ride, condition of the road, which vehicle she's in, whether she's tired and missed a nap that day, whether she ate a specific food (dairy can be hard to digest, so maybe eating dairy before a drive is a trigger too, for instance). You'll need to really think through past car sickness incidents to try to track it.

She may need kids' Dramamine (motion sickness drug, available over the counter) for certain types of trips, once you figure out when she is likeliest to vomit. It would help if she could look out the window the whole time instead of down at toys or a screen etc. -- but she is so young you might not be able to get her to look out the window. You could try, by pointing things out to her. Looking up and out, toward a horizon, can help a lot with motion sickness.

For a smell like vomit, which is very hard to get rid of, I would honestly take the car to a professional detailer and tell them what they're getting rid of. Good detailers will have dealt with this all before and will be able to do very deep cleaning of the foam under the upholstery - the foam is holding onto the odor. It will cost you but will be worth it. It was the only way we got some intense odors out of our car.

Ugh, bless her heart. It is a terrible feeling to have car sickness.

My husband used to be a child like your daughter. He would become terribly ill in the car.. He said it really did not stop until he was big enough to sit in the front seat with the window down.

He needed to be able to see ahead. He needed to have the fresh air blow on his face..

Now he has to be the driver or he can become really nauseous and light headed.

Some things that helped was ginger ale.. little sips.

A cool wash cloth placed behind his neck

Benedryl to help him sleep on the trips

Those sea bands you wear on your wrist..

All of these you need to speak with her doctor to make sure they are O...

My husbands father was a pharmacist.. he gave my husband everything and anything to try to "cure" this.. but it really ended up finding coping techniques..

Oh my gosh does this bring back memories!! My son used to get carsick all the time too. I just got in the habit of draping old towels over him and had a plastic bag with me so when I got home I could just toss them in the wash. Dramamine would help a little but I couldn't give it to him all the time. We also used the wrist bands; they helped a little. Then when he got even older he would sit in the front seat and he'd be fine.

Have you spoken to the doctor?

As for the odor - I use Febreeze. You may have to apply, let dry and reapply a few times but it works.

Good luck!!!

Don't they have children's dramamine here? In Canada there's a product called Gravol, which is dramamine (motion sickness medicine). Anyway, a lot of parents give it to their children for long car rides or air travel or whatever. I do think it can cause drowsiness, though, but not that big of a deal in the scheme of things.

My son always got car sick. Sometimes worse than actually getting sick was not being to enjoy the destination. Dramamine was the saving thing. He would chew a half pill about 30 minutes before car trip and he would be fine. Also don't forget some for the ride home.
Sorry I'm not sure how to get rid of lingering smell maybe a car detailer could help out?

Dramamine for Kids, my pharmacist told me about it, children as young as 2 can take it.

Try cleaning the upholstery and carpeting with vinegar. Keep Febreeze in the car to spray, and the new Febreeze Car Vent Clips work great : )
http://www.febreze.com/ProductList.aspx?items=16&type=29

My kid used to get sick all the time too. She outgrew it thank goodness but how we dealt with it was to have one of us sit in the back seat with her and when she started making noises like her tummy was upset someone would be there to drape the towel over her, barber style, and hold a barf bag while the parent who was driving tried to find the nearest offramp.

My daughter is nearly six and for the first four years of her life our front passenger seat was almost always empty because someone was always in the back with her to catch the mess. Four towels also lived in the car, Two at the foot of her seat and a couple to throw over her to catch anything due to freaked out flailing while vomiting. (My kid would try and turn her head and cry out to you while vomit was still coming out of her mouth so we just covered the area with towels. It's so much easier to wash a load of towels than to crawl into the back of the van with a carpet cleaner.)

It only took us having to scrub puke out of the car-seat once to make this new arrangement.

My daughter has it too. I was upset when my Doctor said there is nothing you can do or give them, and actually suggested Benadryl for when we are travelling by car or plane for a long period of time and for my child once the vomitting starts it doesn't stop and she vomits every 15 minutes until we arrive. BUT I talked to pharmacists and nurses that told me dramamine was O. for kids as young as 2!! I also found ginger gum at the health food store and we do that a lot. Also, she definitely gets sick first thing in the morning in the car if she hasn't had a hearty breakfast...and we moved her from the third row of the minivan to the second row, open the window, etc. It is also worse it she is playing with toys and such so we don't do that, just watch outside.

if you do not want to give her motion sickness meds then try bringing a bucket. I am not kidding even though she is only two she can grab it or better yet why dont you sit in the back seat ready to help her with her aim. I would put towels down under her car seat. I would also consider having a seat cover made. Perhaps soft on the outer side and inside lined with a type of shower curtian or water proof. I am imagining a big bag like seat cover unless she is not yet in the booster seat style but in between the infant car seat and booster. Our little girl just leveled up to the booster. Before I had a extra seat cover mainly because it was a hand me down. But I could easily see it being a water proof backing. In the barf bucket I would put a trash liner in it so you could just toss it at a truck stop. Recently we had a funk stinch in our daughters room after some visitors left. It was like a body oder stinch. Carpet powders, fabrise, air freshner, nothing was working. I wiped off and tossed out as much as I could and cleaned all fabrics...it was stuck. One open box of baking soda and poof the stinch was gone!!!!