The Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays are approaching, and family travel plans are being finalized! To prevent motion sickness and ensure smoother journeys, some parents purchase motion sickness medication for their babies at pharmacies before traveling. However, experts caution that oral motion sickness medication is absolutely not recommended for infants under one year old.Such medications may impair neurological development. Even for children over one year old, it's best to use medications specifically prescribed by a pediatric specialist—never administer drugs without professional guidance.
Children Are More Prone to Motion Sickness Than Adults
Before age four, a child's vestibular system is still developing. It continues to mature after age four and doesn't fully mature until around age sixteen. As a result, children experience more severe and frequent motion sickness than adults.The motion and jolts of a moving vehicle can heighten the excitability of a baby's vestibular organs, triggering motion sickness. Older children may express discomfort, curling up quietly with eyes tightly closed and hands gripping the seat, accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and irritability.Infants and toddlers cannot speak, so they express discomfort through abnormal behaviors like flailing limbs, crying, restlessness, sweating, vomiting, paleness, or clinging tightly to parents. At this point, parents should recognize that the baby is experiencing motion sickness.
Additionally, factors like insufficient sleep, gastrointestinal issues, headaches, or colds can increase susceptibility to motion sickness. Some children also experience dizziness when exposed to continuously moving scenery outside the window or the smell of gasoline.
Motion sickness medication may affect neurological development
When traveling with infants, parents should prepare in advance to prevent motion sickness, but motion sickness medication is not recommended. Common motion sickness drugs are typically antihistamines that induce drowsiness. While adults may take them to alleviate discomfort, children taking these medications may experience negative effects on neurological development and should avoid them.If your child only feels slightly uncomfortable during the ride, medication isn't necessary. For severe vomiting, you can give them the antiemetic medication metoclopramide about half an hour before departure. However, metoclopramide dosage must strictly follow medical advice and be determined by body weight. For example, a two- to three-year-old child would typically only need about 1/5 of a tablet.
Preventing motion sickness without medication
Before travel, avoid overfeeding or serving greasy foods. Keep the child from going hungry instead, offering light snacks like bread or congee that provide glucose.
Additionally, applying a ginger patch or motion sickness patch to the child's navel area before boarding can alleviate symptoms.
When traveling with children, choose seats near the front where vibrations are minimal. Opening windows for airflow is ideal.
If motion sickness symptoms appear, apply pressure with your thumb to the Hegu (LI4) and Neiguan (PC6) acupoints to alleviate discomfort.
Carry tissues to clean up after vomiting.
After vomiting, offer your child a drink to rinse away the taste of vomit.
Mom's Parenting Tips
Moms Share Tricks to Prevent Baby Motion Sickness
Experienced parents' advice is always the most practical! Check out these moms' tips for handling baby motion sickness:
Before the ride, give your baby something sour like dried plums or olives to suck on.But be careful—it's best to use pitted ones, offering just the olive or plum flesh to avoid choking hazards. This is what we usually do at home, and it works pretty well! —Dodo's Mom Before every car ride, I apply some Tiger Balm to my son's temples and massage it in, then put a couple drops on his belly button and cover it with a baby belly button sticker. Then we're good to go!
First, apply a diarrhea-relief patch to the baby's navel before boarding. Second, let the baby smell fresh orange peel during the ride. Third, if motion sickness occurs, gently press the Hegu acupoint—located at the web between the thumb and index finger. —Mom of MaoMao