Car Sicknesses

On The Twinstitute TV programme on BBC2 tonight they carried out experiments to see which was most effective for preventing motion sickness - acupressure bands or ginger. The ginger won.

Thankyou for all your answers, I am trying different suggestions when I go on journeys will report back.

My travel sickness has worsened with age. I've found that I must eat before I travel. Some cars, especially older ones, have a smell that sets off the sickness, as do London black cabs. The new Thameslink trains have a smell and are the only trains to make me sick. Buses are always bad. Cars with low seats are also bad. I also suffer from migraine and apparently this is linked.

My car sickness has more or less gone. Still have to look straight ahead, can't read or look down for any length of time or sick when looking back up. Sea sickness still with me though, can't go on anything at a fare, even looking at a roundabout can make me queasy. Think the car sickness can be resurrected by the modern style of driving forced upon us at times. The race forward, brake quickly some folk being the norm , just too much jolting.

I suffered car sickness as a child it does go as you get older

I have suffered with travel sickness in cars all my life. At one point I couldn’t go three/four miles into town with someone else driving. If I’m driving I’m fine. Have always been fine on planes (direct Heathrow to Perth, Australia) and always fine on trains. I presume this is because they don’t go round lots of corners and don’t stop and start so much! I’m 67 now and recently I’ve notoced that I can do longer trips with no travel problems. For very long trips I used to take Joyrides which are now very difficult to find. Usually I have Kids Kwells which work really well, hardly any sleepiness from Joyrides or Kwells, both can be taken before travel or when nausea starts.

As a child I was travel sick then in late teens/early twenties my friends and I were out and about sometimes driving, sometimes passengers and I got used to travelling in the back of cars without feeling sick. Then I got married and DH doesn't drive so I always drove and lost my ability to be a passenger without being sick. No car now for several years but I can travel in the front without feeling sick but in the back I would have to take Stugeron - also needed for flying and coach travel. I'm fine on trains, can even read on trains and feel OK.

I have felt decidedly nauseous when sitting in the back seat of a rear-wheel drive car with soft, bouncy suspension. Also if the driver is jerky in his/her braking and accelerating.

I found the sea bands did work on a voyage DoraMarr - and the effect wasn't psychological because I forgot to put them back on after a swim and wondered why I started feeling sick.
You should be fine further up away from the engines too.

When we went on a boat Down Under they provided ginger tablets for anyone who wanted them.

Thank you grammaretto for you advice. We’ve booked a commodore class cabin (er, pushing the boat out?) so we have windows and a balcony ( although I should imagine a balcony might be chilly in April.) I think my partner might have to eat in the restaurant on his own while I sip water and eat crackers in the cabin!

Some people claim that copper armbands work too against any kind of motion sickness. I've never tried one for that so I don't know, but found one helpful for rheumatism.

Angelic, perhaps you should have your hearing checked as balance is controlled in some way by our inner ear.

How well do you know and trust the person driving, if it isn't yourself? I feel sick when driven by a driver whose driving scares me (they usually only get one chance.

DoraMarr i can't remember how long that journey is but I used to travel Newcastle to Denmark frequently, years ago. It was a day and a night. I recommend fresh air. Go out on deck when you can
Then eat dry biscuits and ginger ale or similar. Use the pressure bands.
I never took medication but took to my bunk early and usually felt the rolling less when lying down.
I asked for a cabin with a porthole too. I dislike being too low down in a ship.
When I was young I travelled the world by ship and got my sealegs after a few nights!! Enjoy your holiday.

You might like to try this - whilst on a car journey if you hold a two pence piece in your hand and keep turning it over (assuming you are the passenger!) it is supposed to fight off car sickness. It works for my GD,.

I was car sick as a child. Then dad removed the air freshener he had hanging off the mirror. Suddenly the car sickness went. I am very sensitive to smells.

I think it does get worse. I used to be able to read on trains,but can’t anymore. I bought a cheap pair of headphones and listen to music instead. I prefer sitting facing the direction of the train. Unfortunately I have vertigo, and have also found that air travel gives me excruciating ear pain and temporary deafness. I wear wristbands, and take stugeron on sleeper trains. We’re travelling to northern Spain, by train, in April and sailing back on Brittany Ferries. I’d appreciate advice on ferry travel, because I haven’t done it for years, and am a bit apprehensive! Will probably take travel sickness pills, but would appreciate others’views on the best ones.

MOnica, good to meet a fellow dyspraxic. My travel sickness is getting worse as I get older and I now have to take Stugeron for longer journeys. I also find that my co-ordination is getting worse. Is this your experience? I coped pretty well through life but feel that the dyspraxia is coming back to haunt me now.

I use thé travel bands and find they work really well.

GD is always car sick and has to take tablets to travel anywhere other than a mile or two down the road.
I think being stuck in the back of the car behind headrests does not help.
I always carry a sick bucket in the car, since having bowel surgery I can get pretty yucky. I take Cyclizine but it makes me very drowsy so often not an option.

No idea if this is true, many years ago I read it was caused by an imbalance between eyes and ears, I suffered with it, stopped uses buses and trains when I had a car age 17, never had the problem if I was driving, this links with - looking straight ahead not through side windows.

I can’t travel in the rear seats of a car and I now find that I can no longer read on long train journeys. This has definitely developed with age. If I am on a touring holiday involving coach journeys I have to take travel sickness medication.

She also tried the sea bands - moderately effective.
They do work on me.

The only thing that works for DGD is a travel sickness tablet.
Between us we've tried newspaper (recommended previously on GN I think) sucking sweets etc. etc. She doesn't like ginger.
Perhaps we'll try an ice lolly as that could help the ears, although it may not last long enough.

Sorry when I not ai. Makes me sound a bit above myself

I was always travel sick as a child, the worst ever was when ai was pregnant and couldn’t travel even a mile without having to stop. I still cannot sit in the back of a car and the only guaranteed solution is for me to drive.

On board ferries, curiously I’m better if it’s choppy, a smooth, wallowly journey is not good. I always enjoyed hovercraft journeys across the Channel, I was never sick then.

Agree about Stugeron. And brandy and dry ginger. It’s the ginger of course

I still get nauseous occasionally and can't read in a car or bus. It was much worse when I was a child. I never get sick if I'm driving but I can't map read so thank goodness for the sat nav.
On board ship, if it's rough I use seabands. and brandy and ginger works for me But other family members can read, eat and do handstands without any ill effects.