Travel sickness/Motion sickness in children

goodtoknow says: Travel sickness is very common in children. It's caused by unusual movement. It could be in a car, plane, boat or fairground ride. For some people this leads to conflicting signals between their eyes and the balance mechanism in their ear, so they feel sick, or sometimes are sick. Your child may also go very pale, get a headache and sweat. Anti-sickness medication or anti-histamines help prevent it. Focusing on the horizon rather than a moving object helps too. Reading, playing computer games, or watching films when travelling can make it worse.

For a full medical explanation of the causes, symptoms and treatments of travel (motion) sickness from patient.co.uk, read on.

What is motion sickness?

Motion sickness (travel sickness) is common, especially in children. It is caused by repeated unusual movements during travelling. This sends confusing or conflicting nerve signals to the brain from the eyes and from the balance mechanism in the ear. This can make you feel sick or vomit. In addition you may sweat, drool saliva, have a headache, and go pale.

Motion sickness can also be triggered by anxiety or strong smells, such as food or petrol. Sometimes trying to read a book or a map can trigger motion sickness.

Motion sickness is more common in children and also women. Fortunately, many children grow out of having motion sickness. It is not known why some people develop motion sickness more than others. Symptoms can develop on cars, trains, planes, boats, fairground rides, etc. Symptoms typically go when the journey is over, but not always. In some people they last a few hours, or even days, after the journey ends.