Elizabeth threw up in the car again today, 5 minutes from our 35-minute-away destination, just like before. I have concluded, based on the number of times this has happened (six or seven, but it feels like ten million) that it is carsickness. I am a genius medical scientist; please award me my honorary degree. It took me awhile to figure it out because although I get carsick and so does Rob, I've never actually barfed from it, nor have I ever had a child who barfed from it. Well, until now, when clearly I do have such a child.
Luckily, this time I was prepared. After the fourth trip baptized in barf, I put a "Barf Kit" in the car: paper towels, complete change of clothing, bottle of Febreze, bottle of soapy water, empty plastic bags. So although I had to pull over on the highway to clean up the worst of it with paper towels and baby wipes, afterwards I drove on to the mall, knowing I could clean her up completely when we got there. With the Barf Kit, the trusty Barf Kit, thank goodness I have the Barf Kit. ...Where the hell is the Barf Kit? Oh, yes: hanging on the doorknob at home, where I put it after the last time I had to replenish the supplies. Please award me another honorary degree for genius.
It's true that I can collapse under this sort of overwhelming obstacle, giving in to the landslide of despair and self-pity, weeping with frustration as I drive all the way back home to spend my morning removing the residue and smell of barf from various surfaces and feeling so very sorry for myself. But when it is raining and I nevertheless obtained a good parking space in the covered parking, and when I have driven 35 minutes to get there, and when The Children's Place is having a good clearance sale I want to re-peruse--well, then I may find an inner steel that can carry me through the next two hours of wandering through the mall in a nearly visible cloud of barf smell.
So! Anyone know how to make a carsick child NOT barf? Because that would be even better than remembering to bring the Barf Kit.
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28 comments:
Nope, not a clue! Sorry. If it were an adult I would suggest things like not reading and looking out the window the entire time, but hello, she's probably not exactly catching up on her novel in the car at this age. I get carsick too, so I feel her pain. Is there children's Dramamine?
Plain pasta to snack on. That always worked for my kids....
I used to get car sick on long drives when I was little. Some combination of reading a book and being in a car. Plain crackers to eat helped, as did drinking water. Letting the windows down for fresh air and being distracted by games (I spy) or kids tapes were other things that we tried.
Mints, opening a window?
That really sucks. I hope these help.
I'm not sure if these work for kids or not but, there are these http://www.sea-band.com/seaband.htm
I used them when i had morning (all day!) sickness when I was pregnant and they were a god send.
Homemade ginger cookies. If I can unearth my recipe, I will post it. Works like a charm.
Dramamine works great. My sister always got motion sickness and once we gave her Dramamine she never had a problem.
Keeping the windows open is also a VERY good idea.
Can you get one of those little pressure point bracelets somewhere that alleviates carsickness?
Also, is she sitting next to a window? I know you have two of them in carseats... maybe changing their positions might help. If you have a minivan, you could change the bench they are on completely.
Poor Mommy ... poor kid. Its amazing that they can never seem to smell themselves.
I don't know, but if that was me, I'd keep driving.. straight to my husband's office, where I would call him on his cell phone and summon him outside to take care of it for me. I can handle poo... snot... dog poo smeared all over the foyer... but not barf. I feel bad about it too but it's just not me.
I think I have issues. Every time someone coughs I jump and run away because they might barf on me...
Did you score any more bargains? :)
OOoh maybe you can put one of those barber drapes over her in the car and then just take it off when you reach your destination. Okay now I'm being a smarty pants.
dry crackers to munch on? I wish I had a better suggestion. Maybe moving her to a different location in the car - perhaps her view (being too close or too far from the window or maybe the direction of traffic - if she sees cars coming toward her or going in the same direction) may be affecting her... Good luck!
Ummm... put her in the front seat? Okay, that violates every good parent rule, but that's what my parents used to do with us when we got carsick (back then I was the child car puker). Or else dress her in only old towels and plastic wrap. Then change her when you get to Point B.
Sorry, that's a total pain of a problem. Hopefully she'll grow out of it.
I used to (and still do) get super carsick. And I would barf. All over the car. Here are the things that worked for me...I know she's young, but maybe some of these would work when she's a bit older:
1. Dramamine, dramamine, dramamine.
2. Sipping on a cold Sprite/7-up/ginger ale.
3. Sitting in the front seat.
4. Keeping a window cracked so fresh air can blow on the face.
5. Never reading/watching tv/writing/drawing/doing homework/looking at ANYTHING in the car. I get carsick from glancing at a map sometimes, and the times I've barfed in the car involved reading or writing or watching a movie while the car was moving.
6. Just looking out the window and keeping the head still. I can't even look out the back window without feeling sick.
7. Stopping every now and then and walking around.
8. Minty things like gum or, you know, mints. Or ginger snaps.
9. D-r-a-m-a-m-i-n-e.
I've found it's gotten better with age, but carsickness sucks. Poor kid.
Can I add a ten?
10. Sucking on ice cubes.
My daughter gets carsick even on the shortest of trips. We have found that listening to books on tape keeps her from barfing without medication. On long trips I will sometimes give her Dramamine, but when her mind is occupied, she's fine. Of course, I can't turn the tape off for more than a couple of minutes (no talking on the phone while driving!) without negative effects.
It always helps me to sit by a window. If my eyes can confirm that we are, indeed, moving, then I don't get car/air sick. Can her car seat be by a window at all?
Dramamine makes me sleepy, so I don't take it unless it's a flight I'm trying to sleep through.
Ginger snaps or crackers sound like a really good idea. I know ginger helped a lot with my morning sickness.
I used to have to sit in the front seat when I was little, but not quite THAT little. Can you put her in the middle so she can look out the front window?
Definitely the 10 things black sheeped listed; those sound really good.
Dramamine makes some people really sleepy; even now as an adult if I take it, I end up getting super sleepy.
Sorry I don't have any good advice, but the "Barf Kit" contents are brilliant. You might want to just market that as a car-seat add on. When driving home from St. Louis in December, Harper got sick about two hours from our home. After stopping twice to try and clean her up in under fifteen minutes, I just covered here with a quilt to shield her, put my head down and drove the rest of the way home with her getting sick in the backseat. I would have paid about 100 millionty dollars to have had a barf kit!
Ick. It reminds me of when I was a kid, my mom always used to pack a "barf bucket" along with us on any long trips. My brother and sister and I were all prone to motion sickness. I guess it just passes as you grow up!
Oh, I was a famous car-sickness barfer in my family. Let's see, open the window, take deep breaths of fresh air. For some reason, cinnamon flavored candy or gum used to settle my stomach. Do they still make "Reeds" cinnamon hard candy? They used to come in a roll, like Lifesavers, but were bigger, and individually wrapped (and also came in root beer flavor). DO NOT READ OR LOOK AT BOOKS. Eventually, I grew out of it.
Why, oh why does word verification punish me? The first time, it's always some easy little 5 letter code. But if I get it wrong, it's like 8 lettlers - all q's and g's squished together.
As if you need a 21st comment... but no one mentioned Bonine -- it's like Dramamine but chewable. Maybe it doesn't have sleepiness effects, I'm not sure. I just know I still keep some handy when I'm traveling.
Hope the smell doesn't linger in your car.
Good suggestions, everyone!
Jen is kidding, but I'm going to try the smock idea. Not the plastic kind barbers use, since that is too...how shall I say it?..."slippery." Something more like an apron, maybe the thickish canvas kind. That way if she barfs, at least it'll be mostly on the apron, and not all over the car seat and her clothes.
I'm also going to try keeping the car cooler and fresher. I hadn't even thought of that, but I definitely feel queasier if the car is warm and stuffy, and I totally remember how my parents would hardly believe that we could be too hot (or too cold) in the back seat when they were fine in the front.
Dramamine always helps me--but knocks me out. I'm going to ask the pediatrician at the 2-year check-up if there's anything good for shorter trips.
Jen--YES, I scored more bargains! And this time I ALSO had a 15% off coupon! I returned a few things that I didn't like as much when they arrived, and instead bought some denim pedal pushers and three little shirts. CUTE STUFF.
You poor thing. I wish I had advice for you!
That sounds like something I would do -- put together a brilliant Barf Bag and then forget it at home at the very moment I need it.
Maybe you need to get some of those barf bags that they use on airplanes and teach her how to use it? Poor little girl...I hate throwing up!
I still get carsick - always have, always will. You've gotten a lot of advice to put her next to a window, but for me, it's the front seat, or the middle of the back seat. I have to be looking directly out the front window or my brain goes all fuzzy, and before you know it, I'm barfing into my empty Starbucks cup. It's hell being of delicate constitution! ~Laura
Call her doctor. They can give her a liquid car sickness medicine. We had to do that with our daughter because she threw up all over everytime we got in the car.
Big Soft Ginger Cookies
INGREDIENTS:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons white sugar
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
Really good. I may just have to make some today.
Jodi: Now THIS is the kind of advice I was secretly hoping for. "DRUGS!" is what I wanted to hear. Everything else is like when you have morning sickness and all the advice is "Eat a saltine before getting out of bed!" when what I really want to hear is "Here is a drug that will FIX IT."
If it hasn't already been mentioned, keeping her a little on the cool side and giving her something sugary (like juice or a hard candy) can help.
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