Top 10 Ways to Avoid Car Sickness in Kids

On a two-hour drive through the mountains of North Georgia, my parents pulled over three times to clean up the back seat (and me). After a drive to my aunt's house a measly 15 minutes across town on flat ground, I changed into the clean clothes my parents always kept in the trunk. On a school field trip to the electric company, I learned bus sickness is a very real affliction.

As a child who suffered from car sickness (and an adult who still hasn't outgrown the hardship), I know a thing or two about ways to avoid car sickness. Heck, I have 33 years of experience!

1) Sit in the front seat. Sure, it's bound to tick off the older sibling, but it's worth it!

2) Keep cool. Turn on the air conditioning and point it directly at the child's face. Not only is cool air prevention, but it also helped me recover after riding an upside-down spinner at a roadside carnival.

3) Sit on the hump. If the child can't sit in the front seat, have the child sit in the center hump of the back seat where the child can look directly out the front window (as long as there is an available seat belt).

4) Never look down. As tempting as it might be, don't give the child entertainment such as a book or handheld video game.

5) Use Dramamine®. I get drowsy from taking Dramamine®, but a sleeping child on a lengthy drive is not such a bad thing, right?

6) Never face backwards. If the child must look out the side windows, like while riding on a bus, look forward at a 45 degree angle, never directly out the side windows.

7) Snack often. Keep something in the child's tummy like graham crackers and ginger ale.

8) Talk to people without looking at them. Let the child know she can look forward out the front window while talking, especially to people in the back seat. This might be uncomfortable at first, but will help greatly to have the child's head not on a swivel.

9) Lay down with eyes closed. If the child puts his head down in the seat with eyes still open, things are even worse. Somehow, when you relax as if going to sleep, your body moves fluidly with the car's movement and harmony results.

10) Sing. Don't ask how or why, but it always helped me to sing along with the radio.

Good luck, parents (or grown-ups also following this advice). One final suggestion - start collecting those handy-dandy airline bags each time you fly and store them in the car's glove compartment.