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Road trips with kids can be a lot. When one of those kids gets carsick, there’s an entirely different level of planning involved.

For years, we regularly made roughly 11-hour drives as a family. Our daughter was the one who struggled with car sickness. We learned some lessons the easy way and a few very much the hard way—including one memorable stop at a McDonald’s bathroom to clean up and rinse vomit out of her clothes.

Eventually, though, we figured out what seemed to make the biggest difference for her.

Some of it was surprisingly simple: leaving ridiculously early, skipping screens completely, being careful about what she ate and keeping a few basic cleanup supplies within reach. We also used children’s motion-sickness medication as needed.

Every kid is different, so these aren’t guarantees or medical advice. They’re the things that helped our carsick kid—and a few things I wish we’d had at the time.

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Why Do Kids Get Carsick?

Car sickness is a type of motion sickness. It can happen when what a child’s eyes see doesn’t quite match the motion their body and inner ear sense. Children between about ages 2 and 12 are particularly susceptible to it. 

Younger kids may not always tell you they’re feeling nauseous right away, so things like suddenly looking pale, getting restless, yawning or breaking into a cold sweat can be early signs.

That also helps explain something we learned pretty quickly: looking down at a screen was absolutely not a good idea for carsickness.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and Mayo Clinic both recommend having kids who are prone to motion sickness look outside rather than focusing on books, games or screens.

For us, eliminating screens became one of the best changes we made—and eventually, for reasons that went beyond car sickness.

You Don’t Have to Entertain Them the Entire Drive

When you’re preparing for a long road trip with kids, the instinct is to pack all the things. Tablets. Games. Books. Activities. Anything that might keep everyone occupied for another hour.

We still brought a few things for the kids to use once we reached our destination, but we stopped planning entertainment that required them to look down while we were actually driving. If our daughter stared at a screen in the car, she was much more likely to feel sick.

It wasn’t only about avoiding screens, either. Looking out the window—especially farther ahead or toward something in the distance—gave her eyes something more stable to focus on than whatever was happening inside the car.

And since she couldn’t use a tablet, that generally meant her brother wasn’t sitting beside her watching one either. Looking back, I’m really glad it worked out that way.

They looked out the windows, talked and slept. We listened to music, pointed things out along the way and sometimes played simple games that didn’t require looking down at anything. Sometimes they were probably bored—and they learned that being bored for a while was okay.

It also meant less stuff scattered around the car and less stuff to gather every time we stopped.

We weren’t trying to create a philosophical screen-free childhood. We were trying to keep one kid from throwing up. The other benefits were a really nice side effect.

Plan Part of the Drive Around Sleep, If You Can

This was probably our biggest road-trip trick, although it didn’t actually start because of car sickness.

For our roughly 11-hour drives, my husband preferred leaving around two in the morning. He’s naturally an early riser and didn’t mind starting a drive in the dark. He actually preferred it to driving late into the night. It felt a little strange at first, but eventually it just became our normal.

For our carsick daughter, it turned out to be a blessing.

We’d get the kids into the car while they were still sleepy, and she’d usually fall back asleep. Suddenly, she was comfortably sleeping through several hours of the drive instead of being awake long enough to start feeling sick.

Once she was asleep, we also tried not to disturb her unnecessarily. Of course we’d stop when we needed to, but we weren’t making extra stops just to break up the drive or entertain the kids.

Obviously, leaving at two in the morning isn’t going to work for every family. The helpful part for us wasn’t really the exact time—it was getting a big portion of the drive in while she naturally wanted to sleep. If your child tends to sleep well in the car, it may be worth planning your departure around that instead of around how you’ll keep them entertained for the entire drive.

As she got older, she understood that sleeping helped her feel better, too. On some trips she’d drift in and out but keep trying to rest because she knew she was less likely to feel sick that way.

These days, she can stay awake for much longer stretches without feeling carsick. I can’t say whether she’s grown out of some of it or simply become less sensitive, but long drives are definitely easier now.

Pay Attention to What Your Child Eats Before the Drive

For our daughter, an empty stomach sometimes worked better than giving her the wrong thing before getting in the car.

Yogurt was a lesson we learned the hard way. I’ll leave it at that.

When she did need something, small, plain foods such as Cheerios were sometimes easier for her to tolerate.

This is one of those areas where I’d pay attention to your own child’s patterns. One rule isn’t going to work for everybody. Current pediatric guidance generally recommends avoiding a large meal before a trip. When food is needed, a small, bland snack such as crackers may be easier.

Once we realized food could make a difference, we became much more intentional about what she ate before a long stretch in the car—and how much.

Motion-Sickness Medication May Be Another Option

For longer road trips, we also used Dramamine Kids, and I usually kept some in my purse when we traveled. It’s a chewable motion-sickness medication made for kids ages 2–12 that helps prevent and treat nausea, dizziness and vomiting.

For us, it was another tool that helped make long drives easier. We gave it before getting on the road rather than waiting for her to already feel sick. The current directions say to give the first dose 30 minutes to an hour before travel.

It can cause drowsiness, which is worth knowing. You’ll want to follow the age-specific directions on the package or check with your child’s doctor if you have questions about whether it’s appropriate for them.

What to Do If Your Child Starts Feeling Sick Anyway

Even when you’re doing all the things that usually help, sometimes you still hear those dreaded words from the back seat: “My stomach hurts.”

If we could safely stop, giving her a break from the motion was always better than just hoping she’d make it. Getting out of the car for a few minutes, getting some fresh air and letting her stomach settle gave us a chance to reset before getting back on the road.

This is also a good time to cool things down. Keeping the car comfortable, removing a jacket or heavy layer and getting some cool air can help when a kid is already feeling hot and nauseous. A cool cloth on their forehead can be soothing, too.

And this is when you want the vomit bag within reach, not packed somewhere in the trunk. If your child is old enough, show them where it is before the trip and make sure they know to tell you as soon as their stomach starts feeling weird—not when they’re already about to throw up.

Be Prepared for the Mess, Too

Even after we figured out what helped, I still wanted to be prepared in case she got sick.

For a long time, I kept Ziploc bags within reach of our daughter. They were cheap, easy to keep in the car and could be sealed immediately afterward.

Thankfully, once we got better at managing her car sickness, I don’t remember her actually needing to throw up into one again. But I always worried about a little kid trying to hold a floppy bag open. What if the weight made it slip out of her hands at exactly the wrong moment?

If I were doing those road trips now, I’d still pack Ziplocs, but I’d also keep a few disposable vomit bags  in the car. The ones with the rigid opening are much easier to hold in place and are actually made for the job.

The Ziplocs would absolutely stay, though. They turned out to be useful for something else entirely.

When the Mess Ends Up on Them Instead

Our daughter did throw up all over herself once or twice before we figured out what worked for her. On one particularly memorable trip, we stopped at a McDonald’s so I could take her into the bathroom, change her clothes and rinse out what she’d gotten sick on. Then we still had hours left in the car.

That’s where the Ziploc bags really earned their place. Wet or dirty clothes could go straight into a larger bag and get sealed up, which kept the smell contained until we reached our destination.

Wet wipes and a couple of small towels helped us clean up whatever we could along the way. And because we traveled with our dog, we already had dog poop bags with us. Those were surprisingly useful for tying up used wipes, tissues and anything else gross until we reached a trash can.

A backup outfit needs to be complete and easy to reach. Shirt, bottoms, underwear, socks and a jacket if the weather calls for one. I’ve definitely remembered the “extra outfit” and still managed to forget one of the pieces we actually needed. I usually packed the clean clothes inside a Ziploc, which kept them protected and gave me an empty bag for the dirty clothes afterward.

Keep the Cleanup Supplies Within Reach

After a few trips like that, this became our pretty simple cleanup kit:

• Disposable vomit bags
• Gallon-size Ziploc bags
• Wet wipes and tissues
• Dog poop bags
• One or two small towels
• A complete change of clothes, packed in a Ziploc

When the kids were younger, I kept these kinds of things in a small, skinny basket between them during long drives. Mine wasn’t anything special—I think it came from Target or the dollar store. It just meant the things we might suddenly need were within reach instead of buried in our luggage or up front with us.

Eventually, they got big enough to reach the car’s built-in storage themselves and we didn’t need the basket anymore. But for younger kids, some kind of small backseat storage bin that can be secured in place can do the same job without taking up much room.

For the Messes That Make It Past the Bag

Sometimes the mess makes it past all of your preparation anyway. Kids spill things, have potty accidents and, yes, sometimes throw up directly onto the car or car seat. And those smells can really settle in.

For deeper cleaning of the car’s upholstery and carpet, something like the BISSELL Little Green Mini is handy to have around. It’s a small portable upholstery cleaner that sprays, scrubs and suctions up the mess. That’s useful for the kinds of kid stains and smells that wipes alone aren’t going to handle.

Obviously, that’s more of a when you get home solution. On the road, the goal is really just to remove as much of the mess as you can, contain anything dirty and keep the smell from taking over the car until you can clean it properly.

For the child’s actual car seat, always check the manufacturer’s cleaning instructions first. Padding and especially harnesses can have specific cleaning restrictions. I wouldn’t automatically use a wet vac or cleaning solution on them.

One other thing that makes kid messes much easier to deal with is having rubber floor mats, if that’s an upgrade that makes sense for your car. Vomit aside, kids spill drinks, track in mud and somehow manage to get all kinds of things onto the floor. Rubber mats can usually be pulled out and washed instead of trying to scrub a mess—and the smell—out of carpet.

Getting the Smell and Stains Out of Clothes

Sometimes the clothes need more than being rinsed out and thrown in the wash, too. If we were still on the road, a stain stick or spray would be handy for treating whatever I could until we got home—especially if those clothes were going to spend several more hours sealed inside a Ziploc.

Once we’re home, I usually start with rinsing the mess out and washing the item on its own. If a regular wash isn’t enough for the stain or lingering smell, an oxygen-based laundry booster is my next step. I’ve been using one for hockey gear and towels lately, too, so it’s the kind of product that’s useful well beyond one unfortunate road-trip incident.

The Unexpected Benefit of Screen-Free Road Trips

Our no-screen rule started because of car sickness, but it’s one part of those years of road trips that I’m especially glad we kept.

The kids still had their devices and activities with us for the vacation itself. We just didn’t use them to fill every minute in the car, and eventually that became normal.

A long drive meant looking out the window, talking, listening to music or sleeping. Sometimes it meant noticing something interesting outside. Other times, it meant simply sitting there for a while.

There’s something valuable about kids learning that every quiet moment doesn’t have to be filled for them. That made the drive feel more like part of the experience, too—not just time we had to distract everyone through until we arrived.

It reminds me a little of the small ways kids build independence before we realize it—sometimes giving them a little less to rely on is what gives them room to figure things out for themselves.

That wasn’t why we started doing it, but it may have been one of the best things to come out of having a carsick kid.

Long Road Trips Eventually Got Easier

Looking back, there wasn’t one magic solution. It took some trial and error to figure out what worked for our daughter. Once we did, those long drives became much easier for all of us.

Eventually, the dramatic vomiting episodes stopped being part of our road trips.

But I kept the Ziploc bags.

Because once you have kids, there is apparently no situation in which an extra Ziploc bag isn’t useful.

And if you’re currently in the stage where you’re nervously listening for “Mom, my stomach hurts…” from the back seat, I hope some of what we learned makes your next drive a little easier.