Feeling Good in the Car

There are many things you can do if you, or someone you drive with often, are prone to motion sickness. Medication can help for long trips or if things are bad, but changing behavior (where to look), keeping air flow moving, sucking on candies, or diffusing oils can really help.

One of my kids is more prone to motion sickness. However, we've recently found that her motion sickness is very specific. Rather than curvy roads, she feels the worst on hills. Whenever the car rises and falls she says she starts to feel queasy and like "her insides are moving around and bouncing up and down".

I looked into it and there are different kinds of inner ear triggers that cause motion sickness, and sure enough, hills are their own kind of trigger. Interestingly as well, people triggered by hills (the up/down trigger rather than the side to side trigger) are much less likely to be helped by mints, oils, etc.

Since we don't live in a flat part of the country, I did some research to figure out how to help her. There are a few things to try:

DON'T look out the window. Visual cues that the car is traveling up or down hills can make this type of sickness worse. I've noticed this to be accurate. When we get to a hilly area, I've had Madison start coloring or looking at her phone.

If you can't focus on anything else, force your body to behave like the driver. If you can trick your brain to feel like it's in control of the car, you'll feel less sick.

Squeeze your hands. Really, this is like putting on a pair of sea bands. If she clenches her hands on the hilly areas, she can make it through.

And we'll keep diffusing the peppermint oil, using meds for long trips, and having sucking candies handy!