As we all know motion sickness and elevation pressure is not fun and definitely hard for a child.
When traveling with children on car road trips, plane, train or a boat you may come across the issue of motion sickness and/or elevation pressure.
I will list some tips and items to use to help decrease or eliminate your motion sickness and elevation pressure issues.
My children and I get car sick and sea sick on a boat. I will share with you some tips that we personally use. These tips can be used anytime or anywhere that you get motion sickness or elevation pressure.
4 Tips For Motion Sickness
- Nausea wrist bands – these can be used on kids age 3 and up. These bands really help me and my kids from getting sick.
- Nausea wrist bands have a plastic knob on the band that pushes on an acupressure point on your wrist.
- I use these nausea bands on car rides, boat rides, airplane flights, and roller coaster rides.
- As I have gotten older roller coasters aren’t the same. Now with using these bands I can still ride the coasters with my kids without getting sick.
- I’ve even used these after a big night out for the following morning, not that I have those often. And I’ve used them for headaches which seems to help. I don’t always like taking medication for everything so if I can use these to help ease pain I definitely do so.
- I’m sure you can use them during pregnancy for morning sickness. They weren’t around when I was pregnant or not aware of them anyways.
- My brother always used them while we was going through cancer treatments. He seemed to think that they helped him and he wore them all the time.
- My son asks for one every time we are on a road trip. That’s because he knows they really help him from getting car sick.
- You can wear just one as I usually do but wear two if you need or want to. One on each wrist
- Ginger gum, lozenges, chews or ginger snap cookies.
- My kids personally always love eating ginger snaps in the car. My kids don’t always like the ginger candy but would try almost anything if the nausea was bad enough.
- Ginger snap cookies are good to have. Make sure they actually contain ginger and the ones with a higher amount of ginger the better. I usually look for those in a health food store.
- Limit the amount of time reading books, coloring or other activities looking down. Alternate activities with looking out the window playing games and sleeping.
- There are many games you can play looking out the window which will help with car sickness.
- If needing activities or game ideas for kids in car or plane read my blog –HOW TO AVOID A HORRIBLE VACATION WITH FAMILY.
- Limit the amount you eat at one sitting. When traveling you don’t want a very full stomach.
- If you eat small meals and snacks in between that will actually help ease any nausea.
- Try to avoid eating real greasy, spicy or fatty foods as those can upset your stomach when sitting for long periods of time.
- Saltine crackers are always good to snack on.
Honestly my kids and I seem to do very well with ginger snap cookies, nausea wrist bands and limiting our time reading to decrease chances of nausea.
Not just motion sickness but the change in elevation can be an issue when traveling.
Traveling with elevation changes can really mess with your ears. During ascend or descend on an airplane or traveling by car you can feel an extreme amount of pressure in your ears. Especially on an airplane as you change in elevation rather quickly and fast.
The Eustachian tubes in our middle ear can’t seem to balance and keep up with the fast changes of air pressure. This can be due to many reasons and affect people differently.
I know I have more of an issue with it than other people as my doctor thinks I just have narrow Eustachian tubes and that makes it harder for me to equalize the pressure.
These are items and tips I always use for car trips or airline flights to help with changes in elevation pressure
- Earplane ear plugs
- These are a must have in my opinion. They are actually called earplane plugs and not ear plugs. Ear plugs are different from these as the earplane plugs are spiral and not one complete circle or cylinder mass. The way that the earplane plugs are made with a spiral design helps to allow some air in and out instead of just plugging the ear up.
- My airplane experiences have drastically changed for the better with these. They help regulate the air coming in and out so your ear drums don’t get that extreme pressure. It helps maintain the balance of air pressure in your ear by slowly allowing air to come in to equalize the pressure against your ear drum.
- They make these for kids also just make sure the ones you get are age appropriate for your child.
- You put these in before take off and leave in till your at maximum altitude. Then put back in before landing. You can even wear them through the entire flight if you wanted to.
- Items to chew or suck on
- Gum, lollypops, fruit snacks – really anything that keeps your jaws moving and frequent swallowing making the Eustachian tubes to open and allow air in will help equalize the pressure.
- For babies and toddlers have them suck on a pacifier, bottle or sippy cup.
- Yawning or ways to open the Eustachian tubes
- Yawning can help open the Eustachian tubes to relieve pressure and equalize the air in the inner ear.
- Have your kids play a yawning game with you. Who can yawn the most, the biggest, the longest, as you are ascending or descending. Who makes the silliest face with their big over exaggerating yawn.
- I’ve heard some people saying to pinch your nose and blow but doing that too hard could actually burst your ear drum so I’d stay away from that idea especially with kids.
- Over the counter nasal spray
- Talk to a doctor about using this if you still have a hard time on an airplane. My doctor had recommended it for me since I had such a hard time with my ears being stuffy for days after a flight.
- You would need to use the nasal spray about 30 minutes before a flight and then again after you land or sometime that evening after. I was actually told to use it the night before travel and then about 30 minutes before flying and then later after landing. As I have mentioned it’s best to get advise from your doctor or your child’s pediatrician.
- Now, I usually just do the above tips and I don’t have to rely on the use of nasal spray. I think that the earplane ear plugs have done wonders for me. But I do still travel with nasal spray if I’m having allergy issues or feel like I may need it. It doesn’t hurt to have it on hand so it is there if needed. Sometimes I would just need it after a flight if my ears still seemed to be stuffy.
- Decongestant
- If wanting to use decongestant for your child before flying I’d suggest talking with their pediatrician. The decongestant might help your child but might also make it harder for you and them if very drowsy. Look for a non drowsy decongestant.
- A decongestant can help with opening the Eustachian tubes especially if they are a little swollen from allergies or a cold.
- Decongestant could be used after a flight to help open your Eustachian tubes if your ears still feel a little stuffy or not quite back to normal.
Should you fly with an ear infection or bad sinus infection? If you or especially your child is sick with an ear infection/sinus infection I’d highly suggest you don’t fly. With an ear infection or bad sinus infection your Eustachian tubes will become swollen. And you may already have problems hearing because of that. When you fly you have that added air pressure in your ears. With an ear infection it will just be more of a painful pressure building up on your ear drum adding to your existing problem and may cause it to rupture.
If you can postpone your flight your family would greatly benefit by that. A ruptured eardrum can be extremely painful and take a while to heal. If that happened to you or your child just imagine the pain you or your child will go though. When on the way for trip or vacation it can ruin your entire stay.
There are so many ways that you can help your family lessen the effects of motion sickness and elevation pressure.
The biggest tip I have is to be prepared with the items needed to help alleviate or prevent nausea and ear pressure.
Make a bag or kit that you travel with. If you already have a bag or kit with the recommended items then you can use them when needed. Not having anything for your kids or yourself during this experience whether flying, on a boat or in a car may turn your trip into a stressful and maybe painful one.
If you are prepared and have these items on hand it may just help you and relieve any unwanted stress and discomfort.
Here’s some other items to have on hand when traveling to make your journey fun. HOW TO AVOID A HORRIBLE VACATION WITH FAMILY.
Get a doctor’s opinion on whether it’s okay to fly if you are questioning it. Get their advise on whether to use a nasal spray or decongestant.
Ultimately it’s up to you and your best judgement for yourself or for your child.
Using those tips and items I’ve mentioned can greatly improve your travel by eliminating or decreasing motion sickness and elevation pressure problems.
Hopefully now you can fly with ease, swiftly sail, and ride with comfort and enjoy your trip.